Account
The term account usually refers to the World of Warcraft account of a player which is part of the larger Battle.net account. A single Battle.net account can hold multiple World of Warcraft accounts at different account levels whether it is the main account, a free trial account, or even a Public Test Realm account to dive into upcoming content. Players can create more free trials and Public Test Realm accounts freely from their Battle.net account page.
Some content in World of Warcraft can be unlocked Battle.net account-wide, so a free trial account would have access to the content after unlocking, with one example being allied races. Additionally, each World of Warcraft account can have up to 65 characters since patch 10.2.7 but each account requires its own game time to play without the limitations of the free trial. Special features based on registering with a Collector's Edition version, expansion upgrades (like upgrading an account for Battle for Azeroth and promotional codes (like for a BlizzCon 
[Murloc Costume]), are associated with the account, and make those features available to all the characters under that World of Warcraft account.
If a player logs into an account while someone else is playing a character on it, the one who was already playing will automatically get logged off from the game.
Account levels
Current World of Warcraft account levels are:
- World of Warcraft: Free Trial: Created for free and does not require game time to play. Level cap at 20. Cannot join or create guilds, create one's own parties, use in-game mail or the auction house.
- Veteran Edition: Accounts that had game time at one point but are currently inactive. This internal flag allows these accounts to use the same benefits and limitations as a free trial account.
- Public Test Realm: These accounts are separate from the live game and act as a way for players to help test upcoming patches and expansions.
- Similarly, Alpha and Beta accounts are separate and act as a way to help test upcoming expansions early in its development. These accounts are limited and are only available when the Battle.net account was flagged for it.
- Active: Accounts that currently have game time. Access to all Classic content, and all retail content up to level 60.[1]
Dragonflight: level to 70 and access Dragon Isles content.
The War Within: once available, level to 80 and access Khaz Algar content.
Previously there existed other account levels for World of Warcraft:
Vanilla: Level cap at 60. Cannot visit blood elf and draenei starting zones, Outland or Northrend. Removed on 29 June 2011, with all remaining classic accounts automatically upgraded to include The Burning Crusade.[2]
The Burning Crusade: Level cap at 70. Can play as a draenei or a blood elf, visit the draenei and blood elf starting zones and Outland. Removed on 29 June 2011, as it was merged into the base game.[2]
Wrath of the Lich King: Level cap at 80. Can play as a death knight once you have a character of level 55 or above on your account. Can enter Northrend. Removed on 19 September 2012, with all remaining The Burning Crusade accounts upgraded to Wrath of the Lich King.[3]
Cataclysm: Level cap at 85. Can create a worgen and goblin, and visit Mount Hyjal, Vashj'ir, Deepholm, Uldum and the Twilight Highlands. Removed on 15 October 2013, with all remaining Wrath of the Lich King accounts upgraded to Cataclysm.[4]
Mists of Pandaria: Level cap at 90. Can play as a monk. Can enter Pandaria. Removed on 14 October 2014, with all remaining Cataclysm accounts upgraded to Mists of Pandaria.[5]
Warlords of Draenor: Level cap at 100. Can enter, and have access to their own garrison, in Draenor. Removed in May 2016.[6][7]
While the above previous expansions were merged into the base World of Warcraft game thus only requiring buying the base game and game time to access all the content up to Warlords of Draenor, Battle for Azeroth sets a different foothold in how players can start playing. Since 18 July 2018, a player will only need to buy game time to start playing the game without the need to purchase World of Warcraft itself.[8][9]
As new expansions come and get close to their release date, the current expansion will be merged to the base game:
Legion: Level cap at 110. Can enter the Broken Isles and have access to artifact weapons. Merged with base game on 18 July 2018.[8]
Battle for Azeroth: Level cap at 120. Can play allied races and access Kul Tiras, Zandalar, Nazjatar. Merged with base game on 8 October 2020 with patch 9.0.1.[10]
Shadowlands: level to 60 and access Shadowlands content. Merged with base game on 25 October 2022 with patch 10.0.0.[11]
Migration to Battle.net
World of Warcraft was not initially connected to Battle.net, having a separate account system until the Battle.net 2.0 revamp on 20 March 2009, which forced players to merge their World of Warcraft accounts with the new Battle.net accounts. The features of Battle.net utilized in World of Warcraft include allowing players to engage in cross-realm, cross-faction, and cross-game chat, which allows players to talk with their friends on their Real ID friends list, from other factions, other servers as well as other games such as StarCraft II, Diablo III, and future games. World of Warcraft players who merged their account were mailed an 
[Unhatched Mr. Chilly] starting on 15 October 2009. On 11 November 2009, Blizzard made Battle.net a mandatory feature for World of Warcraft players.[12]
Warcraft Wiki
On Warcraft Wiki, an account can mean the identity you use to store your wiki preferences and log into in order to make edits.
Trivia
- Since a single Battle.net account can hold multiple World of Warcraft accounts, a player can recruit themselves with the Recruit A Friend system.
References
- ^ Blizzard Support: What Expansions Are Included in World of Warcraft?. Blizzard Entertainment (2023-11-22). Retrieved on 2023-11-22.
- ^ a b World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade – Together at Last!. Blizzard Entertainment (2011-06-29). Archived from the original on 2013-08-08.
- ^ Battle Chest and Wrath of the Lich King -- Together at Last!. Blizzard Entertainment (2012-09-19). Archived from the original on 2022-03-17.
- ^ A New Age Has Begun—World of Warcraft Now Includes Cataclysm. Blizzard Entertainment (2013-10-15). Archived from the original on 2022-03-19.
- ^ Pandaria Awaits – World of Warcraft Now Includes Mists of Pandaria. Blizzard Entertainment (2014-10-14). Archived from the original on 2014-11-03.
- ^ Allegra Frank 2016-05-18. World of Warcraft's most recent expansion now part of base game. Polygon. Retrieved on 2018-11-30.
- ^ chaud 2016-05-17. Warlords of Draenor Added to the Base Game, Warcraft Movie Footage and Interview. MMO-Champion.
- ^ a b Subscribe to WoW and Play Every Expansion Through Legion!. Blizzard Entertainment (2018-07-18). Archived from the original on 2021-11-27.
- ^ Joel Jruska 2018-07-18. World of Warcraft No Longer Requires Game Purchase, Just Active Subscription. Extremetech. Archived from the original on 2018-10-22.
- ^ Shop Updates: Appearance Change Service and Battle for Azeroth. Blizzard Entertainment (2020-10-08). Archived from the original on 2020-10-08.
- ^ Perculia 2022-10-25. Shadowlands Now Included in Base WoW Subscription. Wowhead.
- ^ RSS: November 2009. Blizzard Entertainment (2009-11-09). Archived from the original on 2009-11-09. Retrieved on 2018-02-27.