World of Warcraft has been around for over 20 years and has had 10 massive expansions. Will it still be worth your money in 2025?
Since 2004, World of Warcraft, or more often just WoW, has been a fixture in the gaming world. This MMO RPG has become indispensable to the many loyal fans Blizzard has gained over the years.
In those spacious 20 years that the game has been around, a lot has changed. It is now such a comprehensive game that you may wonder if it is not too late to start playing it now. Bottom line: is World of Warcraft still worth your money today?
Ten major expansions
World of Warcraft has received a lot of updates and expansions over the years. Not counting minor tweaks, such as bug fixes, ten major expansion packs have appeared.
(image: Blizzard)
They are: The Burning Crusade (2007), Wrath of the Lich King (2008), Cataclysm (2010), Mists of Pandaria (2012), Warlords of Draenor (2014), Legion (2016), Battle for Azeroth (2018), Shadowlands (2020), Dragonflight (2022), and The War Within (2024).
Each expansion brought a new overarching storyline, new areas to play, lots of new weapons and spells, new characters, and several times even new playable characters. So there was a lot added. It has been calculated that to complete all these storylines will take you a paltry 888 hours.
Good to pick up for beginners
Anyone who has ever watched a video where a so-called raid of WoW is played will be a bit overwhelmed by the many players, spells and figures flying through the frame. These adventures that you mostly experience with a large group of players look intimidating.
That doesn’t mean World of Warcraft isn’t easy for newcomers to pick up. Blizzard has come up with quite a bit on that in recent years. For example, new tutorials have appeared with some of the expansion and even a complete beginner’s area has been created: Exile’s Reach.
(image: Blizzard)
There you can master the basics of the game at your leisure. These areas are still crowded with all kinds of other players. Given the social nature of World of Warcraft is also a good place to find like-minded people. The many forums and channels for World of Warcraft are also an ideal for finding fellow players.
More resources for beginners
WoW veterans will already have dozens of characters who have reached maximum level. The grind-like image of the MMO RPGs does apply to WoW in this regard: you will have to play a lot to reach a higher level.
Many of the aforementioned expansion are only playable from a certain level. Fortunately, there is possibility to play them directly anyway. With a few of those expansion packs, you have the option to create a higher-level character right away. That way you can get started right away.
(image: Blizzard)
By the way, this ability to buy levels is always there. However, this will cost you quite a bit of money. Even when you suddenly start as a level 40 character, the game fortunately offers enough explanations that you would otherwise have gotten along the way.
Cost comparable to Game Pass
So despite its intimidating nature, WoW is quite pickable for beginners. The only barrier that might still stop you from playing it is the price. Because in order to play World of Warcraft, you have to take out a monthly subscription.
You spend €12.99 a month for the game. Then you only have basic access. If you buy the latest expansion, you get instant access to the previously released expansion as well. So at the moment that will cost you €50.
So monthly it will cost you about as much as the Xbox Game Pass. At least you’ll spend a lot of hours with it.
