I found this article in another thread to support a completely different claim / subject: http://www.wow.com/2009/04/09/nielsen-wow-is-most-played-core-game-by-25-54-females/  but note the following exerpt:

"Neilsen also calculated some base stats for WoW, including the fact that 1.8 million unique people played the game..." That means that of the "11.5 million subscribers" last reported by Blizzard, only 1.8 million are different people. The rest are second and third accounts and the like (assuming that this study is accurate). What's more, Blizzard's definition of subscriber DOES count multiple accounts from the same person (see the definition at the bottom of the most recent report, from December 2008: http://eu.blizzard.com/en/press/081223.html. They do a good job of telling you what does  constitute a subscriber when they calculate their numbers, and multiple accounts are not mentioned.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing WoW, there are many who think it's either a good game, or the best one out there at the moment. What I am saying, is that the "WoW is awesome, stop disagreeing with me because 11.5 million other subscribers agree with me so you must be wrong" argument is a load of trash, not only because the majority isn't always right, not only because the "fun quality" of WoW as an MMO is subjective, but now also because those numbers are stretched and falsified. There are 11.5 million paying accounts. There are 1.8 million paying customers (which is still impressive, but not nearly as much).

Someone will probably flame the hell out of me now, but I can't stand the "everyone's doing it" argument in the first place... much less so when it's largely insanely stretched truth... or altogether false.

Flame away.

Edit:

1.) I'm NOT NOT NOT bashing WoW. I've played on and off since closed beta. I have several alts and a lv 64 druid (I quit the summer before Lich King came out). It's not a bad game. In the past couple of weeks, I had been thinking about returning to it to play it with some friends. What I AM bashing is the "everyone does it" argument.

2.) I didn't read the PDF file. The article is actually talking about U.S. numbers. 

So?

Only thing i have to say is, 1.8 million is still a heck of a lot more than the other western mmos in the market.

You don't have to put forth that much effort to say that having a large amount of subscribers/followers doesn't make something good.  Look at Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers.  They have millions upon millions of followers, but they suck.  To their fans they are gods, but to many others they... just suck. 

Who cares about subs or followers anyway?  Especially when a server in WoW only holds a few thousand and you will never interact with more than that many players it really makes no difference besides making your e-peen bigger when arguing that your game is the best on the internet.

I didn't read it that carefully, but if I'm not mistaken, that would mean that the average player would have to have more than 6 accounts.

I know of a handful of people with 2 accounts, and not a single one with 3 or more.

It is a number often touted by WoW's fanbase in opposition to any criticism of the game.  That is has less value is somewhat amusing.

Somewhere, an alarm klaxon just went off, and Zorndorf is being awoken, changed from his Thrall pajamas, and being wheeled to a keyboard, so that he may redeem the honor of all that is WoW.

Just wait.  You shall reap the whirlwind.

Back on topic, I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up before, and that it's never occurred to me either.  Everyone that I know personally that plays WoW, all have multiple accounts, at least two, but a few have three or more.   

Originally posted by Draco91

 I found this article in another thread to support a completely different claim / subject: http://www.wow.com/2009/04/09/nielsen-wow-is-most-played-core-game-by-25-54-females/  but note the following exerpt:

 

"Neilsen also calculated some base stats for WoW, including the fact that 1.8 million unique people played the game..." That means that of the "11.5 million subscribers" last reported by Blizzard, only 1.8 million are different people. The rest are second and third accounts and the like (assuming that this study is accurate). What's more, Blizzard's definition of subscriber DOES count multiple accounts from the same person (see the definition at the bottom of the most recent report, from December 2008: http://eu.blizzard.com/en/press/081223.html. They do a good job of telling you what does  constitute a subscriber when they calculate their numbers, and multiple accounts are not mentioned.

 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing WoW, there are many who think it's either a good game, or the best one out there at the moment. What I am saying, is that the "WoW is awesome, stop disagreeing with me because 11.5 million other subscribers agree with me so you must be wrong" argument is a load of trash, not only because the majority isn't always right, not only because the "fun quality" of WoW as an MMO is subjective, but now also because those numbers are stretched and falsified. There are 11.5 million paying accounts. There are 1.8 million paying customers (which is still impressive, but not nearly as much).

