10 Greatest Spin-Offs In Video Games

Other spin-offs on this list may have surpassed their forebears, but World of Warcraft is the only entrant that managed to utterly destroy them. While the demise of the Warcraft RTS series was an unfortunate by-product of WoW's success, it's hard to argue against the results.

In its late-noughties/early tens' heyday, Word of Warcraft was a cultural phenomenon. An overtly nerdy fantasy RPG soon became part of the zeitgeist, reaching its peak of mainstream acceptance in South Parks' legendary parody episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft". Even now, with WoW's relevance diluted thanks to time and the disastrously poor movie adaptation, it still stands head and shoulders above every other MMORPG in terms of popularity.

For a fifteen year-old subscription-based game to not only be surviving but thriving in 2020 is frankly astonishing. With the release of its eighth expansion pack on the horizon and the release of WoW Classic bringing back those who long for simpler (read: murderously difficult) times, World of Warcraft looks set to continue its role as gaming's MMOnolith for a long time to come.

(Side note: 'MMOnolith should be read in the same way Unreal Tournament's announcer declared "Mmmmuh-muh-monster kill.)

...

Oh crap! We forgot about Unreal Tournament!