World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft (abbreviated WoW) is a MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the 4th game in the Warcraft medieval-fantasy universe, introduced by Warcraft: Orcs and Humans in 1994. World of Warcraft takes place in Azeroth, about four years after the events of the previous game, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft on September 2, 2001. The game was released in North America on November 23, 2004, for the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise. The first expansion of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007. The second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, was released on November 13, 2008. The third, Cataclysm, was released on December 7, 2010. The fourth expansion, Mists of Pandaria, was released on September 25, 2012. The fifth expansion, Warlords of Draenor, was released on November 13, 2014. The sixth expansion, Legion, was released on August 30, 2016. The seventh expansion, Battle for Azeroth, is scheduled for August 14, 2018. Since its release, World of Warcraft has been the most popular MMORPG. The game holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG. In April 2008, World of Warcraft was estimated to account for 62% of MMORPG players. On October 7, 2010, Blizzard announced that more than 12 million players had an active World of Warcraft account. However, starting in late 2012, World of Warcraft began to continuously lose a growing number of players. In the last quarter of 2012, Blizzard announced a number of 9.6 million subscribers worldwide, then 7.7 million for the 2nd quarter of 2013. World of Warcraft celebrated its 10th anniversary in November 2014. The following month, after the release of the Warlords of Draenor expansion, Blizzard announced that World of Warcraft had surpassed the 10 million subscriber mark again.