It isn't every day that a new World of Warcraft expansion launches, which explains why so many players are currently clamoring to get into the game, as the newest DLC, Shadowlands, is now live. However, as is a tradition for online games whenever new content launches, players are already having trouble logging in to the game to check out the new stuff.
Currently, attempting to hop onto World of Warcraft results in a long wait at the "logging in to game server" screen. Once players manage to get past that screen, which seems to take a few minutes, it becomes apparent the character select menu is having its own fair share of trouble. Players will likely be met by the typical UI elements, but only the background or an entirely black screen will be visible, with no ability to select a character or enter the world.
The Realm list is technically available if players need to swap servers, though it too appears to be facing long loading times — if players are able to get it to work at all. Selecting a new Realm from the list has its own wait time, so players should expect the process of getting into the game to take some time, and may even be disconnected from the server entirely, forcing them to restart the process.
Of course, this is to be expected. World of Warcraft expansion launches are frequently met with server issues and long queue times, sometimes taking days to be sorted out. The launch of World of Warcraft Classic, for instance, resulted in a flood of players attempting to jump back into the vanilla version of the MMO, which caused hours-long queues for anyone that wanted to play. It's an unfortunate reality for the game, though one that players have grown accustomed to.
According to Activision, Shadowlands pre-sales were higher than any other expansion to date, so it makes sense that the server issues have been so brutal. With any luck, Blizzard will have the problems sorted out sooner rather than later, but these things do tend to take some time, so players may not want to hold their breath.
Luckily, there are plenty of other games out there to enjoy in the meantime, from other MMOs to shooters like Destiny 2, which just launched its newest major expansion, Beyond Light. Server issues are one of the problems that are completely out of a player's control, though that doesn't make them any less frustrating.
World of Warcraft is available now for PC.