diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index ab3a483232..fa3ce050d4 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -150,6 +150,10 @@ jobs:
                   name: playwright-snapshots-${{ matrix.part }}
                   path: packages/playground/website/playwright/e2e/deployment.spec.ts-snapshots/
                   if-no-files-found: ignore
+            - name: Delete playwright-dist artifact
+              uses: geekyeggo/delete-artifact@v2
+              with:
+                  name: playwright-dist
 
     build:
         runs-on: ubuntu-latest
diff --git a/packages/playground/blueprints/src/lib/steps/set-site-language.spec.ts b/packages/playground/blueprints/src/lib/steps/set-site-language.spec.ts
index e022ec6e3e..ac8c03447b 100644
--- a/packages/playground/blueprints/src/lib/steps/set-site-language.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/playground/blueprints/src/lib/steps/set-site-language.spec.ts
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ describe('getTranslationUrl()', () => {
 		},
 		{
 			versionString: '6.6-RC1',
-			latestBetaVersion: '6.6-RC',
+			latestBetaVersion: '6.6-RC1',
 			latestMinifiedVersion: '6.5.2',
 			expectedUrl: `https://downloads.wordpress.org/translation/core/6.6-RC/en_US.zip`,
 			description:
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ describe('getTranslationUrl()', () => {
 						latestBetaVersion,
 						latestMinifiedVersion
 					)
-				).toBe(expectedUrl);
+				).resolves.toBe(expectedUrl);
 			});
 		}
 	);
diff --git a/packages/playground/blueprints/src/lib/steps/set-site-language.ts b/packages/playground/blueprints/src/lib/steps/set-site-language.ts
index f69ebd8d1f..4bac53be96 100644
--- a/packages/playground/blueprints/src/lib/steps/set-site-language.ts
+++ b/packages/playground/blueprints/src/lib/steps/set-site-language.ts
@@ -1,10 +1,8 @@
 import { StepHandler } from '.';
 import { unzipFile } from '@wp-playground/common';
 import { logger } from '@php-wasm/logger';
-import {
-	LatestMinifiedWordPressVersion,
-	MinifiedWordPressVersions,
-} from '@wp-playground/wordpress-builds';
+import { resolveWordPressRelease } from '@wp-playground/wordpress';
+import { Semaphore } from '@php-wasm/util';
 
 /**
  * @inheritDoc setSiteLanguage
@@ -25,48 +23,79 @@ export interface SetSiteLanguageStep {
 }
 
