World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Cataclysm returns players to the two continents of Azeroth for most of their campaigning, after years away in Outland and Northrend. New zones opened such as Mount Hyjal, the sunken world of Vashj'ir…

89 7 December 2010

Role-playing (RPG) Fantasy Open world

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is a role-playing (rpg) developed by Blizzard Entertainment, released 7 December 2010 on Mac and PC (Microsoft Windows).

Verified 16 Oct 2026 Sources: IGDB , Wikipedia

What World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is a role-playing (rpg) game developed by Blizzard Entertainment and released in 2010. It was published by Activision Blizzard. It is available on Mac and PC (Microsoft Windows).

The premise, in the publisher's words

The central plot of the expansion is the return of the evil dragon aspect Deathwing the Destroyer (originally Neltharion the Earth Warder). Last seen in Warcraft II, which took place more than two decades earlier, Deathwing has spent that time healing himself, and plotting his fiery return from the elemental plane of Deepholm. His return tears through the dimensional barrier within Azeroth, causing a sweeping cataclysm that reshapes much of the world's surface. In the midst of the worldwide disaster comes renewed conflict between the Alliance and the Horde, which is now under the rule of Garrosh Hellscream. With the elemental realms now open to the world, chaotic elemental spirits and their…

Description from the publisher · source

How it plays

It is played from a third person perspective. Its themes are fantasy and open world.

Where it sits in the Warcraft series

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is the 18th of 69 entries we hold in the Warcraft series. It arrived a year after World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Call of the Crusade. The next entry was World of Warcraft: Cataclysm - Collector's Edition in 2010. Its critic score of 89 is 9 points above the series average of 80. The highest-rated entry is World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King at 97.

See all 69 Warcraft games in release order →

How it was received

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm holds a critic score of 89 out of 100. That places it above 91% of the 3,813 rated role-playing (rpg) games in our database, which average 73. Games released in 2010 averaged 70, so it scored 19 points above the year average. Players rate it 83, 6 points lower than critics did — a gap worth knowing about before you buy.

What it launched against

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm launched on 7 December 2010, within three weeks of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. It reviewed better than 3 of the 4.

Released around the same time: Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.

Cheats and codes

We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.

Know one? Send it in and we will test it →