8 Video Games Built To Kill The Competition (That WON)
6. World Of Warcraft
Once upon a time, it seemed absolutely inconceivable that a new MMORPG could come along and dethrone the crowned kings of the genre - the likes of Ultima Online and Everquest, which dominated throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s.
But in 2004, World of Warcraft came along and sucked all the oxygen out of the room.
Blizzard's extremely accessible MMO became an overnight pop-culture phenom, basically serving as a gateway entry to the genre even for the most casual-minded of players.
In 2010, WoW peaked with an eye-watering 12 million subscribers, annihilating the all-time peaks of Ultima Online (250,000) and Everquest (550,000), both of which began their decline soon after WoW launched.
Even though many subsequent MMOs have been touted as "WoW killers" - namely Star Wars: The Old Republic and Final Fantasy XIV - the best a successful MMO can hope for these days is co-existence.
World of Warcraft's popularity has certainly waned somewhat, but it was still rocking 7 million subscribers as recently as this past March, proving that to the mainstream, it basically is the genre.