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When it initially launched in 2004, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft rapidly became the most popular and beloved MMORPG ever made thanks to its accessibility, exceptionally high degree of polish, and its sheer size and scope. Even if WoW never evolved past this vanilla state, it would still be remembered fondly as an incredible RPG filled with epic dungeons, surprisingly compelling Player vs. Player encounters, satisfying non-combat crafting and social gameplay, and more well-written, hand-crafted quests and adventures than it felt possible for a single RPG to contain. But what elevates World of Warcraft above “Great” and into “Greatest of All-Time” discussions is the care and attention Blizzard has poured into the game in the 13 years since. The game has never stood still. Completely new worlds, revamped old worlds, balanced and well-integrated new classes, risky storytelling, and an almost impossible-to-count volume of quality-of-life improvements have made an already amazing game experience even more amazing, more than a decade later.
- World of Warcraft reached peak subscriptions in October 2010, at 12 million subscribers.
- It contained a whopping 40,000 NPCs... four expansions ago, in 2009.
- Between 2004 and 2011, humans have collectively spent nearly 6 million years playing World of Warcraft.