WoW is Going Strong After 20 Years with No Killer in Sight, but I Have Hope

1 week ago 8

Published May 16, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT

Melissa Sarnowski is a Gaming Writer at DualShockers who has been covering games professionally since 2022. She specializes in lists, reviews, and features, with additional experience writing guides for Hardcore Gamer.

Before joining DualShockers, Melissa contributed to Screen Rant, and she currently writes for CBR and Hardcore Gamer in addition to DualShockers. Her work focuses heavily on RPGs, horror games, MMOs, indie games, and simulation games, with recurring coverage of franchises such as Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, The Legend of Zelda, and The Sims. She holds a Bachelor of Science in English from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

World of Warcraft has added yet another successful expansion to its lengthy collection of content, and even after 20 years, WoW has maintained a large player base.

Not every expansion has been great, and some of them felt like they would be the beginning of the end for WoW. However, it managed to keep going through those rough spots and shows no signs of dying in the near future.

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WoW largely defined the MMORPG genre, and that can still be seen in the design of other MMOs. While they tend to feel similar when you start playing them now, it was World of Warcraft that set the standard. From the time WoW was released, the MMOs that followed have been held to the standard set. Unfortunately, no other game has managed to set a new standard for MMOs in the same way.

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There have been so many games that players thought would be the MMO that finally kills WoW, but clearly, none of them have succeeded. I've played quite a few of them over the years, and some were genuinely enjoyable.

Age of Conan had settlements that often felt more alive than those in WoW, but the gameplay itself wasn't as polished. Then, there were games like ArcheAge that had features I would've loved to see in WoW, like the justice system, but the game itself was pay-to-win, which isn't exactly fun.

WoW largely defined the MMORPG genre, and that can still be seen in the design of other MMOs

I think that the desire to be the game that killed WoW helped developers get innovative with their designs in the hope that they'd be able to take over the income WoW was bringing in for Blizzard. Unfortunately, it feels like that push has died out in some ways, as live service games are dying fast, with some not even making it a month before they end up shutting down.

I Want to See a WoW Killer be Made

If a game is released that actually kills WoW, it has to be an amazing game. I would love to play something that's able to finally take WoW's place in the gaming industry. I think that Final Fantasy 14 is the closest we've gotten to a WoW Killer so far, but it exists alongside WoW instead of replacing it.

Besides, FF14 offers more in terms of story and customization, while WoW has better end-game content and PvP. So, they coexist and fill in what the other lacks instead of fighting each other.

Despite my hopes, I don't think that there's going to be a game taking over WoW anytime soon. Live service games are riskier for developers now, and they regularly end up costing more money than they bring in for developers. Publishers won't want to take those risks.

That could change in the future, but the trends currently don't look great for the development of a new MMO that can beat out the existing options. If anything, I think I'm going to end up having to wait for a sequel to WoW from Blizzard, or for Square Enix to make their new Final Fantasy MMO to replace FF11 and FF14, as those are the most likely candidates to kill World of Warcraft in the foreseeable future.