World of Warcraft Finally Adds Player Housing: Early Access Arrives This December for Midnight Owners

World of Warcraft is finally doing the thing players have been asking for since forever: housing. And not in a vague, see-you-in-two-years way. Blizzard says we can actually move in this December. Kind of.

Early access hits December 3 (with a catch)

Housing is part of the Midnight expansion, which Blizzard plans to launch in 2026. But if you pre-order Midnight, you can start decorating on December 3 with early access. That early access bundle includes two homes out of the gate — one aligned with Horde and another with Alliance — plus a starter pack of decorations so you are not placing a lone chair in a void.

What this housing actually lets you do

This is not the old 'hang a trophy and call it a day' kind of feature. Interiors and exteriors are fully customizable, and there are themes inspired by Blood Elves, Night Elves, Humans, and Orcs. Advanced Mode lets you rotate, scale, and even float items, which is catnip for anyone who has ever lost three hours trying to align a rug under a table at a 0.5-degree angle.

How you will earn more decor (and why one detail is a little eyebrow-raising)

• Play the game: you will unlock housing pieces through vendors, events, crafting, and achievements.
• Themed sets and community rewards are also on the way via something called Monthly Endeavors.

Quick inside baseball note: Monthly Endeavors is a name MMO players usually associate with a different game, so either Blizzard is borrowing the label or someone on the info train mixed terms. We will see how that shakes out, but the gist is clear — there will be a steady drip of stuff to chase.

Blizzard knows it has one shot to nail this

Design lead Toby Ragaini told GamesRadar+ earlier this year that housing was never going to be a bare-minimum checkbox. The team is positioning it as a pillar of the game that will be supported in every major patch and in future expansions, not a one-and-done side mode. The goal, per Ragaini, is to launch beyond expectations, not just meet them.

'We get one shot at this to impress people... it is going to be a core part of the game.'

Under the hood, it is a technical headache — on purpose

Ragaini also called out that building player housing in WoW is a performance and accessibility challenge because it is not like any of the existing zones or content structures the game has relied on for years. Translation: they are doing something different enough to make the engine sweat.

The bottom line

If you want to start playing decorator before the full expansion lands, December 3 is your on-ramp — as long as you are willing to pre-order Midnight. You will get two faction-flavored homes on day one, a pile of starter goodies, a bunch of ways to earn more, and the kind of placement tools that will either unlock your inner interior designer or send you spiraling into a cushion-sorting abyss. Either way, housing in WoW is finally real, and Blizzard plans to keep it that way.