1. WoW was based off the RTS game Warcraft, a game series which already had a massive following at the time of WoW's release in 2004. While WoW is a completely different game to Warcraft, it stayed true to its roots in many regards, including Warcraft's lore and characters.
2. Immersive world - WoW is notorious for having a massive world and very expansive lore. The world is so big that it would take a ridiculous amount of time to be able to explore all of it. Players especially love the fact that even in very remote, desolate areas of the WoW universe, you will encounter many different, interesting non-player controlled characters with rich back stories. It is evident that the development team spent a lot of time and resources on developing the characters and if you simply google any character you'll find their back stories and whole history.
3. Cater to everyone - Another reason I think WoW has been so successful because it doesn't only cater to a specific group of players. It has content which caters to every crowd, no matter if they are casual players or hardcore players, PvE'ers or Pvp'ers. There are plenty of quests and exploration available for casual players as well as easy mode dungeons and raids which allows them to see the content and the lore/story but do not take up too much time. Meanwhile, there are heroic and mythic mode dungeons and raids suited for hardcore players. There are also plenty of content available to those who enjoy engaging in PvP combat, with battlegrounds, rated battlegrounds, WPvP, arena and more.
4. Endless things to do - WoW offers players more than enough to do to keep them occupied. Players can work on character progression, or professions or exploring new zones and doing those quest. The bottom line is that if you look, there is something to do to prevent you from being bored.
5. The community - Often times in WoW, you will find a sense of community and comradery with fellow players, especially those on the same faction as you. Players will often help you with quests and dungeons when they see you having trouble with them. They will also likely alert you to the presence of danger in the case that they see enemies ahead. Especially back in the earlier expansions you would so easily make so many friends that you likely will be running around with a full friends' list.
6. Expansions to bring new content and new zones - Over the course of WoW's life, we've seen a pattern regarding the subscription numbers of WoW. At the beginning of a new expansion, we often see a massive spike in subscription numbers, mainly contributed by old, returning players wanting to experience the new content. Then, we will see a slow decline in those numbers until a new expansion is released and the cycle begins anew.
7. Constant updates and rebalances - Blizzard Entertainment has a big development team which helps release new patches and constant rebalancing of classes as well as dungeons and raids. This allows classes to feel relatively even in terms of both PvP and PvE.
The above 7 reasons are why I believe has been so successful. They simply offered gamers what usually wasn't found in traditional MMORPG's. They used their already successful franchise of Warcraft to create an MMO that differentiated from the masses which has then allowed them to garner a playerbase which is loyal to the franchise.
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