Although its initial release was hampered by overpopulated servers, the game became a financial success. Critics gave the game very favorable reviews. On the review aggregator Game Rankings, the game had an average score of 92% based on 70 reviews. On Metacritic, the game had an average score of 93 out of 100, based on 57 reviews. The game has been consistently ranked as one of the best by review sites and has won numerous awards, including GameSpot's Game of the Year Award for 2004 and IGNs Editor's Choice Award.

 

World of Warcraft was the best-selling PC game of 2005 and 2006. As of January 22, 2008, World of Warcraft has surpassed 10 million subscribers worldwide, with more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and about 5.5 million in Asia.