How to Save Money on a Legit WoW Subscription
As an avid WoW player and content creator, I often get asked if there‘s a way to play for free. While you can level characters up to 20 without paying, unlocking the full World of Warcraft requires an active subscription. However, there are legitimate ways to reduce the cost without resorting to questionable third-party services or exploits. Here are my tips as an industry expert on lowering your subscription cost while staying compliant with Blizzard‘s rules.
Take Advantage of Sales and Deals
Blizzard offers special promotional pricing around most major holidays and when new expansions launch. For example, around Christmas I saved 25% off a 6-month subscription. If your payment method supports it, setting up recurring billing often comes with additional savings too.
I track all the latest WoW deals and will tweet out notifications from my gaming handle @AzerothInsider so make sure to follow me!
| Holiday | Typical Discount |
|---|---|
| Black Friday/Cyber Monday | 25-50% off 6 months |
| Christmas/New Year‘s | 25% off 6 months |
| Burning Crusade Launch | Free mount with 6 months |
Savings offers on World of Warcraft subscriptions during common promotional periods
Redeem Pre-Paid Time Cards
You can often save 5-10% off normal subscription rates by purchasing time cards instead of auto-renewing. I like to buy a few 6-month cards on sale during the holidays to lock in savings for the next year. Avoid shady third-party resellers claiming to offer insane discounts though – fraud is sadly common when time cards are resold.
Complete In-Game Activities
Blizzard allows players to pay for game time using WoW Tokens that can be purchased with in-game gold earned through regular play. As an economics major, I love analyzing token prices and best gold farming methods to maximize free subscription time from my efforts. Here are my top tips:
- Old raid and dungeon runs can net 20-40k gold per hour if you grab and vendor all items.
- Selling materials needed for important consumables like flasks and potions is lucrative especially at raid release.
- Limited time holiday items become valuable collectibles on the Auction House later on.
As you can see, buying tokens with painstakingly earned gold lets you keep playing for free but takes serious time commitment. The gold grind isn’t for everyone, so make sure to calculate if it’s worth it for your playstyle!
Enter Giveaways and Contests
MMO-Champion and other fan sites, gaming publications, Twitch streamers, and gaming brands frequently run WoW-related giveaways. As a guide writer for prominent World of Warcraft sites, I’m often sent codes for game time too.
I can’t make any guarantees you‘ll win free stuff, but entering contests is an easy way to potentially snag some subscription cost savings with a little luck on your side. My pro tip: create a separate email folder to track all the giveaways you enter so you never miss an alert you won!
While Blizzard doesn’t offer World of Warcraft entirely free outside limited trials, dedicated players have plenty of legitimate options to reduce subscription costs by taking advantage of promotions, tokens, giveaways and more. Stay tuned to my blog or Twitter for the latest strategies to save on WoW! Feel free to DM me any other money-saving ideas you have too. Most importantly, make sure to avoid shady third-party services – buying grey market keys or exploiting the game is never worth risking your account. Happy adventuring!
