If you’re looking to get into an MMORPG, World of Warcraft is probably the first game you think of. As a tried and true testament to the genre, this massive game has a history, a dedicated fanbase, and continuous as well as promising development. However, the modern version of a long-standing title may feel lackluster when compared to its glory days. World of Warcraft may have dominated in the early 2000s, but is that still true today?
If you’re new to the community of World of Warcraft, you may be on the fence as to whether you should take the jump in or not. If you have to pay for every day that you’re online, does the quality justify the cost? Like every MMO, your appetite to play will only build as you progress further into the game, making it easier to dive into an investment. Before you charge yourself for a monthly payment, let’s answer an important question: Is a WoW subscription worth it in 2023?
How much does it cost to play World of Warcraft?
The first point to address is likely the most important of all: the cost. World of Warcraft is a rich experience with tons of content to back it up. As time goes on, purchasing a subscription is only going to get more and more valuable, but is that enough to justify the way things are now? And for the new player, does the massive amount of content present an entirely different set of factors to consider when weighing out the worth?
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Let’s consider the price per month: $14.99. While you can purchase the subscription on a monthly timetable, there’s also the option for getting the subscription for longer stretches of time. It’s safe to say that WoW is more than just your standard, one-time purchase kind of game. After six months of gameplay, a subscription will run you almost $80 by the time you need to renew again. Now the question is, would playing WoW for that long be worth the price?
How can one tell if they’ve never played the game before? Luckily, WoW devs understand the perspective of the player. To get a better handle on how much that purchase means to you, World of Warcraft has a trial available that allows you to progress in the game all the way up to level 20. That way, if by level 20 you’re hooked, the decision is made easier. If you’re not too into it by then, then odds are the game isn’t for you in the long run. The expansions are also included, so if you do decide to go ahead with purchasing a subscription, you’ll get everything but the newest extension in the lineup.
How much time can new players expect to put into World of Warcraft?
Another factor to consider is just how much time you’ll be logging into the game once you start your subscription. How much time or energy do you have to commit to the game? Is it worth fifty cents a day to access it? The trial version of the experience can likely answer all these questions for you. However, trying to place some kind of hard and fast label on how long it takes to expend a game like World of Warcraft is pretty difficult, considering how big it is. With each expansion outside of the base game, hundreds of hours can be involved.
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With an estimated 40 hours for each extension, plus the main game, you’re looking at somewhere near 1000 hours of content. And that’s not counting what may come along in future updates. So if you have a high propensity to tear into games and conquer things quickly, you won’t be running out of content for WoW and can definitely get your money’s worth.
More modern expansions, such as Dragonflight or Shadowlands, have more robust content streams, making them almost entire games on their own merit.
Is World of Warcraft dying?
While World of Warcraft certainly isn’t what it used to be, the community at least agrees that, no, it isn’t dying. WoW is healthy and robust when it comes to the player base, having nearly 9 million active players each month. And that’s not even during the height of it all. If you count your gaming experience to be both gameplay and what you absorb through the community through social media and conversation with less active players, that kind of robust following is sure to be worth the time for those heartily invested.
Is World of Warcraft worth it in 2023?
When it comes down to it, the worth-ness of World of Warcraft is up to you. It helps, though, to look at the value you’re getting for a product, including the context of the product you’re experiencing. World of Warcraft is a very much alive, robust, and enjoyable game that even the most skilled MMO enthusiasts can dig hundreds, if not thousands of hours into. As a gamer, consider anything you’ve spent just short of $20 on in a month. Do you think those things would compare to a month of WoW gameplay? Getting involved in the trial version at least and participating in the game can help answer that question for you.
If you’re good at MMORPGs, you may even be able to lighten the cost of playing for yourself. WoW allows players to purchase game time using in-game currency through WoW Tokens. However, if you’re new to MMORPGs, or even just WoW in general, pulling that off may be daunting. With the internet at your disposal, there are plenty of ways to learn and plenty of time to do so before you have to pay for another subscription if you play your cards right.
World of Warcraft is an essential, classic MMORPG experience. Even just the base game was enough to create the vigorous community that upholds it today. Now with each subsequent expansion, the game just keeps on improving to revitalize what veteran players know and give more things for new players to learn. If you find WoW’s charm appealing, you’ll practically never run out of content to explore.
