Oh boy here we go. This is something that had really divided the WWE 2K community when it was first announced and now we have the full details of what will be what is known as the "Ringside Pass" for WWE 2K26.
Instead of a season pass where you just get access to all the DLC as soon as it's released we now will have the DLC wrestlers available via a premium battle pass. Here is how it will work. There will be a free track which has 40 tiers and 60 rewards. By simply playing the game across all game modes you will earn "RXP" which increases you battle pass level. Here is the list of what game modes you can earn RXP in.
Rewards on the free track include VC, My Faction packs, MFP Island banners and more.
There is also a paid premium track. This is how we will be unlocking the DLC wrestlers and we can also earn Create a Superstar parts, Island taunts, Personas and more. Seasons of the Ringside Pass will not expire, so thankfully there will be no FOMO. The other thing that's changing is there will no longer be a Supercharger to unlock all in game unlockables instantly. Instead the Legends, arenas, championship belts that are usually in game to unlock every year will be part of the free track of Season 1.
Here is what will be available via the first seasons Ringside Pass
We also learned the release schedule for the Ringside Passes which is as follows...
Of course it's completely optional but if you don't want to bother with the pass you can buy tier skips for an additional cost.
You can read the full Ringside Report for all the details on their official website.
Now for me I don't mind battle passes but I can see some problems with this. First off the reason why I think this could be great for players is that we are getting more with the DLC than we have gotten before. New arenas, championships, personas, those are things that we have wanted via DLC for a while now. On the other hand, not having access to those things right off the bat, especially if someone wants to use them for their Universe mode is kind of crappy for them.
Really I think what this is gonna come down to as to whether or not this is a cool addition or completely insufferable will be how much time it takes to complete these Ringside Passes. If it's a situation where one level of the pass takes 1000XP and you only earn 5-10XP per match, then yeah we are cooked and this isn't going to go over well. At the very least it seems that earning Persona cards will be much easier than grinding and opening hundreds of card packs in My Faction and we can earn the DLC wrestlers from levels 1-20. I am going into this with an open mind but I can easily see this becoming problematic. We shall see.
WWE 2K26 launches on March 13th for PS5, Series X, Switch 2 and PC. Those who buy the King of Kings, Attitude Era or Monday Night Wars editions will get early access on March 6th.
