Hyjal Crater

Arena for 5 a side, levels 1–60, rated · New in Forever · read from the Forever client, build 1.60.1.69893. All instances →

The client's queue list points two rated five-a-side arena queues at this map. The ground underneath them has four and a half times the built area of Warsong Gulch — twice Alterac Valley's — with no loading screen, no named areas and no description text of any kind.

How much of it was built

A map's terrain is stored as tiles, each 533 yards square. Counting only the tiles with something actually built on them — which leaves out the empty ground a map pads its edges with — gives each battleground's real built area. Warsong Gulch is the yardstick.

Hyjal Crater5 a side4.4×

Alterac Valley40 a side2.1×

Battle for Gilneas10 a side1.1×

Warsong Gulch10 a side1.0×

Arathi Basin15 a side0.9×

Darkspear Islands15 a side0.9×

Built area as multiples of Warsong Gulch. Every tile of every map was read, not sampled.

End to end3,733 yardsAbout 9 minutes on foot, 4 mounted

Built tiles35 of 357×5 grid, 3,733 × 2,667 yards

Scenery placed8,75646 buildings, 41 ground textures

One caveat, because this is the figure most worth quoting. Built area is where terrain work exists, not where a player can walk. Alterac Valley's mountains are built ground to a level designer and a wall to everyone else. What this establishes is how much was made, not how much is playable.

What falls out of that

A five-a-side queue on more ground than the forty-a-side battleground
Alterac Valley fits forty players a side into 17 built tiles. Hyjal Crater has 35, for five.
The only PvP map in the build with nothing left empty
Every other map pads its grid with bare ground: Darkspear Islands builds on 7 of its 25 tiles, Warsong Gulch on 8 of 16, Alterac Valley on 17 of 35. Hyjal Crater builds on all 35.
Dense landscape, light on structures
8,756 pieces of scenery across 41 ground textures, twice any other map's — but only 46 buildings, fewer than Alterac Valley's 70 or Darkspear Islands' 71. It was dressed as a place, not as a course with objectives on it.

Scenery and buildings are placement counts, read from every tile of each map.
Map	Queue	Built tiles	vs Warsong Gulch	Scenery	Buildings	Textures
Hyjal Crater	5 a side	35 of 35	4.4×	8,756	46	41
Alterac Valley	40 a side	17 of 35	2.1×	3,554	70	19
Battle for Gilneas	10 a side	9 of 16	1.1×	2,031	38	7
Warsong Gulch	10 a side	8 of 16	1.0×	1,115	19	11
Arathi Basin	15 a side	7 of 16	0.9×	3,287	26	6
Darkspear Islands	15 a side	7 of 25	0.9×	1,008	71	15

The two queue rows

Both are pointed at map 2995. Every field below that is not zero.

Field	1168 — Hyjal Crater	1169 — Mak'gora Arena
Instance type	4 — arena	4 — arena
Rated players	5	5
Players a side	5	5
Level band	none stated	1 – 60
Groups allowed	yes, up to 5	yes, up to 5
Flags	0	8

Rated is the unusual part.Only three rows in the whole build carry a rated team size — these two at five, and Battle for Gilneas at ten. Classic Era's table has none: the column is there and every row reads zero. Flag 8 is on Mak'gora and not on Hyjal Crater; the only other rows carrying that bit are the three battlegrounds in the random pool. What the bit means is stated nowhere, so that is a shape, not a definition.

Built, but never dressed for a player to see

What the map has

All 35 tiles resolve to real terrain, around 310 KB each
Objects placed, ground textures painted
Its world-map and minimap art were baked
Identical in builds 1.60.1.69893 and 1.60.1.69913

What it has none of

No loading screen
No named areas, no points of interest
No description text on either faction's side
No world map entry to display the art that was baked

The obvious reading of that last one is wrong.Battle for Gilneas has no world map entry either. Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin and Darkspear Islands all do. So the missing map is not peculiar to Hyjal Crater — it puts Hyjal Crater and Gilneas at the same earlier stage, with Darkspear Islands the finished one of the three maps Forever added.

No arena interface was built for Forever

The client lists 103 interface files with “arena” in the name against Classic Era's 84, which looks like new work until the twenty extras are read out: loading screens for the Battle for Azeroth, Zuldazar, Mechagon, Bastion, Enigma, Centaur and Undermine arenas, the retail 2v2 / 3v3 / 5v5 achievement icons, the garrison sparring arena, and the arena enemy frame. Every one is a retail asset the newer engine carries. The same control on the interface atlases gives eight more, all generic frame edges.

Put plainly:nothing in the client's interface files was authored for a Forever arena. And the names barely exist — across every table read, Mak'gora appears in exactly one row and Hyjal Crater in two.

The evidence, tile by tile

For anyone who wants to check the numbers rather than take them. Each square is one 533-yard terrain tile as the client stores it, shaded by how much scenery sits on it; a dashed square is ground with nothing built on it. This is where every figure above comes from.

Show the terrain grids

Hyjal Crater5 a side · 35 of 35 tiles built

Alterac Valley40 a side · 17 of 35 tiles built

Battle for Gilneas10 a side · 9 of 16 tiles built

Warsong Gulch10 a side · 8 of 16 tiles built

Arathi Basin15 a side · 7 of 16 tiles built

Darkspear Islands15 a side · 7 of 25 tiles built

nothing built 1–99 pieces 100–299 300–599 600+— hover a tile for its exact counts

What this does not say

What the queues are for.Rated five-a-side is what the rows describe. Whether Forever ships an arena, and in what form, is not in these tables — and Blizzard's BlizzCon PvP panel named no arena, only the Darkspear Islands battleground and a larger PvP system teased without detail.
Why the map is this size, or this dense.Stated above as a measurement, not a theory.
What flag 8 means.The bit's meaning is nowhere in the tables.
Anything the server decides— start locations, scoring, or whether either queue can be entered at all. Neither row states even a client-side condition.
The slash command and perks reported elsewhere.Neither string is in any table read here, so neither is repeated as fact.

★New in Forever · map 2995 Sources: Forever client build 1.60.1.69893 · BlizzCon, 12 September 2026

Every instance

Dungeons & Raids

52 instances

Your level With a level set, doors you cannot enter yet lock and instances near your level light up.

Hyjal Crater★ 5v5 1–60

5 group size, 10v10 players a side 28 Group Finder level, entry level with a plus, or a battleground's level band Confirmed raid Blizzard has confirmed for Forever Announced announced, not in the client yet Not confirmed 40? in the client from Classic, not announced ★ new in Forever ◆ changed

Hyjal Crater

Entering

How much of it was built

What falls out of that

A five-a-side queue on more ground than the forty-a-side battleground

The only PvP map in the build with nothing left empty

Dense landscape, light on structures

The two queue rows

Built, but never dressed for a player to see

What the map has

What it has none of

No arena interface was built for Forever

The evidence, tile by tile

What this does not say

Bosses

Every instance

Dungeons & Raids

Entering

How much of it was built

What falls out of that

A five-a-side queue on more ground than the forty-a-side battleground

The only PvP map in the build with nothing left empty

Dense landscape, light on structures

The two queue rows

Built, but never dressed for a player to see

What the map has

What it has none of

No arena interface was built for Forever

The evidence, tile by tile

What this does not say

Bosses

Every instance

Dungeons 32 −

Raids 14 −

Battlegrounds 5 −

Arenas 1 −