World of Warcraft: Forever is Shattering Franchise Records - VICE

World of Warcraft: Forever is officially live and, less than a week after releasing, the new MMO experience is already making and breaking records for the World of Warcraft franchise.

World of Warcraft: Forever had a huge turnout for its beta window and even the team at Blizzard admitted they were surprised by the level of demand and positive attention the Classic+ experience was getting from the larger gaming community.

The official launch of World of Warcraft: Forever has now arrived and it seems like lots of new and old players loved want that saw during that beta window. After a huge turnout for the November 4 launch, World of Warcraft: Forever is now the largest WoW launch by concurrent players in the franchise’s history.

The Blizzard and World of Warcraft team took to social media over the weekend to celebrate a handful of the big achievements that the Forever launch managed to pull off.

“Another statistic is filling our hearts — we are seeing the most NEW players for a WoW launch in 15 YEARS!

Welcome all! We’re so happy you’re here experiencing Azeroth for the first time alongside those of us playing it for the first time…AGAIN”

This is a huge achievement and definitely helps prove that the WoW: Forever hype has broken containment of the Classic and Retail communities and spread out to the larger gamer ecosystem. It should be very interesting to see how long this playerbase sticks around and if gamers continue to enjoy the slower-paced, social-focused MMO experience that Forever has to offer.

Be sure to check back soon for lots more World of Warcraft: Forever news, updates, and guides as the game continues to grow.

World of Warcraft: Forever and World of Warcraft: Midnight are both available now on PC.