 

Someone will probably flame the hell out of me now, but I can't stand the "everyone's doing it" argument in the first place... much less so when it's largely insanely stretched truth... or altogether false.

 

Flame away.

dude, 1.8 million IN THE UNITED STATES.  Did you read the article?  Huge wow population in Asia and other parts of the world, i believe over 5 million in Asia if i remember right.  

Originally posted by Draco91

 I found this article in another thread to support a completely different claim / subject: http://www.wow.com/2009/04/09/nielsen-wow-is-most-played-core-game-by-25-54-females/  but note the following exerpt:

 

"Neilsen also calculated some base stats for WoW, including the fact that 1.8 million unique people played the game..." That means that of the "11.5 million subscribers" last reported by Blizzard, only 1.8 million are different people. The rest are second and third accounts and the like (assuming that this study is accurate). What's more, Blizzard's definition of subscriber DOES count multiple accounts from the same person (see the definition at the bottom of the most recent report, from December 2008: http://eu.blizzard.com/en/press/081223.html. They do a good job of telling you what does  constitute a subscriber when they calculate their numbers, and multiple accounts are not mentioned.

 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not bashing WoW, there are many who think it's either a good game, or the best one out there at the moment. What I am saying, is that the "WoW is awesome, stop disagreeing with me because 11.5 million other subscribers agree with me so you must be wrong" argument is a load of trash, not only because the majority isn't always right, not only because the "fun quality" of WoW as an MMO is subjective, but now also because those numbers are stretched and falsified. There are 11.5 million paying accounts. There are 1.8 million paying customers (which is still impressive, but not nearly as much).

 

Someone will probably flame the hell out of me now, but I can't stand the "everyone's doing it" argument in the first place... much less so when it's largely insanely stretched truth... or altogether false.

 

Flame away.

I am quite sure that the 1.8 mil refers to North American WoW players and not worldwide. There are about 2mil active WoW accounts in North America.   Otherwise it would mean that there would be about  6 accounts per player which is a just not a realistic assertion.  Multiboxers with 5+ accounts are a rarity in the game. 

Its impossible for blizzard to know that 1 person pays for say 3 subscriptions (for what ever reason they would do so), WoW's numbers are accurate based on how blizzard say they count them.

Wotlk sold 2.8million in 24 hours and went on to sell 4 million in the first month (excluding china yet to have wotlk), pretty much backs up Blizzard claim of around 4.5-5million non chinese subs at the time.

so if 1.8million are unique players that means that every player pays for 2 or more subs... what a load of rubbish!

Edit: I just read the replies if its 1.8million in the US then yes its probably quite accurate, there are 240 US realms so 1.8million/240 = 7,500 subs per realms if every 1.8million sub logged on.

Originally posted by VirDan

It is a number often touted by WoW's fanbase in opposition to any criticism of the game.  That is has less value is somewhat amusing.

Who started this topic about WoW subs? was it a fanboy? I play with 5 friends, we are in a guild of 5.  we run 25 mans with a few other guilds.  I don't care how many people play WoW, I'm in it for a good time.  

Originally posted by Draco91

 There are 11.5 million paying accounts. There are 1.8 million paying customers

Too many people have problems seperating these two.  Just look at any pre-NGE SWG rant.  'NGE came along and X zillon players left'.  Well it wasn't players, it was accounts.  Get the verbage right is all I ask, because for a company be it Blizzard or SOE it's the paying accounts that matter.  1 guy with 10,000 accounts is worth more than 2 with 1 each from a financial viewpoint.

I thought I read somewhere they also count Chinese players in that number. The Chinese buy time cards for like a buck or two and that is counted as a subscription. That's  where the inflated numbers come from.

 Although I wonder how they managed to get an accurate  count of U.S. subs and no one else was able to. Hmm..

