Blizzard Sues Project Ascension Over World of Warcraft Private Server

Blizzard Entertainment has initiated a new lawsuit in California against Project Ascension, a private World of Warcraft server. The complaint, obtained by the gaming news site Aftermath, alleges copyright infringement, Digital Millennium Copyright Act violations, and other claims.

Blizzard Entertainment asserts that Project Ascension operates as a "lucrative way to exploit and profit from the popularity of the WoW game experience." Lawyers representing Blizzard claim Project Ascension purports to have "over a million players" and has "distributed (and are continuing to distribute) millions of pirated copies of Blizzard's copyrighted WoW game software."

The lawsuit also alleges that Project Ascension's servers are hosted on Russian "bulletproof" servers with Aeza Group. The U.S. Department of Treasury sanctioned Aeza Group in 2025 for its alleged role in supporting cybercriminal activity globally.

Project Ascension allows players to combine elements from various World of Warcraft classes to create unique characters. While free-to-play, players can purchase "Donation Points," an in-game currency, to acquire cosmetics and experience boosts. Blizzard Entertainment's lawyers contend that Project Ascension has generated "millions of dollars from the sale of Donation Points."

This lawsuit follows Blizzard Entertainment's successful legal action last year against Turtle WoW, another popular World of Warcraft private server that had operated since 2018. That case concluded with a settlement in April 2026, after Blizzard Entertainment was granted a permanent injunction to shut down Turtle WoW, which ceased operations shortly after May 15. The terms of the settlement were not publicly disclosed.

According to Slashdot, Blizzard Entertainment is continuing its legal actions against private World of Warcraft servers.