 /**
- * Returns the URL to download a WordPress translation package.
+ * Infers the translation package URL for a given WordPress version.
  *
- * If the WordPress version doesn't have a translation package,
- * the latest "RC" version will be used instead.
+ * If it cannot be inferred, the latest translation package will be used instead.
  */
-export const getWordPressTranslationUrl = (
+export const getWordPressTranslationUrl = async (
 	wpVersion: string,
 	language: string,
-	latestBetaVersion: string = MinifiedWordPressVersions['beta'],
-	latestMinifiedVersion: string = LatestMinifiedWordPressVersion
+	latestBetaWordPressVersion?: string,
+	latestStableWordPressVersion?: string
 ) => {
 	/**
-	 * The translation API provides translations for all WordPress releases
-	 * including patch releases.
+	 * Infer a WordPress version we can feed into the translations API based
+	 * on the requested fully-qualified WordPress version.
 	 *
-	 * RC and beta versions don't have individual translation packages.
-	 * They all share the same "RC" translation package.
+	 * The translation API provides translations for:
 	 *
-	 * Nightly versions don't have a "nightly" translation package.
-	 * So, the best we can do is download the RC translation package,
-	 * because it contains the latest available translations.
+	 * - all major.minor WordPress releases
+	 * - all major.minor.patch WordPress releases
+	 * - Latest beta/RC version – under a label like "6.6-RC". It's always "-RC".
+	 *   There's no "-BETA1", "-RC1", "-RC2", etc.
 	 *
-	 * The WordPress.org translation API uses "RC" instead of
-	 * "RC1", "RC2", "BETA1", "BETA2", etc.
+	 * The API does not provide translations for "nightly", "latest", or
+	 * old beta/RC versions.
 	 *
 	 * For example translations for WordPress 6.6-BETA1 or 6.6-RC1 are found under
 	 * https://downloads.wordpress.org/translation/core/6.6-RC/en_GB.zip
 	 */
-	if (wpVersion.match(/^(\d.\d(.\d)?)-(alpha|beta|nightly|rc).*$/i)) {
-		wpVersion = latestBetaVersion
+	let resolvedVersion = null;
+	if (wpVersion.match(/^(\d+\.\d+)(?:\.\d+)?$/)) {
+		// Use the version directly if it's a major.minor or major.minor.patch.
+		resolvedVersion = wpVersion;
+	} else if (wpVersion.match(/^(\d.\d(.\d)?)-(beta|rc|alpha|nightly).*$/i)) {
+		// Translate "6.4-alpha", "6.5-beta", "6.6-nightly", "6.6-RC" etc.
+		// to "6.6-RC"
+		if (latestBetaWordPressVersion) {
+			resolvedVersion = latestBetaWordPressVersion;
+		} else {
+			let resolved = await resolveWordPressRelease('beta');
+			// Beta versions are only available during the beta period –
+			// let's use the latest stable release as a fallback.
+			if (resolved.source !== 'api') {
+				resolved = await resolveWordPressRelease('latest');
+			}
+			resolvedVersion = resolved!.version;
+		}
+		resolvedVersion = resolvedVersion
 			// Remove the patch version, e.g. 6.6.1-RC1 -> 6.6-RC1
 			.replace(/^(\d.\d)(.\d+)/i, '$1')
 			// Replace "rc" and "beta" with "RC", e.g. 6.6-nightly -> 6.6-RC
 			.replace(/(rc|beta).*$/i, 'RC');
-	} else if (!wpVersion.match(/^(\d+\.\d+)(?:\.\d+)?$/)) {
+	} else {
 		/**
-		 * If the WordPress version string isn't a major.minor or major.minor.patch,
-		 * the latest available WordPress build version will be used instead.
+		 * Use the latest stable version otherwise.
+		 *
+		 * The requested version is neither stable, nor beta/RC, nor alpha/nightly.
+		 * It must be a custom version string. We could actually fail at this point,
+		 * but it seems more useful to* download translations from the last official
+		 * WordPress version. If that assumption is wrong, let's reconsider this whenever
+		 * someone reports a related issue.
 		 */
-		wpVersion = latestMinifiedVersion;
+		if (latestStableWordPressVersion) {
+			resolvedVersion = latestStableWordPressVersion;
+		} else {
+			const resolved = await resolveWordPressRelease('latest');
+			resolvedVersion = resolved!.version;
+		}
 	}
-	return `https://downloads.wordpress.org/translation/core/${wpVersion}/${language}.zip`;
+	if (!resolvedVersion) {
+		throw new Error(
+			`WordPress version ${wpVersion} is not supported by the setSiteLanguage step`
+		);
+	}
+	return `https://downloads.wordpress.org/translation/core/${resolvedVersion}/${language}.zip`;
 };
 
 /**
@@ -94,7 +123,7 @@ export const setSiteLanguage: StepHandler<SetSiteLanguageStep> = async (
 
 	const translations = [
 		{
-			url: getWordPressTranslationUrl(wpVersion, language),
+			url: await getWordPressTranslationUrl(wpVersion, language),
 			type: 'core',
 		},
 	];
@@ -165,43 +194,61 @@ export const setSiteLanguage: StepHandler<SetSiteLanguageStep> = async (
 		await playground.mkdir(`${docroot}/wp-content/languages/themes`);
 	}
 
