World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft (commonly acronymed as WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). It is Blizzard Entertainment's fourth game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994.[3] World of Warcraft takes place within the world of Azeroth, four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft on September 2, 2001.[4] The game was released on November 23, 2004, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise. It is currently the world's largest MMORPG in terms of monthly subscribers,[5][6][7] and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG.[8] World of Warcraft currently holds 62% of the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) market at 10 million subscribers; as of 2008, the current subscriber base for all MMOGs has been estimated at approximately 16 million.[9]

The first official expansion pack of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007. During the 2007 BlizzCon event, Blizzard announced a second expansion pack called Wrath of the Lich King on August 3, 2007.[10]