Blizzard has announced that all World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth players are getting a substantial XP boost for a whole month. First released all the way back in in 2004, World of Warcraft has remained the most popular MMO games on the market. The revolutionary product blended the hardcore elements of Everquest with simplified, addicting mechanics which could get the more casual players interested. Since then, the game has had seven enormous expansions (with their most recent in 2018) and is aiming to release their eighth by the end of 2020.
While World of Warcraft's subscription numbers have been steadily dropping since 2010, the game always receives a large surge of subscribers with the launch of each new expansion. Even with a drop in players, the game's player base still dwarfs that of most other MMOs like Square Enix's Final Fantasy 14 and Bethesda's Elder Scrolls Online.
Blizzard posted the announcement of the XP boost on their official World of Warcraft website, writing, "Gain the Winds of Wisdom 100% experience buff through April 20." During this time, any character currently logged in will be able to gain experience at twice the normal rate. Ownership of the most recent expansion isn't required, however, due to the game's structure, it is recommended anyone jumping in buy the recent expansion anyway. Either way, both new players and returning ones will receive access to this World of Warcraft XP boost.
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth has been criticized by fans and critics. The expansion launched to middling praise from critics and a negative reception from fans who were expecting something as expansive and content-rich as Blizzard's prior expansion, Legion. Instead, many of the systems that were introduced in Legion were either removed or gutted of their complexity and depth. Classes especially saw changes which homogenized their playstyles and rived them of their uniqueness. Due to this negative reception from long-time fans, Blizzard, at Blizzcon 2019, announced that they will be taking steps to improve many of the systems that have plagued the modern game for years now. They will be adding more class depth into the game and, according to them, removing the crippling layers of randomization that have ensconced World of Warcraft in its recent expansions.
While this XP boost does not apply to World of Warcraft Classic players, it doesn't seem as though they are phased. Classic released in August of 2019 and was perhaps the most successful launch of a Blizzard title in years. The game still has a lively player base and, if anyone craves an old-school experience that isn't begotten to archetypal modern video game systems (such as microtransactions and randomization) perhaps Classic would be more appealing. With that said, the retail version of World of Warcraft: Battle For Azeroth still sees millions of players and will most likely jump up to almost ten million active subscriptions come their next World of Warcraft expansion, Shadowlands, and there's no better way to get prepared for Shadowlands' release than by utilizing this XP bonus.
Source: Blizzard