The Wow token is a World of Warcraft in game item that can be purchased with real life money and converted into Retail WoW gold. Additionally a WoW Token can actually be purchased in game using the World of Warcraft in-game currency (Gold). Player can then redeem their WoW Token for Battle.net credit to purchase any goods or services sold through the Battlenet shop.
The Wow Token isn’t the most popular feature among the player base in World of Warcraft. can be purchased in all regions and is affected by outside pricing such as currency fluctuations as well as in-game currency fluctuations. In this post we are going to discuss exactly why the WoW token price changes and what influences these changes.
The real world cost of a WoW Token
The WoW token is currently available to purchase on USA, EU, China, Korea and Taiwan servers meaning that it is available to purchase across all major servers. The US WoW token also includes people purchasing from Australia. To see the cost of the WoW Token for you please head over to Battlenet.
The real world cost of a token can seem higher due to currency fluctuations due to global markets. That way, it may mean that one currency is paying more for a token than another.
The Use of the WoW Token when Purchased
The WoW Token when bought for real money is used whilst playing “Retail” WoW. This means then when a token is purchased it is only usable to gain additional gold in the live version of the game.
Any WoW tokens purchased cannot be redeemed whilst playing either WoW Classic or WoW Wrath of the Lich King Classic games. Once the WoW Token has been purchased you would simply log back into your character and stick it on the auction house to release the gold.
This process takes up to 24 hours depending on the demand for the token. The Token once purchased cannot be traded in game and becomes soulbound however it can be stocked up and sold once the price is much stronger from a gold perspective
The real world value of a WoW token bought in-game
When you purchase the WoW token in game it can be used for two methods. That is either for game time or to add an amount of money to your battle.net balance. See below the current value of redeeming a WoW token from in-game;
- UK players – £10
- EU players – €13 EUR
- US/AUS players – $15 USD/$20 AUD
Chinese/Korean/Taiwanese Players are unable to redeem for battle.net Balance due to regional restrictions. Only redeemable for game time. Some of the pricing can seem unfair in respect of gold used to buy battle.net balances especially when UK players receive 58.8% back from the cost of a token in real terms whereas US players see 75% back from the cost of a token.
WoW Token Price Fluctuations – Why?
WoW tokens are a soft system to transfer in-game wealth out of the game and as such the price can change for a number of reasons. Here we will explore when the price could potentially increase;
New expansions – When a new expansion is revealed you will see a general shift UP in price due to people using in-game wealth to be able to pre-order the new game without using any actual real monies to purchase. This could be also for purchasing special release items also affiliated to that new expansion
Other Blizzard releases – You may see when a new game is released and available on Battle.net such as Call of Duty that people may spend their in game gold to purchase these games or battle passes to gain access.
Seasonal demand – This could be for holidays within the year such as Christmas or during the summer when people are away from work/school meaning more time to be able to play games. This would drive price up as demand increases.
End of current Season – This would be because their are less people actually buying the tokens itself and as such they don’t have the need to be topping up their raid/M+ supplies and purchasing large cost items to improve power such as better gear.
Time between release in Content – When a patch has gone a bit “stale” you would see that people may not be as bothered about getting gold and may save their monies in buying token or stop supplying to the auction house to release gold
Time of the week – This may sound silly, but demand is more in specific game days such as Wednesday (reset day) or Saturday (main day of the weekend). This tends to coincide with an increase in player base. However days like Thursday are quieter and as such the influence means less supply being added to the game.
Gold making – Players may potentially be making more gold in the game and have more surplus to spend, but the impact is to all players. An example of this was Legion and the available missions in game which granted large amounts of gold. If everyone has more money then clearly the price will rise with the increase in wealth
Lack of new content – mentioned above that this can drive prices up, this can also drive the prices down. This could be due to people not buying the token as they feel it’s a waste of gold to continue subscribing and would save gold thus removing demand.
Other games outside of Blizzard – New games are released all the time and players may potentially move to newer games. This was evident with the release of New World where subscriptions dropped away for a few months and demand was reduced for the Token meaning the price dropped away
Seasonal – It may be the wrong season for people to play WoW. People who work long jobs or study may have less free time to be able to warrant purchasing tokens and as such save their gold for when they have much more free time. Again this is another drop in demand.
More players playing the game – People want gold NOW when it comes to keeping up with current content. This would lead to more people purchasing WoW tokens which outstrips the demand thus dropping price.
Difficulty in making gold – Normally at the end of an expansion there can be a large sell off of assets held by players such as current content resources. As such farming may become less viable and as such the gold isn’t there for the common player to be able to buy a token at higher prices. This removes demand and as such higher supply can lower the prices.
In Summary
WoW token prices are volatile. In an hour the Token could shift by 5-10k in gold within the game and as such it can be a real pain to pick up when the best time is to sell or buy the token. Always avoid new releases or end of seasons as there is always that strain whether there is too much demand to purchase or not enough on the market to sell.
If you need the gold then it’s always clear that selling the token is best when the price is high and it’s always worth checking online the history of the WoW token price to really understand if you are getting that value. One thing to remember is that the real world price is fixed. So regardless of what you buy your token at in the real world the true cost never changes, same goes for buying with in game gold and that is that you are always getting that fixed cost back.
