{"id":1038983,"date":"2026-01-16T15:32:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?post_type=vm_package&#038;p=481722"},"modified":"2026-01-16T15:32:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T15:32:24","slug":"remembering-20-years-of-world-of-warcraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/remembering-20-years-of-world-of-warcraft\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering 20 years of World of Warcraft"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure> <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-caption=\"\" data-portal-copyright=\"\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/remembering-20-years-of-world-of-warcraft.jpg\" \/><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">The original <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/world-of-warcraft\">World of Warcraft<\/a><\/em> was released on Nov. 23, 2004 and, what now feels like overnight, changed the industry forever. A longstanding and deeply embedded player base, plus the game\u2019s innovation in live service and massively multiplayer online gaming, have made<em> World of Warcraft<\/em> one of the most played video games of all time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Here, you\u2019ll find a collection of stories about <em>World of Warcraft<\/em> today, 20 years ago, and at many notable points between (remember the blood plague?).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2024\/8\/12\/24209862\/world-warcraft-wow-classic-20th-anniversary-retrospective\">Almost 20 years in, World of Warcraft is the freshest it\u2019s been in years \u2014 and it\u2019s thanks to WoW Classic<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/world-of-warcraft\/461195\/kristian-nairn-game-of-thrones\">Game of Thrones star Kristian Nairn says World of Warcraft got him off drugs<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/world-of-warcraft\/448020\/world-of-warcrafts-20-year-anniversary-will-be-a-full-patch-of-celebration\">World of Warcraft\u2019s 20-year anniversary will be a full patch of celebration<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/world-of-warcraft\/471239\/wow-movie-netflix-remarkable-life-of-ibelin-animation\">How Netflix\u2019s Remarkable Life of Ibelin pulled off its World of Warcraft scenes without Blizzard\u2019s knowledge<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/24205283\/world-of-warcraft-pre-patch-11-0-warband-character-select\">World of Warcraft\u2019s new character-select screen made me emotional<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/24160618\/cool-sword-day-phantom-blade-world-of-warcraft\">Why I still hold onto my Phantom Blade in World of Warcraft<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/world-of-warcraft\/481722\/world-of-warcraft-20th-anniversary\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The original World of Warcraft was released on Nov. 23, 2004 and, what now feels like overnight, changed the industry forever. A longstanding and deeply embedded player base, plus the game\u2019s innovation in live service and massively multiplayer online gaming, have made World of Warcraft one of the most played video games of all time. Here, you\u2019ll find a collection of stories about World of Warcraft today, 20 years ago, and at many notable points between (remember the blood plague?). Almost 20 years in, World of Warcraft is the freshest it\u2019s been in years \u2014 and it\u2019s thanks to WoW Classic Game of Thrones star Kristian Nairn says World of Warcraft got him off drugs World of Warcraft\u2019s 20-year anniversary will be a full patch&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/remembering-20-years-of-world-of-warcraft\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1038984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1038983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Remembering 20 years of World of Warcraft | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The original World of Warcraft was released on Nov. 23, 2004 and, what now feels like overnight, changed the industry forever. A longstanding and deeply\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/remembering-20-years-of-world-of-warcraft\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Remembering 20 years of World of Warcraft | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The original World of Warcraft was released on Nov. 23, 2004 and, what now feels like overnight, changed the industry forever. 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