Region
- For the widget, see UIOBJECT Region.
- For places in Warcraft sometimes called regions, see Zone.
Region is a term used to designate the different areas in which World of Warcraft service is offered. The four current regions are Americas & Oceania (US & OCE), Europe (EU), Taiwan (TW), and Korea (KR). Game services were suspended in the China (CN) region on 23 January 2023[1] and it is unknown when, or if, they will return.
World of Warcraft accounts are region-specific and only allow the use of features related to that region, including access to that region's selection of realms. For a list of realms by region, see realms list.
Most account-bound features, such as achievements and collectibles, are region-specific. Characters cannot be transferred to realms in other regions, and players cannot communicate with or invite players from other regions. Cross-realm features like cross-realm zones and battleground instances do not function cross-region, and all leaderboards and ladders (e.g. Mythic+) are currently region- or realm-specific. The result of these limitations is that players are unable to communicate, interact, transfer, or compete cross-region.
Region also determines factors such as support and forum access. The US and EU have separate official sites for the game, featuring separate forums; only players with an active account in the corresponding region are allowed to post on that region's forums. Additionally, certain features are at times made available to US players before those of other regions. Since the vast majority of all developer and 'blue' forum posts are made on the US forums, this has led to dissatisfaction among some EU players, who are unable to join in these discussions due to region restrictions, and claim to feel less heard due to fewer responses from blues.
Different regions are notable for featuring different player trends. For example, while all regions can be accessed from multiple time zones, some feature a higher number of players within a certain time zone, which can lead to strong spikes in server stress at peak times. The EU region has been described as "more compressed" than the US, with a larger proportion of players playing during the same times, leading to greater server stress problems than in the US region. The EU has also been stated to have more servers with very high populations than the US.[2] EU players have been described by Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas as "slightly more hard-core raiders than the rest of the world".[2] For some related statistics for US and EU servers, see realm statistics.