-	for (const { url, type } of translations) {
-		try {
-			const response = await fetch(url);
-			if (!response.ok) {
-				throw new Error(
-					`Failed to download translations for ${type}: ${response.statusText}`
-				);
-			}
+	// Fetch translations in parallel
+	const fetchQueue = new Semaphore({ concurrency: 5 });
+	const translationsQueue = translations.map(({ url, type }) =>
+		fetchQueue.run(async () => {
+			try {
+				const response = await fetch(url);
+				if (!response.ok) {
+					throw new Error(
+						`Failed to download translations for ${type}: ${response.statusText}`
+					);
+				}
 
-			let destination = `${docroot}/wp-content/languages`;
-			if (type === 'plugin') {
-				destination += '/plugins';
-			} else if (type === 'theme') {
-				destination += '/themes';
-			}
+				let destination = `${docroot}/wp-content/languages`;
+				if (type === 'plugin') {
+					destination += '/plugins';
+				} else if (type === 'theme') {
+					destination += '/themes';
+				}
 
-			await unzipFile(
-				playground,
-				new File([await response.blob()], `${language}-${type}.zip`),
-				destination
-			);
-		} catch (error) {
-			/**
-			 * If a core translation wasn't found we should throw an error because it
-			 * means the language is not supported or the language code isn't correct.
-			 */
-			if (type === 'core') {
-				throw new Error(
-					`Failed to download translations for WordPress. Please check if the language code ${language} is correct. You can find all available languages and translations on https://translate.wordpress.org/.`
+				await unzipFile(
+					playground,
+					new File(
+						[await response.blob()],
+						`${language}-${type}.zip`
+					),
+					destination
+				);
+			} catch (error) {
+				/**
+				 * Throw an error when a core translation isn't found.
+				 *
+				 * The language slug used in the Blueprint is not recognized by the
+				 * WordPress.org API and will always return a 404. This is likely
+				 * unintentional – perhaps a typo or the API consumer guessed the
+				 * slug wrong.
+				 *
+				 * The least we can do is communicate the problem.
+				 */
+				if (type === 'core') {
+					throw new Error(
+						`Failed to download translations for WordPress. Please check if the language code ${language} is correct. You can find all available languages and translations on https://translate.wordpress.org/.`
+					);
+				}
+				/**
+				 * WordPress core has translations for the requested language,
+				 * but one of the installed plugins or themes doesn't.
+				 *
+				 * This is fine. Not all plugins and themes have translations for
+				 * every language. Let's just log a warning and move on.
+				 */
+				logger.warn(
+					`Error downloading translations for ${type}: ${error}`
 				);
 			}
-			/**
-			 * Some languages don't have translations for themes and plugins and will
-			 * return a 404 and a CORS error. In this case, we can just skip the
-			 * download because Playground can still work without them.
-			 */
-			logger.warn(`Error downloading translations for ${type}: ${error}`);
-		}
-	}
+		})
+	);
+	await Promise.all(translationsQueue);
 };
diff --git a/packages/playground/blueprints/tsconfig.spec.json b/packages/playground/blueprints/tsconfig.spec.json
index eb23daacbc..06268eb779 100644
--- a/packages/playground/blueprints/tsconfig.spec.json
+++ b/packages/playground/blueprints/tsconfig.spec.json
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 		"src/**/*.spec.js",
 		"src/**/*.test.jsx",
 		"src/**/*.spec.jsx",
-		"src/**/*.d.ts"
+		"src/**/*.d.ts",
+		"../common/src/**/*.spec.ts"
 	]
 }
diff --git a/packages/playground/cli/src/cli.ts b/packages/playground/cli/src/cli.ts
index 9b2fd3b23e..bdcbbb5ace 100644
--- a/packages/playground/cli/src/cli.ts
+++ b/packages/playground/cli/src/cli.ts
@@ -27,9 +27,8 @@ import {
 	fetchSqliteIntegration,
 	fetchWordPress,
 	readAsFile,
-	resolveWPRelease,
 } from './download';
-
+import { resolveWordPressRelease } from '@wp-playground/wordpress';
 export interface Mount {
 	hostPath: string;
 	vfsPath: string;
@@ -281,7 +280,7 @@ async function run() {
 					}
 				}) as any);
 
