Account-wide

Account-wide (or warband-wide) is a term used for content that can be obtained or shared with all characters on one World of Warcraft account.

Several aspects of the game have changed over time, including making changes or introducing features that are account-wide:

• Wrath of the Lich King introduced the Bind to Account item binding. These items can be mailed to other characters on the same account.
• Mists of Pandaria introduced account-wide mounts (some can be character-specific however), pets, achievements (labeled with a blue visual), and most titles that weren't obtained from seasonal content.
• Warlords of Draenor introduced the Toy Box with account-wide at the start.
• Legion introduced the "Transmogrification Collections System", unlocking the appearances of items account-wide.
• The War Within introduced the Warbands which aims to make gearing and progression easier for alts and to clarify which aspects of the game are account-wide versus character-specific.

Battle.net account-wide

Some content is unlocked on the Battle.net account itself, which unlocks the content for each World of Warcraft account on the Battle.net account. Content unlocked between the retail and Classic game versions remain separate. Content known to unlock at this level includes:

• Allied races
• Mounts, pets, toys, heirlooms, and transmog. This content is dependent on the flavor unless otherwise noted. Unlocking an item in retail does not carry over to Classic and vice versa.
  • Shop items, such as purchasing a mount from the shop unlocks it for every WoW account under that game version. The [Auspicious Arborwyrm] is available in both retail and Classic but would need to be purchased twice, one from the retail shop and the other from the Classic shop, to have it in both settings.
    • 6-Month Subscription Bundle and 12-Month Subscription Bundle
  • In-game goodies from the Collector's Edition, Digital Deluxe Edition, etc. This content is unlocked for all game versions where it is available. For example, Wrath of the Lich King Classic allowed those who had the Collector's Edition pet in retail to obtain it for the Classic setting and again in Cataclysm Classic with its own Collector's Edition pet.
  • Promotional content such as BlizzCon items. Only available in retail.
  • Recruit A Friend rewards, past and new. Only available in retail.
• Achievements, with regular achievements showing as unlocked. Prior to patch 11.0.0, it also showed the character name that had unlocked it even if they were from a different account.
• [Trader's Tender], was the first account-wide currency and remains the only one.
• Expansion-specific riding skills (e.g.  [Memories of Sunless Skies])
• Grand Commendations
• Adventure Mode

Notes and trivia

• Classic Era is the only game version where content is not unlocked account-wide.
• Keg Leg's Crew was the first account-wide faction, prior to the Warbands system.
• In the Classic setting, Wrath of the Lich King Classic introduced the Collections system so account-wide mounts, pets, toys, and later transmog in Cataclysm Classic was possible.