In early 2004, Blizzard announces that they will be releasing the fourth series of their popular game. Gamers all over were excited because people had come to expect very highly of the makers of the game. The hype the news created grew as the release date approached near. The excitement of the anticipation grew as the company announced that the new version of the game was going to be online and multi-player. There have been the online multi-player games before, but coming from Blizzard, it was sure to be a winner. And people knew it. They knew that the world of Azeroth was never going to be the same again. In March 2004, Blizzard selected a few game players and invited them to test the beta version of the release. The players like what they saw, and could play, and their reviews attracted more excitement to the wait of the final release.

In November 2004, the much awaited World of Warcraft was released. The hype of the game soared instead of settling down. Even after so much hype and expectations, it took the gamers by surprise. World of Warcraft has attracted new users to online gaming ever since its release, it still does so. In 2005 February, Blizzard release World of Warcraft's European version. The same year in June, they entered the potentially one of the largest market – China. Releases in other countries also followed the same year, and by 2005 end, the gamers of World of Warcraft reached record breaking five million.