-				wpDetails = await resolveWPRelease(args.wp);
+				wpDetails = await resolveWordPressRelease(args.wp);
 			}
 
 			const preinstalledWpContentPath =
diff --git a/packages/playground/cli/src/download.ts b/packages/playground/cli/src/download.ts
index 54ab1d305e..7a73e63e65 100644
--- a/packages/playground/cli/src/download.ts
+++ b/packages/playground/cli/src/download.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { EmscriptenDownloadMonitor } from '@php-wasm/progress';
-import { createHash } from 'crypto';
+import { resolveWordPressRelease } from '@wp-playground/wordpress';
 import fs from 'fs-extra';
 import os from 'os';
 import path, { basename } from 'path';
@@ -16,9 +16,9 @@ export async function fetchWordPress(
 	wpVersion = 'latest',
 	monitor: EmscriptenDownloadMonitor
 ) {
-	const wpDetails = await resolveWPRelease(wpVersion);
+	const wpDetails = await resolveWordPressRelease(wpVersion);
 	const wpZip = await cachedDownload(
-		wpDetails.url,
+		wpDetails.releaseUrl,
 		`${wpDetails.version}.zip`,
 		monitor
 	);
@@ -88,57 +88,3 @@ async function downloadTo(
 export function readAsFile(path: string, fileName?: string): File {
 	return new File([fs.readFileSync(path)], fileName ?? basename(path));
 }
-
-export async function resolveWPRelease(version = 'latest') {
-	// Support custom URLs
-	if (version.startsWith('https://') || version.startsWith('http://')) {
-		const shasum = createHash('sha1');
-		shasum.update(version);
-		const sha1 = shasum.digest('hex');
-		return {
-			url: version,
-			version: 'custom-' + sha1.substring(0, 8),
-		};
-	}
-
-	if (version === 'trunk' || version === 'nightly') {
-		return {
-			url: 'https://wordpress.org/nightly-builds/wordpress-latest.zip',
-			version: 'nightly-' + new Date().toISOString().split('T')[0],
-		};
-	}
-
-	let latestVersions = await fetch(
-		'https://api.wordpress.org/core/version-check/1.7/?channel=beta'
-	).then((res) => res.json());
-
-	latestVersions = latestVersions.offers.filter(
-		(v: any) => v.response === 'autoupdate'
-	);
-
-	for (const apiVersion of latestVersions) {
-		if (version === 'beta' && apiVersion.version.includes('beta')) {
-			return {
-				url: apiVersion.download,
-				version: apiVersion.version,
-			};
-		} else if (version === 'latest') {
-			return {
-				url: apiVersion.download,
-				version: apiVersion.version,
-			};
-		} else if (
-			apiVersion.version.substring(0, version.length) === version
-		) {
-			return {
-				url: apiVersion.download,
-				version: apiVersion.version,
-			};
-		}
-	}
-
-	return {
-		url: `https://wordpress.org/wordpress-${version}.zip`,
-		version: version,
-	};
-}
diff --git a/packages/playground/remote/src/lib/create-memoized-fetch.ts b/packages/playground/common/src/create-memoized-fetch.ts
similarity index 100%
rename from packages/playground/remote/src/lib/create-memoized-fetch.ts
rename to packages/playground/common/src/create-memoized-fetch.ts
diff --git a/packages/playground/common/src/index.ts b/packages/playground/common/src/index.ts
index ad95b489e9..3c9b6c4d95 100644
--- a/packages/playground/common/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/playground/common/src/index.ts
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
 import { UniversalPHP } from '@php-wasm/universal';
 import { phpVars } from '@php-wasm/util';
 
