Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is a real-time strategy game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was announced at ECTS on 5 September 1999, after Blizzard had cancelled the adventure game Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans in 1998, and it was released on 3 July 2002 in North America and 5 July 2002 in Europe. About 5,000 randomly chosen testers received the beta in January 2002.
It was Blizzard's first game rendered in three dimensions and introduced a day/night cycle to the series. Its World Editor let modders change almost any part of the game, and the Defense of the Ancients map built with it became the main inspiration for the multiplayer online battle arena genre.
The expansion The Frozen Throne followed on 1 July 2003. Warcraft III: Reforged, a remaster of both games, came out on 28 January 2020 to mixed reviews from critics and an overwhelmingly negative player response.12
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Warcraft III: Reign of ChaosWindows and Mac; same day in Australia. | Windows | Jul 3, 2002 | Blizzard Entertainment | 1 |
| EU | Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos | Windows | Jul 5, 2002 | Blizzard Entertainment | 1 |
| WW | Warcraft III: The Frozen ThroneExpansion. | Windows | Jul 1, 2003 | Blizzard Entertainment | 1 |
| JP | Warcraft III: Reign of ChaosYear from Russian Wikipedia; no further details on the Japanese release were found. | Windows | 2003 | — | 3 |
| WW | Warcraft III: ReforgedRemaster of Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne for Windows and macOS. | Windows | Jan 28, 2020 | Blizzard Entertainment | 2 |
Also known as: Warcraft III WW1Warcraft III: Reforged WW2
Box art by region
NA Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.
Version differences
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GraphicsPatch (2018)
Widescreen support arrived in an April 2018 patch, more than 15 years after release.1
-
GraphicsReforged
Reforged (2020) remodeled the characters and graphics; owners of the original get a free Classic graphics setting with the original textures.2
-
GameplayReign of Chaos (after 2020)
Blizzard forced all copies of Reign of Chaos to update to the Reforged client, so many Reforged gameplay changes became mandatory in the original too.2
Translations
-
Russian Official
Soft ClubWindowsReleased
Official Russian localization by Soft Club.3
How to run it today
According to PCGamingWiki, the retail version stays stable on modern systems after patching to 1.27b, the last standalone patch. Newer versions update to the Reforged client, whose 2024 update 2.0 added a Classic HD graphics switch and bundled the classic installer.
- Warcraft III on PCGamingWiki pcgamingwiki.com
Best version
The original has not been sold digitally since November 2018 in favor of Reforged; a retail key gives access to Reforged's classic mode.4
Reception
Metacritic 92/100. It shipped 4.4 million copies to retail and sold over a million within a month, the fastest-selling PC game at the time, and GameSpot named it game of the year. Reforged scored only 59/100 on Metacritic.1
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
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