World of Warcraft: Classic has had a gold selling problem for its entire existence, but with Forever, Blizzard seems hard-set on reversing that trend, and some streamers are getting caught in the act.
Before Forever’s beta came out, Classic had big problems with its economy due to the popularity of GDKP. For the uninitiated, that was a system where in raids, players would bid gold in order to get items that drop from bosses. That, combined with Blizzard’s seemingly lax enforcement of real-money trading, or RMT, ended up with millions of gold being dumped into the Classic economies.
But, when Forever came out, Blizzard said it would be banning GDKP, which was a huge first step in making the Classic+ mode a lot more fair for everyone. The other side of that coin, though, is the RMT. If Blizzard remained lax in enforcing its rules, then people with disposable incomes could find new ways to distort the economy in their favor.
Luckily, it does seem like Blizzard is actually cracking down in the Forever beta. Just in the last couple of days, a couple of Classic streamers have been hit by Blizzard to varying degrees after RMT was suspected.
On Tuesday, WoW commentator N_Tys26 tweeted a clip of WoW streamer Ziqo after Blizzard reportedly reclaimed a load of gold, leaving him with just 9 silver. That meant that he was abandoned in Stonetalon Mountains – a Horde zone – without enough gold to get a flight back to Stormwind.
𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐙𝐙𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐒 𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐙𝐈𝐐𝐎
There has been quite the conversation recently about WoW streamer @Ziqoftw receiving large sums of gold on the Forever beta.
As previously covered, Ziqo has maintained his innocence and even come up with some… pic.twitter.com/Vzi5mDQjJO
— N_Tys (@N_Tys26) September 29, 2026
But it seems like Ziqo was let off easy, with his gold just getting wiped, rather than having his account banned. Not every streamer caught has been so lucky, though. N_Tys26 posted another clip of streamer Payo getting “one of his accounts banned” after promoting gold selling on his stream, even though he claims he has “never bought gold” in his life.
Just the day before that clip was posted, though, N_Tys26 shared another clip of Payo begging his audience to buy gold for him. I’m pretty sure that counts. But, while that account got banned, Payo already has another account up and running and will be participating in a $100,000 duelling tournament.
𝐏𝐀𝐘𝐎 𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐍 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐀 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐁𝐔𝐘𝐈𝐍𝐆
One of Payo’s beta accounts has been banned for promoting gold buying.@payowow has apologised for promoting gold buying and believes he deserves the ban, as it shows Blizzard is taking RMT… pic.twitter.com/kDDUXXDAVh
— N_Tys (@N_Tys26) October 1, 2026
It is possible that since these WoW streamers’ actions are more visible due to, well, streaming, that they’re getting more severe action taken than the average player. I’ve reached out to Blizzard for comment on that situation, and I’ll update this story if and when I hear back. But regardless, taking action on streamers engaging with or promoting RMT should at least discourage players from buying gold.
Either way, it’s a good sign that Blizzard is cracking down on this behavior now, while World of Warcraft Forever is still in beta. Hopefully, when the game hits its final release on November 4, the economy won’t get distorted the same way that Classic did, or at least it’ll take longer. Blizzard has also spent a lot of time making sure the game appeals to Classic players, and has cracked down on inappropriate names too, though with mixed results.
Jackie Thomas is the Senior Tech Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. She’s been covering gaming hardware for more than a decade for IGN, TechRadar, Gizmodo, PC Gamer and more. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