+export { createMemoizedFetch } from './create-memoized-fetch';
+
 export const RecommendedPHPVersion = '8.0';
 
 /**
diff --git a/packages/playground/remote/src/lib/create-memoized-fetch.spec.ts b/packages/playground/common/src/test/create-memoized-fetch.spec.ts
similarity index 93%
rename from packages/playground/remote/src/lib/create-memoized-fetch.spec.ts
rename to packages/playground/common/src/test/create-memoized-fetch.spec.ts
index b6dd6919ad..8a0a6bc1a8 100644
--- a/packages/playground/remote/src/lib/create-memoized-fetch.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/playground/common/src/test/create-memoized-fetch.spec.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { createMemoizedFetch } from './create-memoized-fetch';
+import { createMemoizedFetch } from '../create-memoized-fetch';
 
 describe('createMemoizedFetch', () => {
 	it('should return a function', () => {
diff --git a/packages/playground/remote/src/lib/worker-thread.ts b/packages/playground/remote/src/lib/worker-thread.ts
index 04d14d8b47..8bdddd346e 100644
--- a/packages/playground/remote/src/lib/worker-thread.ts
+++ b/packages/playground/remote/src/lib/worker-thread.ts
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ import {
 	hasCachedStaticFilesRemovedFromMinifiedBuild,
 } from './worker-utils';
 import { EmscriptenDownloadMonitor } from '@php-wasm/progress';
-import { createMemoizedFetch } from './create-memoized-fetch';
+import { createMemoizedFetch } from '@wp-playground/common';
 import {
 	FilesystemOperation,
 	journalFSEvents,
diff --git a/packages/playground/remote/tsconfig.lib.json b/packages/playground/remote/tsconfig.lib.json
index bc7e4da799..15dd1d55b6 100644
--- a/packages/playground/remote/tsconfig.lib.json
+++ b/packages/playground/remote/tsconfig.lib.json
@@ -13,7 +13,9 @@
 		"src/**/*.ts",
 		"service-worker.ts",
 		"../../php-wasm/web/src/lib/tls/1_2/connection.ts",
-		"../../php-wasm/web/src/lib/tls/certificates.ts"
+		"../../php-wasm/web/src/lib/tls/certificates.ts",
+		"../common/src/create-memoized-fetch.spec.ts",
+		"../common/src/create-memoized-fetch.ts"
 	],
 	"exclude": ["jest.config.ts", "src/**/*.spec.ts", "src/**/*.test.ts"]
 }
diff --git a/packages/playground/remote/tsconfig.spec.json b/packages/playground/remote/tsconfig.spec.json
index fead792f73..b24202026c 100644
--- a/packages/playground/remote/tsconfig.spec.json
+++ b/packages/playground/remote/tsconfig.spec.json
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 		"src/**/*.spec.js",
 		"src/**/*.test.jsx",
 		"src/**/*.spec.jsx",
-		"src/**/*.d.ts"
+		"src/**/*.d.ts",
+		"../common/src/create-memoized-fetch.spec.ts"
 	]
 }
diff --git a/packages/playground/website/playwright/e2e/blueprints.spec.ts b/packages/playground/website/playwright/e2e/blueprints.spec.ts
index ba650660a5..18a3a0a902 100644
--- a/packages/playground/website/playwright/e2e/blueprints.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/playground/website/playwright/e2e/blueprints.spec.ts
@@ -442,7 +442,7 @@ test('should correctly redirect to a multisite wp-admin url', async ({
 		const blueprint: Blueprint = {
 			landingPage: '/wp-admin/',
 			preferredVersions: {
-				wp: version,
+				wp: 'nightly',
 			},
 			steps: [{ step: 'setSiteLanguage', language: 'es_ES' }],
 		};
diff --git a/packages/playground/wordpress/src/index.ts b/packages/playground/wordpress/src/index.ts
index a26d7aa90d..7eb8c9f0e3 100644
--- a/packages/playground/wordpress/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/playground/wordpress/src/index.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import { PHP, UniversalPHP } from '@php-wasm/universal';
 import { joinPaths, phpVar } from '@php-wasm/util';
-import { unzipFile } from '@wp-playground/common';
+import { unzipFile, createMemoizedFetch } from '@wp-playground/common';
 export { bootWordPress, getFileNotFoundActionForWordPress } from './boot';
 export { getLoadedWordPressVersion } from './version-detect';
 
