World of Warcraft: Forever lead addresses beta login issues & volume of players

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'Betas for WoW aren't usually huge meter movers,' Senior Game Producer Tom Ellis said in a post discussing the technicals of the login errors.

TJ Denzer September 21, 2026 7:23 AM Blizzard Entertainment 1

The World of Warcraft: Forever beta kicked off last week, but it was a bit of a rocky start with users reporting login issues as they tried to get in and see a bit of what the new start from the WoW: Classic team is all about. In the wake of those issues, Senior Game Producer Tom Ellis made a post addressing the matter, explaining where things went wrong, and what the team did (and is doing) to fix it.

Ellis made the post on his social media, where he started by addressing why, after 20 years, there was still an issue with World of Warcraft beta logins. Simply put, they weren’t prepared for the volume at first.

“Betas for WoW aren't usually huge meter movers so this environment just isn't that powerful,” Ellis explained.

Alright, now the dust has settled and you're just happily playing away, let's answer the most common question I've seen.

1. AHMAGERD, this game is 20 years old, how do you still suck at this!?!
a. Heh, fair enough, sort answer is, this is our BETA PTR environment stack, it's not…

— Tom Ellis (@FwoiblesWoW) September 18, 2026

He goes on to share that the servers were only set up to handle a few connections at a time, which the team immediately scaled up to address the issue:

There’s a wealth of further information about reducing load times and delays in activity, but ultimately, players should be able to login and enjoy the WoW: Forever beta more easily now. If you want to get in on the action, check out our guide on how to sign up. You can also keep it tuned to the World of Warcraft: Forever topic for more news and updates.

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TJ Denzer Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at [email protected] and also find him on BlueSky @JohnnyChugs.

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