Blizzard's World of Warcraft series has sold 8.6 million units to date, according to NPD data.

 

The number incorporates the base World of Warcraft and Collectors Edition, as well as the expansion pack bundle Battle Chest and two standalone expansions, The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, reports Gamasutra; every game in the series released since its launch in November 2004.

At retail, the core game sells for an average of USD 19.95, and expansions and compilations up to USD 39.95.

These figures follow the news that The Sims 3 sold more than 800,000 copies in its first month at US retail. Overall, the EA series is the best-selling franchise of all time, having shifted over 100 million games worldwide.

Meanwhile, Activision Blizzard's most recent World of Warcraft subscriber figures revealed 11.5 million users are signed up to the game, with those located in the US paying USD 15 a month to play online.

With the recent operator transition in China causing extended server downtime for the game however, the userbase is likely to have diminished, which could negatively impact on subsequent subscriber counts.

- Kath Brice, Game Industry Biz

So what do you guys think about this one? I know there has been A LOT of talk on the forums lately about no numbers being annouced. There is still a lot of questions about China's numbers, but without the final word by Blizzard at least this gives us an idea about the U.S. numbers.

My personal guess is that only 5.5-6mil are actually still active accounts. Especially with all the hacking that has gone on lately. I had my account hacked recently and I have to send in a faxed form to get it recovered. I have friends in the same position.

You can read about it here

Sims 3 ftw

That is still an impressive amount of units sold but as far as subscribers it really is anyone's guess. My guess is that the less you hear from Blizzard about subscriber accounts you can probably guess they have lost a significant amount of subscribers.

5 million subscribers is still VERY good by anyone's standard, past or present. Heck, future games would love to get 1 million steady.

Combine 10 of the top 10 MMOS and add up ALL of their "active" subscriptions and see if you get even 5 million. (You won't)

I can't believe someone actually phrased a discussion about WoW subs in a framework by saying "ONLY 5.5-6 million are still active", lol.

Hacking may be an issue with some, but people will play Wow for a LONG time to come regardless. The discussion about numbers will be quiet when they release their Q1 sales, so those waiting to say "WoW is dead" can get their rhetoric ready, only to be shot down once again.

I'm willing to bet that no MMO will overtake WoW by the time they get their recently announced movie made. And that's at least two years from now.

It seems like you're doing a covert hit job on WoW the way you posted.

Originally posted by popinjay

5 million subscribers is still VERY good by anyone's standard, past or present. Heck, future games would love to get 1 million steady.

 

Combine 10 of the top 10 MMOS and add up ALL of their "active" subscriptions and see if you get even 5 million. (You won't)

 

 

I can't believe someone actually phrased a discussion about WoW subs in a framework by saying "ONLY 5.5-6 million are still active", lol.

 

 

Hacking may be an issue with some, but people will play Wow for a LONG time to come regardless. The discussion about numbers will be quiet when they release their Q1 sales, so those waiting to say "WoW is dead" can get their rhetoric ready, only to be shot down once again.

 

 

I'm willing to bet that no MMO will overtake WoW by the time they get their recently announced movie made. And that's at least two years from now.

 

 

It seems like you're doing a covert hit job on WoW the way you posted.

 

 

Eh, Aion is already doing great, and has yet to hit EU/US.  While I won't slam wow because it has numbers, and is a decent game, you should step off your high horse.

Originally posted by popinjay

 

 

 

It seems like you're doing a covert hit job on WoW the way you posted.

 

 

Does it occur to you he is more likely saying "only 5.5-6 million active left" in comparison to the 11+million they had not very long ago?

5 million is indeed an impressive number, and nowhere do I see him taking away from that.

and the sims is still kicking every other game in the worlds collective ass.  god something about that game...

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Originally posted by Zorvan

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Originally posted by popinjay

 
 
 

It seems like you're doing a covert hit job on WoW the way you posted.
 
 

---

 
Does it occur to you he is more likely saying "only 5.5-6 million active left" in comparison to the 11+million they had not very long ago?
5 million is indeed an impressive number, and nowhere do I see him taking away from that.

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Gee. no. That NEVER occured to me. /facepalm

He still threw up a lot of other things that shows his seeming displeasure with Wow. While that's anyone's right, the flavor of the post is more like "Wow is having problems because me and some people I know had problems. And now they are down to ONLY 5 million subs left."

He's not flaming Wow by any means, but he certainly looks like he's laying a primrose path for people to follow.

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Originally posted by Swanea

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Originally posted by popinjay

5 million subscribers is still VERY good by anyone's standard, past or present. Heck, future games would love to get 1 million steady.
 
Combine 10 of the top 10 MMOS and add up ALL of their "active" subscriptions and see if you get even 5 million. (You won't)
 
 
I can't believe someone actually phrased a discussion about WoW subs in a framework by saying "ONLY 5.5-6 million are still active", lol.
 
 
Hacking may be an issue with some, but people will play Wow for a LONG time to come regardless. The discussion about numbers will be quiet when they release their Q1 sales, so those waiting to say "WoW is dead" can get their rhetoric ready, only to be shot down once again.
 
 

I'm willing to bet that no MMO will overtake WoW by the time they get their recently announced movie made. And that's at least two years from now.
 
 

It seems like you're doing a covert hit job on WoW the way you posted.
 
 

---

 
Eh, Aion is already doing great, and has yet to hit EU/US.  While I won't slam wow because it has numbers, and is a decent game, you should step off your high horse.

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Umm.. what EXACTLY are you talking about here? /boggle

What high horse?

Originally posted by popinjay

 

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Originally posted by Zorvan

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Originally posted by popinjay

 

 
 
 

It seems like you're doing a covert hit job on WoW the way you posted.
 
 

---

 

 
Does it occur to you he is more likely saying "only 5.5-6 million active left" in comparison to the 11+million they had not very long ago?
5 million is indeed an impressive number, and nowhere do I see him taking away from that.

---

 

Gee. no. That NEVER occured to me. /facepalm

 

He still threw up a lot of other things that shows his seeming displeasure with Wow. While that's anyone's right, the flavor of the post is more like "Wow is having problems because me and some people I know had problems. And now they are down to ONLY 5 million subs left."

 

He's not flaming Wow by any means, but he certainly looks like he's laying a primrose path for people to follow.

 

The point is the speculation about how many subs WoW has left. The generally accepted rough estimate is that "half" the WoW subs are Chinese gold farmers. Well, most people use it in a sarcastic or joking manner, but it's probably pretty accurate.

11.5 million divided by 2 equals roughly 5 million. So, that's most likely where he got his guess from. And yes, he said "only" because he was comparing it to 11.5 million. While it's still impressive, it also isn't as much as 11.5 million.

If he took out the little segment about what happened to his account, you wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

...

Never mind.

I'm probably the only one seeing ghosts in his post where there are none at all.

I don't wish to monopolize and I'm sure he doesn't need any more defending what he wrote.

Carry on with the thread discussion, please. :)

EDIT: One thing I will say regarding the hack he mentioned. If he or anyone visited Curse.com (where they have all those juicy mods for Wow and other games) they may have picked this nasty thing up which was recently identified as "critical". That could account for the hacks in quite a few games since most mods from MMOs are from Curse.

I'd advise anyone with that problem to check it out at Adobe. It's pretty ugly.