BlizzCon started as a hunch, not a calculated business plan. Two community managers on World of Warcraft's launch team pitched the idea of a Blizzard-only fan event, ran a single ad on the game's login screen to test interest — and sold out tickets within a day. Click the green Configure button and set how far ahead you'd like to be alerted.
An event that doesn't always show up on schedule
This is the real reason a reminder matters more for BlizzCon than for most yearly events: it hasn't actually been annual. The very first BlizzCon, held in October 2005, drew around 8,000 attendees but was considered a modest success at best — Blizzard skipped 2006 entirely while regrouping. It also sat out 2012 due to development crunch, went fully virtual during the pandemic, and most recently took a multi-year pause before being slated to return again. If you're used to assuming it happens every fall like clockwork, you'll eventually get caught out.
From a small con to a sold-out spectacle
By the time the convention center near Blizzard's Irvine headquarters expanded, attendance had climbed past 35,000 in a single year. Tickets for the event have a track record of selling out within hours of going on sale, and Blizzard has used the show as the launchpad for nearly every major World of Warcraft expansion ever announced.
A closing concert tradition that's surprisingly stacked
Almost every BlizzCon ends with a live concert, and the lineup of past performers reads like a rock festival rather than a gaming convention afterparty — Metallica, Foo Fighters, Blink-182, Ozzy Osbourne, and Linkin Park have all closed out the show over the years.
Worth knowing
In a strange bit of trivia, the convention's worst-received game reveal — Diablo: Immortal in 2018 — became one of the most talked-about moments in BlizzCon history for entirely the wrong reasons, drawing a flood of dislikes and criticism that's still referenced as a cautionary tale in gaming circles.
So whether you're chasing the next big Warcraft reveal or just want to catch the closing concert, click that green Configure button and let the dates come to you — assuming, of course, it's actually happening that year.