Between 2004 and 2011, the human race collectively spent almost 6 million years playing World of Warcraft.

A 12 year old boy called Jørgen Olsen saved himself and his sister from a moose attack using skills he learned from World of Warcraft. Hans and his sister accidentally entered the moose's territory, and the moose attacked. Hans taunted the moose to take its attention away from his sister, and then proceeded to play dead, making the moose lose interest. In the game, 'Taunting' is used to get an enemy's attention, and 'Feign Death' tricks enemies into ignoring you.

Various screen-shots you take in the game have a secret watermark that contains data for your account ID, the time the screenshot was taken, and the IP and data of the server you were playing on. It's speculated that this was mainly used to identify and punish internal leaking of images during development.

In Un'Goro Crater there are two brothers called Larion and Muigin wearing plumbers' clothing, a reference to the Nintendo characters Mario and Luigi.

Azeroth had two moons until the release of The Burning Crusade, at which point one of them mysteriously vanished. The moon removed was known as the Blue Child. The Blue Child was put back into the game in the 2012 Mists of Pandaria expansion.

Azshara was originally meant to have hosted a 40-man battleground similar to Alterac Valley, the Azshara Crater. The entrance was located on the Forlorn Ridge. The files remain in the game, but the battleground will likely never be added.

Located southwest of the Crossroads in the Northern Barrens, the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior is a memorial to Michel Koiter, a Blizzard employee who died during the development of the classic game. The orc seen on the bier is a copy of his character from the WoW beta.

In the Ruins of Lordaeron, ghostly voices can be heard near the throne. The voices are supposed to be coming from King Terenas and Prince Arthas. If you go into the courtyard and use a spell to detect invisibility, you will see all the ghosts of the Lordaeron citizens. This is a reference to Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, where the king is killed by a possessed Arthas and the town was destroyed by monsters.

In Mulgore, there is a character by the name of Ahab Wheathoof, who gives you a quest to find his lost dog, Kyle. This character was actually created by a child by the name of Ezra Chatterton, who had brain cancer as a child. Ezra was able to go to Blizzard's offices thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and help design the character, who was also voiced by Ezra. Ezra also received the first Ashes of Al'ar, a phoenix mount, phoenix being both Ezra's middle name as well as his in-game name (Ephoenix). Ezra also helped create the Merciless Gladiator's Crossbow of the Phoenix, a crossbow that has the inscription of "Finely crafted to Ephoenix's specification." Unfortunately, Ezra suffered a stroke in August, 2008, and died on October 20th. As one last tribute, the elder that appears in Thunder Bluff during the Lunar Festival was renamed to Ezra Wheathoof.

Baelog, Eric and Olaf, the main protagonists of Blizzard's Lost Vikings series, appear in the dungeon Uldaman. Two items which you have to retrieve for them are the "Staff of Tsol" and the "Medallion of Gni'kiv" which when read backwards say "Lost Viking". As of Cataclysm, you can find these characters in the Badlands.

In the Borean Tundra, killing one of the mobs at the Fizzcrank Pumping Station will allow you to loot a quest item called 'the Ultrasonic Screwdriver' which will begin a quest with the same name. This is a possible reference to the 'sonic screwdriver' from the science fiction series "Doctor Who".

Upon death, Gara'jal the Spiritbinder from The Mists of Pandaria will say "Death be a doorway, an' time a window; I'll be back! AH-HAHAHAHAHAH!" This is a reference to the last words of Vigo the Carpathian from the film Ghostbusters II, "Death is but a door. Time is but a window. I'll be back."

Goblins defending the town-in-a-box during the Goblin origin story will occasionally make references to other games or media. After killing a zombie, there is a chance Goblin Survivors will yell out "Smoker" in reference to the Left 4 Dead game series. They may also yell "What do you think, Zombie kill of the week?" in reference to the movie Zombieland.

Ironband's Excavation Site contains a half-buried statue, similar to the statue of liberty. This appears to be a reference to Planet of the Apes.

There is an item in the game called MOLL-E, which references the Disney film "WALL-E".

As an April Fools joke in 2008, Blizzard unveiled a second hero class for Wrath of The Lich King, the Bard.

Players would use two-handed axes as guitars, with the interface resembling that used in music games such as Guitar Hero.

The two robots "Big Papa" and "Large Daddy" in the Stonetalon Mountains are references to the Big Daddy mini-bosses of the Bioshock series.

There are a number of items that are references to the Diablo series:

• A mace called "Wirt's Third Leg" is a reference to the peg-legged boy "Wirt" from Tristram.
• The Cow King's Hide Chest armor is a reference to the secret cow level in Diablo 2.
• It's possible to obtain a Mini Tyrael and a mini Diablo as pets.

Zhar'doom, Greatstaff of the Devourer, is a staff dropped by Illidan Stormrage. The staff is modeled after a Felhunter, which greatly resembles a Starcraft Zergling, and the "hero" Zergling unit is called "The Devouring One".

There is a picture of Infested Kerrigan from the Starcraft series on the screen of Goblin Shredder cockpits.