Turtle WoW announces sunset: realms close on 15 May 2026 after nearly eight years

All Turtle WoW realms will go offline on 15 May 2026. The team formally announced the end of the project on 18 April, to comply with the settlement and permanent injunction Blizzard obtained. The shutdown ends a run of almost eight years for the largest Classic+ server in the scene.

Every realm has moved to its final progression phase so players can see the newest raids before the end. The donation shop is already closed, and the website and forums are scheduled to close later in the year.

Wowhead ran the news under a headline declaring Turtle WoW officially over. Massively Overpowered, GameRant and others noted that the custom expansion Mysteries of Azeroth, along with the new races and zones, had made Turtle WoW a reference point for what Classic+ could look like.

Stormforge is closing too

Stormforge, a Tauri/Atlantiss collaboration, confirmed the same day that it had received a cease-and-desist and would close its TBC, WotLK+ and Mists of Pandaria realms on 14 May 2026. Commentators immediately began speculating that Blizzard was clearing the field ahead of an official Classic+ announcement.

Update: Turtle WoW's servers went dark as planned on 15 May. On 1 June the former Turtle WoW team announced Moonwhisper Games, a new studio building an original MMO, and community spin-offs such as OctoWoW appeared within weeks.