World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Blizzard Entertainment, released in 2004. Set in the Warcraft universe, it became the defining MMORPG of its era — drawing millions of players into a shared living world and making online gaming a mainstream cultural experience.
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, released in November 2004. Set in the high-fantasy world of Azeroth, it built on the lore of the Warcraft real-time strategy series, transforming its world into a persistent online space shared by millions of players simultaneously.
Players create a character from one of several races and classes — warrior, mage, rogue, priest among them — and progress through a vast world of quests, dungeons, and raids. The game's genius was in layering individual story content with cooperative group challenges and a persistent social world. Guilds formed around raid progression, economies emerged from player trading, and friendships built across years of shared play. The endgame raid system, culminating in battles against iconic bosses like Ragnaros and Kel'Thuzad, defined MMO culture for a generation.
At its peak, World of Warcraft had over 12 million subscribers — a number that reshaped the games industry's understanding of what an online game could be. It introduced millions of people to online communities, became a reference point in mainstream media, and established the subscription MMO as a viable business model. Its influence on game design, particularly in quest structure, character progression, and cooperative content, is visible across virtually every RPG made since.
World of Warcraft is ranked #12 on Rolling Stone's 2025 list of the 50 Greatest Video Games of All Time. Now in its tenth expansion, it remains one of the longest-running online games in history.