10 Most Influential Video Game Sequels Of All Time

Warcraft III introduced a few new ideas that have since been widely adopted within the genre, but for the most part it largely sticks to the core formula laid down by Dune II a decade prior.

Thanks to its online multiplayer however, Warcraft III has had a huge and long-lasting legacy within the gaming industry.

Starting out as a fan made mod, Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) introduced an online multiplayer mode that pits two players against each other with the objective of destroying their opponents ‘Ancient’, a heavily guarded structure at the opposing corner of the map. Thanks to the efforts of often unpaid developers it quickly gained in popularity to the point where developers Blizzard themselves began hosting official tournaments.

This eventually paved the way for the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre to become one of the most popular in gaming. International tournaments are a regular fixture on the schedule, and the games official sequel DOTA 2 is the biggest of the lot.

Live events are regularly streamed across a variety of social media platforms, attracting huge numbers of viewers and making superstars of the world's best players, for whom gaming is now their full time job.

It all started with Warcraft III.