Free to play and paid for with cosmetics, built around a passive tree of more than a thousand nodes and a new league every few months.
Pandaria opens after ten thousand years, with the monk class, a farm at Halfhill and a war the Horde loses to itself.
The Burning Legion returns, every specialisation gets its own artefact weapon, and Suramar unlocks over months.
Top-down and unforgiving since 1997: die and you lose experience, skills and part of what you were carrying.
Malthael takes the Black Soulstone, Adventure Mode replaces the acts and the auction house is gone.
Norrath in 1999, where dying left your corpse and your gear where you fell and you had to walk back naked; still running.
Castle sieges of hundreds of players in Aden; the Korean MMO the clan wars of the 2000s were fought in.
The Dragon Isles, dragonriding flight with real momentum, and talent trees handed back to the players.
Grinding Gear's sequel, in early access since December 2024 with half of its planned acts still to come.
The Spiritborn class and the jungle region of Nahantu, from October 2024.
Olgierd von Everec, a wish that cannot be given back, and a heist on the Borsodi auction house.
Quel'Thalas and Silvermoon opened up in March 2026, with player housing added twenty-two years late.
Dynamic events that fire whether anyone is there to see them, and world versus world fought across three servers at once.
Middle-earth from the Shire to Mordor, with instruments that play real notes so players can hold concerts in Bree.
A character creator people spend an evening in, combat built out of directional combos, and a trade network that runs while you are away.
Eight class stories, every line of them voiced, in the era Knights of the Old Republic left behind.
A 2D side-scrolling MMO from Korea, free to play since 2003 and funded entirely by cosmetics.
A colonial island fought over by three factions, relaunched in 2024 with no classes and weapons you level instead.
The Dark Portal opens onto Outland, blood elves and draenei join, and Illidan waits at the top of the Black Temple.
The afterlife split between four covenants, each with a campaign and a set of abilities you commit to.
Kul Tiras and Zandalar on opposite sides of a faction war that starts with Teldrassil burning.
Northrend, the death knight as a playable class, and Arthas on the Frozen Throne at the top of Icecrown.
A monk, a hive of demon insects and two side dungeons; the 1997 expansion Blizzard did not make itself.
An alternate Draenor before it broke apart, and a personal garrison that quietly replaced the world outside it.
No subscription, instanced land outside the towns, and a build capped at eight skills chosen from hundreds.
Paladins and warlocks land on the Skovos Isles in April 2026, and the water is worse than the shore.
A full-loot sandbox where every item is crafted by a player and the territory map is drawn by guilds.
Four players from four countries in one Dreamcast lobby in 2000, talking past the language barrier with a symbol chat.
The 1994 first game: a whole continent generated at random and a staff broken into eight pieces.
The dwarves arrive as a new faction, with runes to spend from the stock their heroes carry.
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