Originally posted by Eben

Somewhere, an alarm klaxon just went off, and Zorndorf is being awoken, changed from his Thrall pajamas, and being wheeled to a keyboard, so that he may redeem the honor of all that is WoW.

Just wait.  You shall reap the whirlwind.

Back on topic, I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up before, and that it's never occurred to me either.  Everyone that I know personally that plays WoW, all have multiple accounts, at least two, but a few have three or more.   

It's kinda annoying when posts like the OP make Zorndorf seem like the reasonable person who thinks before he posts, isn't it?

Originally posted by Torik

I am quite sure that the 1.8 mil refers to North American WoW players and not worldwide. There are about 2mil active WoW accounts in North America.   Otherwise it would mean that there would be about  6 accounts per player which is a just not a realistic assertion.  Multiboxers with 5+ accounts are a rarity in the game. 

/thread

I'm sorry Draco91, but the flaw is in your misunderstanding of what the articles are describing.

Blizzard claims 11.5 millions subscribers around the world.

The Nielsen article claims 1.8 million unique users in the United States.  It says nothing about the rest of the world.

You have come to a conclusion based on your own flawed understanding of what information you have.

Also, when people say "11.5 million people play wow" it is said with the understanding that a percentage of that number are made up of people with multiple accounts.  It is the same as when people say Warhammer has 300k users or any other subscriber claims of any game.  It just goes without saying that multiple account users are included in every claim of this nature. 

OP has to learn to read first.

The social study was for the United States ONLY, hence the 1.8 million people studied in that country.

Not including Canada, Central and South America etc.

Blizzard already confirmed back in 2008 that around 2.5 M were playing on NA Servers, so it fits. The United States is a big country but it is only one country even in the continent of America.

As for this: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?play=1&video=1154304274&__source=aol|headline|other|video|&par=aol

On CNBC the CEO of Blizzard said they had around 4.5 million Chinese "subs" playing on the free internet cafés.(June 2009).

So taking into account the latest known subs of June (before the 7 weeks downtime in China) was at 11.600.000.

It would mean that around 5 million play on EU/NA servers.

The rest is divided between other countries like Korea (800K), Taiwan (big increase since Chinese left for these WotlK servers), AU and the rest of the world....

To give one example: in 15 months time, Russian servers grew from 3 to 16. Normally they are not included on the EU serverpark (as their language prevents to view their proper names or log in).

EDIT, I CAN'T READ THEREFORE I SHOULDN"T POST.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

OP has to learn to read first.

The social study was for the United States ONLY, hence the 1.8 million people studied in that country.

Not including Canada, Central and South America etc.

Blizzard already confirmed back in 2008 that around 2.5 M were playing on NA Servers, so it fits. The United States is a big country but it is only one country even in the continent of America.

As for this: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?play=1&video=1154304274&__source=aol|headline|other|video|&par=aol

On CNBC the CEO of Blizzard said they had around 4.5 million Chinese "subs" playing on the free internet cafés.(June 2009).

So taking into account the latest known subs of June (before the 7 weeks downtime in China) was at 11.600.000.

It would mean that around 5 million play on EU/NA servers.

The rest is divided between other countries like Korea (800K), Taiwan (big increase since Chinese left for these WotlK servers), AU and the rest of the world....

 

 

Actually if you read the article he linked to, and follow to the article that it linked to, it notes that the information was taken from 184,000 computers worldwide.  Now while I don't believe the premise of the OP (simply because I don't believe there's any way that the average gamer has between 5 and 6 accounts) it does seem as if Nielsen is implying that it is worldwide.  Once again, however I don't think that's very accurate for the reason I've already stated.

Originally posted by sa1yaman

I'd call BS on claim that WoW (or any other MMO) has more subscribers in Eu then US.

LOL.

they have MORE EU servers than US servers. Just do the count.

And do the research before posting ... bs.

