World of Warcraft now FREE to download – but subscription fee remains
Gamers can now download World of Warcraft in its entirety for nothing as Blizzard prepares for latest expansion
WORLD OF WARCRAFT is now free to download for anyone who wants it.
The 14-year-old massively multiplayer online game isn't becoming free to play, though -- it will still require gamers to pay a subscription fee to take a character past the first 20 of the game's 110 levels.
Blizzard announced today that it was dropping the price of entry for the game and its six existing expansions ahead of the launch of expansion number seven, Battle For Azeroth.
If you want to experience the content in Battle for Azeroth, however, when it comes out next month.
Subscription fees are currently , down to £52.14 or £8.69 a month if you buy it in six-month chunks.
If you're a new player who wants to pick up the habit, then you can get the new , which includes one month's subscription and a boost to top level for one character.
World of Warcraft first came out in 2004, with expansions released roughly every two years since Burning Crusade first extended the world and raised the level cap in January 2007.
Over 100 million World of Warcraft accounts have been created since launch, with the game peaking at 12 million active subscribers in October 2010. shortly before the launch of third expansion Cataclysm.
That number had fallen to just over 5 million by end 2015, the most recent date for which accurate data is available.
It isn't clear if Battle for Azeroth will eventually be included in the free download package when the inevitable eighth expansion rolls around in 2020, but we've asked Blizzard for clarification.
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