World of Warcraft announces battle royale mode: Plunderstorm

The World of Warcraft team announced a new pirate-themed battle royale mode called Plunderstorm that’s available today.

The new mode will bring players into a battleground where they can collect new abilities and functionally “customize” their class every match.

Players will drop in on a 60-player map and experience more “action-oriented” gameplay than the traditional World of Warcraft experience.

You can check out a deep dive video on the Plunderstorm below.

The new Plunderstorm mode will feature in-game rewards for participants in both retail WoW and Classic WoW. For instance Classic WoW players can receive an in-game pet and a new parrot flying mount.

The team goes on to explain that this new mode is meant to be accessible for all players, and as such won’t feature add-on support. World of Warcraft has a long history with its community and reliance on add-ons to make the game playable. Deadly Boss Mods (DBM) is virtually required for anyone approaching endgame content and players are accustomed to WoW’s UI being a bit vague and unwieldly.

In Plunderstorm, the developers claim they’ve gone the extra mile to make things “super obvious” so that add-ons hopefully won’t be necessary in Plunderstorm.

This new battle royale game mode is possibly the largest change made to a Blizzard game in the wake of the company’s acquisition by Microsoft, but it’s unclear how long this game mode was in development for and may predate the acquisition.

You can check out some of our guides for World of Warcraft below.

World of Warcraft Classic Hardcore – Top 5 Leveling Classes

World of Warcraft Classic Hardcore – 5 Beginner Tips

World of Warcraft Dragonflight Mythic+ Season 3 Tier List

World of Warcraft is available on Microsoft Windows (through Battle.net). The newest expansion The War Within is set to release later this year. The new Plunderstorm mode will be available today March 19 after maintenance.