 To those of you saying the numbers are from U.S. only: The article I linked to is speaking of the number of female players in the U.S. being around 400,000, yes, but when it runs down to the part about the subscribers, it doesn't say, "1.8 million subscribers in the U.S." it says, "Neilsen also calculated some base stats for WoW, including the fact that 1.8 million unique people played the game". Base stats. For WoW. That means stats for the game, not the country. And while I don't think this was the issue, the Bliz article does specifically say 11.5 million worldwide.

To those that don't get my point, it is this: The argument that WoW must be a good game since 11.5 million people are playing it was an annoying load of crap in the first place. When you realize that the truth of the matter is that only 1.8 million different people subscribe, it gets even more ridiculous, and, hopefully, in light of this, people will embarrass themselves with this argument less often.

And no, the difference in subscriptions and players does not require that the average gamer have tons of accounts. Most WoW players do have at least 2 accounts. Several (including and especially the gold farmers / sellers) have stupid amounts of accounts (6+; the goldfarmers especially have to have tons so they can get around potential account banning from being caught). It's not that hard to imagine really. Even the average non-gold farmer has tons of accounts in Asia. I don't remember where, but there was data collected from the FFXI playerbase that showed that Japanese gamers had on average 2-3 times the number of characters as U.S. players, AND far more accounts. The average that people are trying to use here is coming from dividing the number of subs by the number of players. Which assumes that every player has the same number of accounts, which is absolutely untrue.

 That study is based on the 2.5M subscriptions in North America. So it sounds about right that there are 1.8m users with some having multiple accounts.

 I actually bothered to read the report, and according to it

"For electronic measurement of PC games, the Nielsen MegaPanel sample more than 185 000 US tracked PC's is used"

"Looking again at the December 2008 PC gamer data ... minutes week for a given player .... World of Warcraft come in at a close second with 744 minutes of average play per week per player and a staggering 1 210 848 male players in the U.S".

Based on that I'd say it's US only, not even Canada counted. Otherwise much less than 33% of WoW's players would be female, wich can't be the case since according to other statistics on the report:

428 621 unique female players aged 25-54 and 675 713 unique male players aged 25-54 played WoW on December 2008.

How is this any different than every other MMO?  Think when SOE says 500K they are talking individuals and not accounts?

Originally posted by Draco91

 To those of you saying the numbers are from U.S. only: The article I linked to is speaking of the number of female players in the U.S. being around 400,000, yes, but when it runs down to the part about the subscribers, it doesn't say, "1.8 million subscribers in the U.S." it says, "Neilsen also calculated some base stats for WoW, including the fact that 1.8 million unique people played the game". Base stats. For WoW. That means stats for the game, not the country. And while I don't think this was the issue, the Bliz article does specifically say 11.5 million worldwide.

 

To those that don't get my point, it is this: The argument that WoW must be a good game since 11.5 million people are playing it was an annoying load of crap in the first place. When you realize that the truth of the matter is that only 1.8 million different people subscribe, it gets even more ridiculous, and, hopefully, in light of this, people will embarrass themselves with this argument less often.

 

And no, the difference in subscriptions and players does not require that the average gamer have tons of accounts. Most WoW players do have at least 2 accounts. Several (including and especially the gold farmers / sellers) have stupid amounts of accounts (6+; the goldfarmers especially have to have tons so they can get around potential account banning from being caught). It's not that hard to imagine really. Even the average non-gold farmer has tons of accounts in Asia. I don't remember where, but there was data collected from the FFXI playerbase that showed that Japanese gamers had on average 2-3 times the number of characters as U.S. players, AND far more accounts. The average that people are trying to use here is coming from dividing the number of subs by the number of players. Which assumes that every player has the same number of accounts, which is absolutely untrue.

Where do you get the information that MOST WoW players have at least 2 accounts?  I've never seen any data released on this so you must be going by personal observation?  Since that is most likely the case I'll share mine.  My guild has roughly 160 people in it, and 1 of those has multiple accounts and even he only has 2.  I, however, would not extrapolate that to mean that only one person out of every 160 has multiple accounts because I'm sure it is likely more than that, but over half?  As my daughter is fond of saying "that's crazy talk."