Zones per Expansion

Each expansion has added new zones to the world of Warcraft (I'd say Azeroth, but not all the zones are on that planet.) Typically we get these in the form of a new "continent" which are all one shared space seamlessly connected to one another. With BFA, we've got two new continents, though each is sort of a mini-continent with only three zones a piece, collectively forming an expansion-sized territory.

World of Warcraft gave us a pretty enormous world when it first launched, with 18 in Kalimdor and 22 in the Eastern Kingdoms (two of which, The Barrens and Stranglethorn Vale, would be divided into two zones each in Catalcysm) for a total of 40. No expansion would hit that number again, but given that there were three zones per faction dedicated to characters just starting out and that vanilla WoW needed space to go from 1 to 60, it makes sense they'd have so much territory.

Burning Crusade gave us 12 zones, with four created for Draenei and Blood Elf characters to level up to 20, seven zones in Outland for leveling from 58 to 70, and then finally the Isle of Quel'danas to house the Sunwell Plateau raid and daily quests for players at the cap.

Wrath of the Lich King has a couple of more arguable zones - for example, does the expansion to the Scarlet Enclave in Eastern Plaguelands (made for the Death Knight starting quests) count (I'm going to rule no) or what about the minuscule Hrothgar's Landing, which was only there for a handful of daily quests at the Argent Tournament and that you probably forgot existed? (I'm actually going to count that one, as it's a separate area with its own map.) We also got Wintergrasp, which served primarily as an outdoor battleground rather than a true questing zone, though I'll count it. So, with all that totaled, we have 10.

Cataclysm saw a major revamp of the old world, creating the Southern and Northern Barrens as well as dividing Strangelthorn Vale between Northern Stranglethorn and the Cape of Stranglethorn. But in terms of all-new zones, we got 8. Granted, you could argue that Vashj'ir was actually three zones, divided similarly to how Stranglethorn Vale was, but I'm going to count it as one. (Given that I'll be counting Argus as three, you could argue I'm being inconsistent, but oh well.) Some zones can't be returned to, like Kezan and the Lost Isles, but with places on the map and full quest experiences, I'll count them. We also of course had the Molten Front, which you could also argue as its own zone and not simply part of Hyjal, so perhaps the real number is 9.

Mists of Pandaria's zones are a lot less controversial, though we get another Hrothgar's Landing like zone in the Isle of Giants, which to be fair did hold a world boss. We had the Wandering Isle for new Pandaren characters (like Kezan and the Lost Isles, it was a place you couldn't return to, at least until Legion, when Monks got to go back there for their Order Hall. Not a Monk, though? Too bad.) In total, it comes to 10.

Warlords of Draenor is the only expansion where we didn't get any new types of characters - no new races, no new classes, which means that the entirety of the expansion was focused on the main event, as it were. Draenor had a total of 8 zones, including Ashran, the last of the battleground-zones (though built less for climactic battles and more for continuous PvP) so far and Tanaan Jungle, which was in-game, sort of, but inaccessible except for the intro scenario until 6.2.

Legion gets complicated. Many classes' order halls were in different locations, such as Marduum or Dreadscar Rift. We also had, sort of in the tradition of Hrothgar's Landing, the outdoor version of Eye of Azshara, which did occasionally have World Quests but whose main story was really told in the dungeon version. Still, with its own map, we'll count it. We also got Argus later on, and while I did rule Vashj'ir as a single zone, I'm tempted to call the various zones of Argus their own things - partially because these are vastly distant parts of an entirely separate world, rather than regions within what was basically just a very large zone. So, counting Argus as three, we get a total of... hey, it's 10 again!

So that puts the average zones per expansion just under 10, not counting the massive original WoW of course.

So why go through this, other than a sort of obsessive list-making urge (let's be honest, that's the main reason)? Well, in Battle for Azeroth we have six zones currently - three for each side to level through. It does look like we'll have some content in old zones, of course, like the Warfront in Arathi Highlands and likely the Barrens after that. But I do wonder if we're due for four new zones over the course of the expansion.

Given Azshara's presence in the next raid after Uldir, I suspect we could be getting Nazjatar as a zone. It would make sense for us to visit the Naga capital if we're going to take down their queen - I'll confess I felt strange assaulting Argus only after we had killed both Archimonde and Kil'jaeden, so I would want to see Nazjatar before Azshara is dead.

Then, I strongly suspect that N'zoth is going to be seen this expansion - if not the final boss of it. That could mean that we might actually see Ny'alotha, which some theories have pointed out would be more or less directly between Kul Tiras and Zandalar.

Either of these could actually serve as quasi-continents in the style of Argus, which could put us up to the typical number of zones per expansion. Of course, it remains to be seen just how this war between the factions develops. It would be hard (and very controversial) to hit any harder than how the expansion began, but it would also be perhaps a little underwhelming to see that conflict peter out. Still, sort of by definition, any home-turf clash would require using existing zones.