To play World of Warcraft, you normally have to subscribe to the game for a certain amount of money. But there are ways to play WoW for free (even Classic), at least under certain conditions – here's how you can play Blizzard's popular MMORPG for free.
World of Warcraft is by far the most popular MMORPG out there. Over the course of 20 years, it got nine consecutive expansions (with many more sure to come), and although Blizzard doesn't give out official numbers anymore, it is estimated that several million people still play every month.
This number becomes even more impressive when you take into account the fact that WoW is a subscription-based game – you have to pay about 15 dollars a month to be able to play it. But is there also a way to play World of Warcraft for free? In this article, we'll show you how you can play WoW without paying for it under certain conditions.
Playing WoW For Free: Your Options
To make this clear right from the start: There is no way to get the absolute full WoW experience without paying. However, there are two options to play WoW for free under certain conditions which we will introduce to you now:
Option 1: The Free Trial
Blizzard allows you to play World of Warcraft for free until you reach a certain level. This cap is currently level 20 – so after reaching it, you won't be able to level up anymore, which will quickly result in a very limited, unsatisfying WoW experience. However, the free trial option is great if you just want to find out what WoW feels like without immediately spending money on it.
To play the free trial, you will need to create a Battle.net account. Be also aware that the free trial option is only available for the retail version of World of Warcraft – there is no trial option available for WoW WotLK Classic and neither for WoW Classic Hardcore.
Option 2: The WoW Token
The WoW Token is an item that you can buy in-game and that adds 30 days of playtime to your WoW account once you use it. This option is interesting if you're already very rich in-game or at least very good at trading items in the Auction House so that you're constantly making enough gold to buy a new WoW Token once your playtime is about to expire. The price of the WoW Token is changing constantly– to look it up, go to the next Auction House and simply click on "WoW Token" to see the current price.
The WoW Token is also available in WoW Classic, but not on WoW Classic Hardcore realms.
Fun fact: You can also reverse the Token process in a sense. Because you can just buy a WoW Token for real money in the Blizzard shop and get a certain amount of in-game gold for that, then use this money to get the token.
These are the only two realistic options to play WoW for free – the first one is rather orientated to potential new WoW players, while the second option should be interesting for everyone who is already playing WoW for a long time and doesn't have an idea of what to do with all that gold. If both options aren't really suitable for you, you'll have no choice but to just spend the 15 bucks at least once (more).
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