World of Warcraft Cinematics
Every major World of Warcraft cinematic in release order – from the 2004 original to Midnight – with animated shorts, in-game cinematics and patch trailers.
Twenty years of World of Warcraft story, told through Blizzard's cinematics. Below you'll find the opening cinematic for every expansion plus animated shorts, in-game cinematics and patch trailers – numbered in release order, so you can watch the story from the start. Click any video to play it here.
World of Warcraft
2004The Burning Crusade
2007Wrath of the Lich King
2008–2009Cataclysm
2010–2011Mists of Pandaria
2012–2013Warlords of Draenor
2014–2015Part Three of Lords of War (Durotan) is missing because we couldn't find it on the official channel.
Legion
2016–2017Battle for Azeroth
2017–2019Shadowlands
2019–2020Dragonflight
2022–2023The War Within
2023–2025Midnight
2025–2026The last five are the newest Midnight videos; their exact order among themselves may differ slightly.
The Last Titan
Coming nextAll videos are official uploads from the World of Warcraft YouTube channel, embedded with YouTube's privacy-enhanced player.
Where to start
- New to the story? Watch the opening cinematics in order – they give you the big picture of each expansion in a few minutes.
- Want the characters? The animated shorts – Lords of War, Harbingers, Warbringers, Afterlives and Dragonflight Legacies – tell the backstories behind each expansion.
- Catching up on Midnight? Start with Intercession, then the Liadrin and Arator shorts, and finish with the newest Season 2 videos.
Reference page written by AI (Claude) and checked against the sources above. Games change with every patch – the patch this page was last checked for is shown at the top.