@@ -545,3 +545,95 @@ function isCleanDirContainingSiteMetadata(path: string, php: PHP) {
 
 	return false;
 }
+
+const memoizedFetch = createMemoizedFetch(fetch);
+
+/**
+ * Resolves a specific WordPress release URL and version string based on
+ * a version query string such as "latest", "beta", or "6.6".
+ *
+ * Examples:
+ * ```js
+ * const { releaseUrl, version } = await resolveWordPressRelease('latest')
+ * // becomes https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.6.2.zip and '6.6.2'
+ *
+ * const { releaseUrl, version } = await resolveWordPressRelease('beta')
+ * // becomes https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.6.2-RC1.zip and '6.6.2-RC1'
+ *
+ * const { releaseUrl, version } = await resolveWordPressRelease('6.6')
+ * // becomes https://wordpress.org/wordpress-6.6.2.zip and '6.6.2'
+ * ```
+ *
+ * @param versionQuery - The WordPress version query string to resolve.
+ * @returns The resolved WordPress release URL and version string.
+ */
+export async function resolveWordPressRelease(versionQuery = 'latest') {
+	if (
+		versionQuery.startsWith('https://') ||
+		versionQuery.startsWith('http://')
+	) {
+		const shasum = await crypto.subtle.digest(
+			'SHA-1',
+			new TextEncoder().encode(versionQuery)
+		);
+		const sha1 = Array.from(new Uint8Array(shasum))
+			.map((b) => b.toString(16).padStart(2, '0'))
+			.join('');
+		return {
+			releaseUrl: versionQuery,
+			version: 'custom-' + sha1.substring(0, 8),
+			source: 'inferred',
+		};
+	} else if (versionQuery === 'trunk' || versionQuery === 'nightly') {
+		return {
+			releaseUrl:
+				'https://wordpress.org/nightly-builds/wordpress-latest.zip',
+			version: 'nightly-' + new Date().toISOString().split('T')[0],
+			source: 'inferred',
+		};
+	}
+
+	const response = await memoizedFetch(
+		'https://api.wordpress.org/core/version-check/1.7/?channel=beta'
+	);
+	let latestVersions = await response.json();
+
+	latestVersions = latestVersions.offers.filter(
+		(v: any) => v.response === 'autoupdate'
+	);
+
+	for (const apiVersion of latestVersions) {
+		if (versionQuery === 'beta' && apiVersion.version.includes('beta')) {
+			return {
+				releaseUrl: apiVersion.download,
+				version: apiVersion.version,
+				source: 'api',
+			};
+		} else if (
+			versionQuery === 'latest' &&
+			!apiVersion.version.includes('beta')
+		) {
+			// The first non-beta item in the list is the latest version.
+			return {
+				releaseUrl: apiVersion.download,
+				version: apiVersion.version,
+				source: 'api',
+			};
+		} else if (
+			apiVersion.version.substring(0, versionQuery.length) ===
+			versionQuery
+		) {
+			return {
+				releaseUrl: apiVersion.download,
+				version: apiVersion.version,
+				source: 'api',
+			};
+		}
+	}
+
+	return {
+		releaseUrl: `https://wordpress.org/wordpress-${versionQuery}.zip`,
+		version: versionQuery,
+		source: 'inferred',
+	};
+}