What we know about each Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary phase, plus our best guesses on when they launch

World of Warcraft Classic Anniversary realms have officially become The Burning Crusade Classic anniversary realms with the successful rollout of the TBC Classic pre-patch on January 13, 2026 and players have already  begun preparations to traverse the Dark Portal on February 5, 2026 when the expansion launches. Usually by this time in the year, Blizzard has published roadmaps detailing what is coming to both retail WoW and WoW Classic but so far have withheld their plans for 2026.

Over the last few years, however, the release cycle for both versions of World of Warcraft have become fairly consistent. Overall, WoW Classic Anniversary phases were a bit more volatile in terms of staying within the typical 10-week timeframes: the shortest time between phase release being 6 weeks and the longest being 12 weeks. We don’t know why the release schedule for some phases differed so much, but it may have been as simple as Classic content having been re-released multiple times since 2019.

We’re guessing that when TBC Classic Anniversary expansion launches, it will stick closer to the 10 week mark than previous Anniversary phases. Since this will be the second TBC outing in Classic, there isn’t much of an incentive to rush the content forward. Because of this, we also expect each phase to contain the same content it did when it was released in 2021. Hopefully Blizzard will share more about their plans for anniversary realms in the future, but since we know the expansion launch date, we can estimate the release of all TBC Classic Anniversary phases. Here are our predictions for The Burning Crusade Classic Anniversary phase release dates.

Phase 1 — February 5 and February 19

February 5:

• TBC Classic anniversary launches, players gain access to all Outland zones

February 19:

• Karazhan raid
• Gruul’s Lair raid
• Magtheridon’s Lair raid

Phase 1 is split between TBC Classic anniversary’s launch on February 5, 2026 at 3pm pacific time, when players will be able to once again experience all of Outland’s quests and zones and February 19, 2026, when three raids will be available.

Phase 2 — April 16, 2026

• The Eye raid
• Serpentshrine Cavern raid
• Ogri’la faction daily quests
• Sha’tari faction daily quests

When Phase 2 goes live, two more raids will be available: The Eye and Serpentshrine Cavern. Meanwhile, players can earn rep with two new factions, Ogri’la and Sha’tari, by completing daily quests to gain access to their respective rewards.

Phase 3 — June 25, 2026

• Battle for Mount Hyjal raid
• Black Temple raid
• Netherwing faction daily quests

The Battle for Mount Hyjal and iconic Black Temple raids will headline Phase 3, with the addition of the Netherwing faction opening up as another reputation for players to grind through by completing daily quests.

Phase 4 — September 3, 2026

• Zul’Aman raid

Phase 4 will bring the Zul’Aman raid and, since this is the only major piece of content released during this phase in the past, this will likely be the shortest phase in the TBC Classic anniversary expansion cycle.

Phase 5 — October 29, 2026

• Sunwell Plateau raid
• Isle of Quel’danas questing hub

The last phase will have the Isle of Quel’danas questing hub which will be the staging area for the Shattered Sun Offensive, another major faction that gives rewards based on grindable rep, and the Sunwell Plateau raid.