--- title: Leeroy Jenkins Meme is 10 Years Old description: The World of Warcraft meme went viral after the video was uploaded in 2005 canonical: https://time.com/3855242/leeroy-jenkins-world-of-warcraft-meme/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-12T13:17:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:19:40.230Z og:title: Leeroy Jenkins Meme is 10 Years Old og:description: The World of Warcraft meme went viral after the video was uploaded in 2005 og:url: https://time.com/3855242/leeroy-jenkins-world-of-warcraft-meme/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb8bd8aa2301d0b3/6987ef5b0b72e33fbf6e1ff8/world-of-warcraft.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: An advertisement for the ''World of Warcraft'' game, produced by Activision Blizzard Inc., a video-game publishing unit of Vivendi SA, is displayed at a store in Paris, France og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Leeroy Jenkins Meme is 10 Years Old twitter:description: The World of Warcraft meme went viral after the video was uploaded in 2005 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb8bd8aa2301d0b3/6987ef5b0b72e33fbf6e1ff8/world-of-warcraft.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The World of Warcraft Leeroy Jenkins Meme is 10 Years Old by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan May 12, 2015 1:17 PM UTC  An advertisement for the ''World of Warcraft'' game, produced by Activision Blizzard Inc., a video-game publishing unit of Vivendi SA, is displayed at a store in Paris, France, on May 12, 2012. An advertisement for the ''World of Warcraft'' game, produced by Activision Blizzard Inc., a video-game publishing unit of Vivendi SA, is displayed at a store in Paris, France, on May 12, 2012.Fabrice Dimier—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan May 12, 2015 1:17 PM UTC Forty-three million [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBU) hits later, the legendary World of Warcraft meme Leeroy Jenkins is now 10 years old. The meme evolved from a video of a group of WoW players planning a raid when one player, known as Leeroy Jenkins, went rogue and spoiled the raid. The video, uploaded in May 2005, went viral before “going viral” was really even a thing. It was alluded to on TV shows including _My Name is Earl_ and in movies like _Wreck-it-Ralph_. There were spinoffs on YouTube and a hit on _South Park_. And yet, one question remains—was the whole thing staged? According to the real-life Leeroy, Ben Schultz, it’s up to the viewer to decide. Check out the video below (warning: video contains strong language). Learn more at [Know Your Meme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj2hOrjGSuw). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3855242/leeroy-jenkins-world-of-warcraft-meme/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3855242/leeroy-jenkins-world-of-warcraft-meme/"},"headline":"The World of Warcraft Leeroy Jenkins Meme is 10 Years Old","datePublished":"2015-05-12T13:17:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:19:40.230Z","description":"The gaming meme went viral after the video was uploaded in 2005","url":"https://time.com/3855242/leeroy-jenkins-world-of-warcraft-meme/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","memes"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb8bd8aa2301d0b3/6987ef5b0b72e33fbf6e1ff8/world-of-warcraft.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb8bd8aa2301d0b3/6987ef5b0b72e33fbf6e1ff8/world-of-warcraft.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"An advertisement for the ''World of Warcraft'' game, produced by Activision Blizzard Inc., a video-game publishing unit of Vivendi SA, is displayed at a store in Paris, France","caption":"An advertisement for the ''World of Warcraft'' game, produced by Activision Blizzard Inc., a video-game publishing unit of Vivendi SA, is displayed at a store in Paris, France","creditText":"Fabrice Dimier—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3855242/leeroy-jenkins-world-of-warcraft-meme/","name":"The World of Warcraft Leeroy Jenkins Meme is 10 Years Old"}}]}] ```