Magic: The Gathering brought in $1.72 billion in annual revenue in fiscal year 2025, and much of its recent success can be attributed to massive sales of its Universes Beyond sets. While some of the game’s most dedicated fans have expressed frustration with the many crossovers, tapping into the fandoms of Final Fantasy, Marvel, and Avatar: The Last Airbender has proved hugely profitable. Now Wizards of the Coast is extending the strategy to Dungeons & Dragons, kicking off its own version of Universes Beyond with the book Dungeons & Dragons: World of Warcraft.
The 256-page book was announced during Wizards of the Coast’s keynote presentation at Gen Con 2026 on Thursday. It features content from throughout the MMORPG’s 22-year history, including the 2026 expansion, Midnight. The book will introduce 11 new species, like Pandaren and Draenei, along with new elven lineages and pages of lore. Six entirely new subclasses and three updated versions for the D&D 5.5e ruleset will allow players to become Death Knights, Demon Hunters, Shadow Priests, and more World of Warcraft classes. Players will also have access to more than 60 new spells.
“Our approach in this book is to present all the World of Warcraft classes and each specialization within those classes and tell you how to build that character using either rules in the Player’s Handbook or new rules in this book, usually some combination of both,” principal game designer James Wyatt said during a virtual press conference.
Rather than using in-game art, the book draws on a mix of existing art used for previous WoW adaptations like the defunct World of Warcraft Trading Card Game and new illustrations more akin to the style of the Player’s Handbook. The new book also explores iconic locations from the game, like the Horde capital Orgrimmar and the Lich King’s stronghold Icecrown Citadel, offering stat blocks for heroes and villains like Jaina Proudmoore and Arthas Menethil. Hasbro is also releasing a small line of miniatures, including Arthas and the first Demon Hunter Illidan Stormrage. An Icecrown Citadel map pack includes access to a digital adventure designed to take a five-person party from level 16 to 20.
Dungeons & Dragons: World of Warcraft includes seven dungeons with 30 bosses and more than 50 new monsters, though fortunately you won’t need to actually gather 10 or 25 people to face any of them. Adapting World of Warcraft to the D&D rules also involved adding some new subsystems, including professions and renown rewards for 23 factions. Players looking for epic loot can find 26 new magic items, including artifacts, plus rules for mounts and companion creatures.
D&D has done smaller crossovers before, releasing box sets based on Rick and Morty and Stranger Things and books based on worlds from Magic: The Gathering. It’s also common for other properties to use the Open Game License to create their own D&D adaptations. White Wolf used the rules of D&D 3.5 to make the World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game in 2005, while Free League published The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying with 5th edition rules in 2023.
But embracing Magic’s Universes Beyond strategy still represents a huge change for D&D. Dungeons & Dragons: World of Warcraft will be released on Nov. 17 and is currently the only confirmed Universes Beyond title, anchoring the Season of Champions in the game’s new seasonal model. But there’s a big hole in the schedule for next summer during the Season of Rebellion. That name suggests that D&D could be developing something like a Star Wars game, especially since Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars Roleplaying Game was discontinued in 2020.
While Wizards’ staff is working on adaptations, the company will also be licensing some of D&D’s iconic settings to other publishers so they can create new adventures.
“Players shouldn’t have to wait decades before we go back to Eberron, Ravenloft, or Dark Sun,” executive producer Greg Bilsland said during the press conference. “We should be making it easier for everybody to run adventures. The problem, of course, is that we have a team that’s only so large, so supporting all those settings with adventure content has been challenging.”
Kobold Press, which created the Horde of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat adventures for the launch of 5th Edition in 2014, will be working on the Forgotten Realms. Ghostfire Gaming, which has its own dark fantasy setting, Grim Hollow, will tackle Ravenloft. Visionary Production & Design published Exploring Eberron and Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone through Dungeon Masters Guild, and it will continue building the setting through this new partnership.
“We’re going to continue with the IPs that we’ve created, like Arcana Unleashed and Dark Sun, and then move forward into a couple of the Universes Beyond, so that we’re making sure to balance that and not give too much of one thing,” senior manager of brand publicity and communications Blain Howard said in the press conference. “We had some great learning lessons from our friends across the office doors with Magic: The Gathering on how we can best create Universes Beyond in a meaningful way.”
Universes Beyond sets now account for half of all Magic releases each year, so if that’s the model D&D is learning from, the game is about to feel very different.
