World of Warcraft’s Leeroy Jenkins is now 20 years old, and online gaming never got better

One of the most iconic gaming memes of all time, Leeroy Jenkins, is now 20 years old. It’s been two whole decades since the crunchy, low-res video jumped from forum to forum and took the world by storm.

It was the era of Homestar Runner, Red vs Blue, Penny Arcade, Dorkly and Windows Movie Maker AMVs. While nearly all of these are gone—keep on, Homestar—World of Warcraft is still going strong with not only major updates like Undermine, but also the rise of WoW Classic.

For the three people who aren’t aware, the beloved internet video is a comedic skit involving a raid guild preparing for a fight to earn the titular Leeroy some new armour. As the team gets ready, the character runs into battle screaming “Leeerooooy Jeeeenkiiinsss” before messing up the entire plan for everyone.

The Leeroy Jenkins meme, despite all its prominence, is still a classic. In the decades since, the character has been included as an NPC in WoW, was an official WoW TCG card and an official miniature for the board game. There’s an achievement in the MMO, he’s in Hearthstone, he’s been references in sitcoms and movies—the meme is so recognisable it has been referenced by the United States congress.

We may be a day late to celebrate the video—the original was released on May 11, 2005—but it’s a meme worth celebrating. Leeroy Jenkins marks a time in the world where the gaming industry was still evolving: battle passes hadn’t turned every online game into a forever game, EA hadn’t forced microtransactions into single-player titles, YouTube was filled with fun videos like this instead of culture war crap and MMOs felt sociable.

MMORPGs don’t really feel the same as they did back in 2005. 20 years ago, the freshness of the genre meant that everyone was talking, everyone was helping each other, and everyone was excited to be there. Now, MMOs don’t quite have that spark any more—there’s a lot more isolation and just less of a sense of adventure.

That’s not to say MMOs are bad now, it’s just an evolution of culture. It’s the same outside of MMOs as well. In Halo 2, everyone was excited to just be playing the game together, to experience multiplayer with randos around the world. You’d turn up in a warthog and wait for players to hop in, humming the RvB driving music as you all drove into instant death. Now, players just get in a car and drive off—it’s a tool not an experience.

As Leeroy Jenkins turns 20, maybe it’s time we tried to rediscover that passion of early MMOs and early online gaming, especially as damn-near every game seemingly needs to be online. Maybe, one day, we’ll get another meme on the level of the GOAT again.