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It’s almost an unspoken rule in the gaming industry that if a game is doing well on one console, it might do well on another. Granted, not everyone goes this route, as exclusives do still matter to some publishers, but in recent times, we’ve seen the majority of companies do the multiplatform approach to ensure that they make the most profit from their games. However, in the case of Microsoft, one of its biggest acquisitions, World of Warcraft, remains solely on PC, and many are wondering if it’ll ever come to Xbox Series X. We’ll break down the possibility of this and what rumors or reports suggest that this could happen.
#1 – Could This Actually Happen?
Let’s start off with the obvious question first. “Could World of Warcraft actually come to Xbox?” The simple answer is: yes. After all, there are multiple consoles, including Xbox Series X, that have supported MMORPGs in the past and are even successful in their own right. The other thing to consider here is Xbox Game Pass, which is, at the moment, the “crown jewel” of the Xbox brand.
Just as important is that while the MMO isn’t as popular as it once was, the title still averages around 7 million a year on PC. In theory, the game could grow its fanbase through a port to consoles. So, with Activision Blizzard now officially being owned by Microsoft, the potential is there. However, whether it actually happens is another story entirely.
Arguably, one of the biggest challenges for Activision Blizzard, and Xbox by extension, is getting the game and its servers onto Xbox Series X. It’s not an impossible challenge, but since the game has been on PC for so long and never been ported to any console ever, that will be quite a shift. Plus, as anyone porting games from PC to console and vice versa will tell you, you must adapt the game to ensure that it not only works properly, but that the gameplay and flow of the title aren’t interrupted or hindered by the change in “venue.”
That might sound odd from a gamer’s perspective, but depending on the games you’ve played, you might know of a title that had a “terrible PC port,” or absolutely “plays better on PC than it did on console.” It all depends on what the team behind the project does and how dedicated they are to making things as perfect as possible.
Again, it is totally within the realm of possibility for the World of Warcraft console port to happen, but it’s not been stated that it’s happening…yet.
#2 – Rumors And Reports Of It Happening
Now let’s get to the other big question: “Has there been any indication that this will happen in the future?” The answer this time isn’t so simple.
You see, early in 2025, an email went out that seemed to tease that World of Warcraft was indeed coming to Xbox Series X via Xbox Game Pass. As you can imagine, as word of this spread, many people wondered if this would actually happen, or if this was some kind of “bait email.” As it turned out, neither of those options was correct, as the official handles for Xbox Game Pass and the Xbox brand itself went online to make it clear that this was a mistake. You can see the tweet below:
So, on that front, things were outright denied, and that was arguably for the best, as the last thing you need is to fill your gamer base with false hope of something that’s not occurring anytime soon.
Since then, though, there have been rumors about whether Xbox and Microsoft will “pull the trigger” and make it happen, but again, nothing official has been noted about it, and it’s been months since this fake announcement went out.
There’s one other thing that is arguably holding back this console port from happening, though.
#3 – The State of Xbox
Allow us to be completely blunt here to end things. Xbox right now, despite all its comments to the contrary, isn’t doing great. We can back that up, too, and in various ways. First, the sales of the Xbox Series X are terrible and aren’t even close to its main competitor, the PS5. The latest sales numbers have it just over 28 million units, and the console has been out since 2020. To further highlight how bad that is, the recent launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 had just under 6 million units sold in 25 days.
Further compounding things are its software sales, where, while it has had some hits since launch, things have been going so badly for the Xbox Series X that many of its once exclusive titles have gone to PS5…where they sold incredible numbers without much issue, due to the PS5’s larger user base. Just in the case of Call of Duty, which is made by Activision Blizzard, which is owned by Microsoft, the latest entry sold FAR more on PS5 than it did on Xbox Series X, even with the “Day One Game Pass” inclusion.
They have also been dealing with massive layoffs recently, with Microsoft all but “cleaning house” with certain teams and even shutting down whole studios.
Given all that, you have to wonder why they would even bother bringing World of Warcraft to Xbox. As we noted earlier, it would be a challenge to make it all work and work smoothly, which would cost them time and money, and then, even if it did drop on the platform, it’s not a guarantee it would sell.
We can prove that in another way, too, as MMORPGs don’t have the greatest track records on consoles, regardless of the console itself. Only a few games have managed to “break through,” and even then, PC is still the dominant destination for the genre.
With everything we’ve shown and highlighted, it’s clear that while World of Warcraft could come to console, it’s not likely to do so for various reasons.
