Best World of Warcraft expansions

22381 duels later, Legion holds #1 in the World of Warcraft expansion ranking with 1123 ELO points, Wrath of the Lich King close behind at 1116.

The fight for the top is tight: only 7 ELO points separate Legion from Wrath of the Lich King. But the sharpest drop happens lower, where an 83-point gap pushes Wrath of the Lich King away from Vanilla at rank 3. That distance suggests the community draws a clear line between Azeroth's golden age and its origins. Legion's narrow lead over Wrath of the Lich King confirms both expansions as fan favorites, while The Burning Crusade sits at rank 4 with 1009 ELO points. At the bottom, Shadowlands languishes at rank 10 with 733 points and a 32% win rate, trailing Warlords of Draenor and Dragonflight. The lower ranks reflect expansions that failed to capture the magic of earlier entries, locked in a struggle the community has judged harshly.

This ranking draws on 22381 duels cast by 1136 players across 10 contenders, updated on 10 October 2026. Legion and Wrath of the Lich King remain locked in a duel of their own at the top, while the gap after rank 2 marks where nostalgia and quality intersect in the minds of voters. Cast your own duels and shape the ranking: every vote shifts the balance.

Updated on October 10, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →