World of Tanks

Publisher: Wargaming · Creator: Victor Kislyi (CEO)

🔗Official site

Anecdote

Launched in August 2010 by the Belarusian studio Wargaming, World of Tanks turns the dream of generations of wargamers into a massive reality: commanding armored vehicles from the interwar period through to prototypes of the 1950s, in fifteen-versus-fifteen battles on maps inspired by European, African, and Asian landscapes. Founder Victor Kislyi, himself the son of a military historian, entrusted the design to director Sergei Burkatovskiy, who visited tank museums in Kubinka, Saumur, Bovington, and Aberdeen to collect blueprints and photographs. The catalog offers more than six hundred historical vehicles organized into national technology trees representing the Wehrmacht, the Red Army, the U.S. Army, the French, British, Japanese, Chinese armies, and many others. Each tank is modeled with its original specifications — armor thickness, gun caliber, engine, turret rotation speed — and subjected to a differential penetration system based on the angle of impact. An average battle lasts between seven and fifteen minutes, an ideal format for short sessions, yet one that accumulates tens of thousands of hours for veteran community members. The free-to-play model funded by microtransactions has attracted more than one hundred and sixty million registered accounts worldwide, and the game holds several Guinness World Records for simultaneous server traffic on its Russian servers. Wargaming has for decades maintained partnerships with Western military museums, funding the restoration of rare armored vehicles and sponsoring the Tankfest event at Bovington. Seasonal modes such as Battle of Berlin or Frontline regularly refresh the experience. World of Tanks spawned an entire family — World of Warships, World of Warplanes — and shaped the very concept of the free-to-play competitive historical game. It remains the benchmark of the genre.

Popularity & reception

Awards — Guinness World Records – largest number of simultaneous players on an MMO server (2011, 2013) · Golden Joystick – Best MMORPG nominated (2011)

🚩 Soviet Union🇩🇪 Germany🇺🇸 United States🇬🇧 United Kingdom🇫🇷 France🇯🇵 Japan