A fan of Final Fantasy XI wonders why World of Warcraft still outshines the entire MMORPG competition 21 years after its release. The community provides several reasons.
How is WoW doing in early 2026? Unfortunately, there are no official player and revenue numbers. However, there are several signs that World of Warcraft is still doing really well after 21 years:
- Holly Longdale, Vice President and Executive Producer for World of Warcraft, stated in 2024 that the MMORPG has more developers working on it than ever before.
- The many different WoW versions (The War Within, Mists of Pandaria Classic, Season of Discoveries, Classic Era, Hardcore, Anniversary Edition) highlight this.
- At the 2024 Game Developers Conference, Blizzard officials showed a graph depicting the development of subscribers for World of Warcraft over the past ten years. This resulted in an estimated number of 7.25 million active WoW players.
- The comeback of WoW in China is said to have catapulted the player count even higher: to over 12 million players worldwide. An analysis from this year confirmed this.
- With WoW: Midnight, the next expansion for modern WoW is already on the horizon. Thanks to the new housing system and a large community project from Germany, the MMORPG can already welcome many returnees or even newcomers on the servers.
“It is simply suitable for all types of players”
What are the reasons for the continued success? This question is exactly what MonsutaMan asks on Reddit. The non-WoW player has played Final Fantasy XI for many, many years and has to grudgingly acknowledge how well Blizzard’s MMORPG has fared to this day.
WoW casts a shadow over newer MMOs and has left pretty much every other MMO from the early 2000s far behind. EQ, GW, etc…
It’s pretty crazy. Not only that it has lasted so long, but that it is also thriving as number one. Many MMOs from the early 2000s are still online, but not many are genuinely “successful”.
Don’t players get tired of WoW? Final Fantasy XI was my personal favorite MMO. However, many hardcore XI players like me have outgrown the game. As a result, active player numbers have stagnated. It was noticeable that it was no longer a popular MMO… (I took a bit longer to let go, in 2025).
WoW had its heyday and difficult phases but now seems to have returned to the top? What do you think made this success possible? Was it pure coincidence? The right place at the right time?
Under the post, numerous players gather in over 600 comments to name reasons for WoW’s enduring success.
- Frog-Eater writes on Reddit: “It is simply suitable for all types of players. Role players, people who enjoy PvP, those who like leveling or just farming and hanging out, challenging dungeons, raids with the guild. Now there is even housing. It may not be the best in all areas, but it’s fun, looks good and everyone can find something they enjoy about it.”
- _NauticalPhoenix_ sees another reason for the recent success on Reddit: “A few years ago, during Shadowlands, it entered a difficult phase. […] Preach, Bellular, and many WoW content creators spoke out loud about it. […] Since then, Blizzard has made a course correction starting with Dragonflight and has since achieved much better player engagement.”
- Sea_Advantage_2577 praises on Reddit: “It has some of the best combat in MMO history, which I think is often overlooked. You can be in a chaotic situation like PvP or M+ and never feel like you’re not doing what you want. Azeroth is also a fascinating world to explore and has some impressive areas to offer. The music and graphics are great.”
- vasDcrakGaming points out a painful flaw in the genre on Reddit: “The bar is set pretty low when you look at all the other MMOs.” To this fits: 2025 will go down in history as one of the worst years for MMORPG fans.
Is WoW actually the “number 1 MMORPG in the world”? This cannot be answered with one hundred percent certainty:
- Not only does Blizzard refrain from announcing official numbers, most other MMORPG providers do the same.
- The player numbers are difficult to compare due to the different payment models (Free2Play vs. subscription, for example) and other factors. Many updates from MMORPG developers include players who only checked out the free trial version, for example.
- Moreover, WoW is still only available on PC after all these years, while many other MMORPGs have also been released on consoles or mobile.
The signs mentioned at the beginning suggest that World of Warcraft is doing very well in 2026, and that the responsible parties will continue to support the MMORPG for a long time to come.
By the way, the last time Blizzard released an overview of the total player numbers of WoW was more than 12 years ago. At that time, there were 100 million players. Today, that number is likely significantly higher. Whether it is enough for the top spot of MMORPGs according to official developer numbers is unclear.
