WoW: Classic

Blizzard Entertainment released World of Warcraft Classic in August 2019, using the 1.12 "Drums of War" patch as its foundation. This aimed to recreate the authentic "vanilla" experience prior to the release of the first expansion, The Burning Crusade.

To handle massive launch crowds, Blizzard implemented temporary "layers" within individual servers, meaning multiple instances of a zone existed simultaneously to prevent overcrowding. This system was controversial as it allowed players to exploit mob spawns, but Blizzard eventually removed it as populations stabilized.

While it strictly avoids modern features like transmogrification or the random group finder, Classic integrates essential right-click reporting and the modern anti-cheat system (Warden). Blizzard also updated the max player cap per realm to prevent severe login queues.

Following the success of vanilla Classic, Blizzard added progression servers that eventually moved into "The Burning Crusade" and "Wrath of the Lich King." Players were given the choice to permanently keep their characters on "Era" realms or advance to the expansion servers.