World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (2007)
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is a 2007 role-playing (rpg) video game made by Blizzard Entertainment.
The Burning Crusade was World of Warcraft's first expansion, opening a dimensional portal to Outland, the shattered remains of the orc homeworld Draenor. Players could now reach level 70, choose Blood Elves or Draenei as their race, and explore zones that were visually unlike anything in the base game. The expansion pushed the game's lore into cosmic territory, introducing the Burning Legion as the primary threat and setting up the mythology that would anchor WoW's story for the next decade.
Quick answers
What is World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade about?
The Burning Crusade was World of Warcraft's first expansion, opening a dimensional portal to Outland, the shattered remains of the orc homeworld Draenor. Players could now reach level 70, choose Blood Elves or Draenei as their race, and explore zones that were visually unlike anything in the base game. The expansion pushed the game's lore into cosmic territory, introducing the Burning Legion as the primary threat and setting up the mythology that would anchor WoW's story for the next decade.
When was World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade released?
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade was released on 15 January 2007.
Who made World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade?
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade was made by Blizzard Entertainment.
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A few thoughts on World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Warcraft: Day of the Dragon is the novel that first brought the Warcraft cosmos to prose, and its worldbuilding directly informs what The Burning Crusade builds on. Warcraft is the 2016 film adaptation that depicts the original war between Orcs and Humans.
Epic fantasy novels built around wars that span whole worlds
The Burning Crusade sends players through a shattered planet to face the Burning Legion, a threat Warcraft's own fiction had been building toward since Day of the Dragon. Brisingr and Oathbringer put similarly high-stakes wars in the hands of a chosen few, Wizard and Glass digs into the history behind an already-epic saga, and Redwall proves the format works at any scale, mice included.
Open worlds so big you could lose a weekend in them
The Burning Crusade turns Outland into a destination worth hundreds of hours of dungeons, raids and side quests, the same pull that keeps players inside The Witcher 3 and Skyrim long after the main story ends. Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto V build worlds just as dense to wander, and God of War's Norse realms reward the same instinct to explore every corner.
Fantasy TV built around wars between rival houses and realms
The Burning Crusade opens with a portal to another world and factions that don't trust each other even when they're technically allied, a dynamic House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones build entire seasons around. Avatar: The Last Airbender splits its world into elemental nations with their own long-running conflicts, and Hunter x Hunter keeps sending its cast into new, more dangerous territories the same way Outland does.
Epic, mythic music for a world under siege
The Burning Crusade's Outland zones lean into a scale that needs music to match, all cosmic dread and ruined grandeur. The Return of the King's score sets the bar for that kind of world-ending stakes, Painkiller and The Spectre Within bring the same weight in metal form, King Crimson reaches for a similarly mythic scope, and IX Equilibrium adds the darker edge Outland's demonic legions deserve.