World of Warcraft subscription numbers have reached 7.4m ahead of next month’s release of the Warlords of Draenor expansion, Blizzard has said. This is despite the developer saying in August that it didn’t expect numbers to grow again.

The news will come as no surprise to many - MMOs often see a swelling in player numbers prior to and immediately following a major expansion - but it’s still good news for the game. While WoW boasted 7.6m back at the end of March, by the end of June that figure had shrunk to 6.8m. At it’s peak in 2010, over 12m people were paying a monthly fee to play the game.

Set for release on November 13, Warlords of Draenor marks the fifth major expansion to Blizzard’s long-running MMO (following The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria). It sees players returning to the world of Draenor in an effort to stop an invasion of Azeroth by the Iron Horde, who have travelled through the Dark Portal from an alternate reality where the Sundering hasn’t happened (it’s complicated).

The expansion raises the player level cap to 100, adds a new pre-sundering version of Draenor to the list of playable areas, and the implementation of Garrisons. Garrisons are a form of player housing which can be developed over time and used to recruit NPC heroes to fight by your side or venture out on missions. There’s also the usual assortment of new dungeons and raids, as well as re-designed versions of previous dungeons, including Upper Blackrock Spire.

In addition, WoD sees Blizzard making far-reaching changes to World of Warcraft‘s underlying mechanics, and many of the playable races have received visual overhauls to their appearance and animations. Many of these changes are already live since the release of patch 6.0.2, which was released for download yesterday in North America and earlier today in Europe.

For more on Warlords of Draenor, you can read Heather’s hands-on preview of the game here.

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Dale Morgan

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When Dale isn't crying over his keyboard about his never-ending workload, he's playing games - lots of them. Dale has a particular love for RPGs, Roguelikes and Metroidvanias.

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