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World of Warcraft News - Over 10,000,000 Served

Posted by Keith Cross on Jan 22, 2008  | 61 comments in our forums

Blizzard has announced that the subscriber base for their wildly popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft, has now topped the 10 million benchmark.

Subscriber base for Blizzard Entertainment®s massively multiplayer online role-playing game now exceeds 2.5 million in North America, while Europe passes the 2 million mark

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that subscribership for World of Warcraft®, its award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), has continued to climb, recently passing 10 million worldwide. Interest in the game has remained high in all regions, with thousands of new and returning players signing up through the holiday season. World of Warcraft now hosts more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and approximately 5.5 million in Asia.

Its very gratifying to see gamers around the world continuing to show such enthusiasm and support for World of Warcraft, said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. Were always pleased to welcome new players to the game, and were looking forward to sharing the next major content update with the entire community in the months ahead.

Since debuting in North America on November 23, 2004, World of Warcraft has become the most popular MMORPG around the world. It was the bestselling PC game of 2005 and 2006 worldwide, and finished behind only World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade®, the first expansion pack for the game, in 2007.* In addition to being the bestselling PC game of 2007 in both North America and Europe, The Burning Crusade holds the record for fastest-selling PC game of all time, with nearly 2.4 million copies sold in its first 24 hours of availability and approximately 3.5 million in its first month.* Development is underway on World of Warcrafts second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, which was unveiled at the companys BlizzCon gaming festival in August 2007.

World of Warcraft is currently available in seven languages, with a Russian version in development and scheduled for release later this year. In addition to North America and Europe, World of Warcraft is played in mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

For further information on World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King, please visit the official website at www.worldofwarcraft.com. To keep pace with the continued growth of World of Warcraft as well as development on other Blizzard Entertainment games, the company is currently hiring for numerous open positions -- more information on available career opportunities at Blizzard Entertainment can be found at http://jobs.blizzard.com.

More on WoW here.

Read more Exclusive News...

 
 
pussaykat writes:

This one looks more official. Thread that is

If that was true, why would they release that on a public 3rd party website rather than on the blizzard one?

EDIT: the press release wasnt up when i posted this.

Warcraft realms has us servers listed at 4.1m and eu at 2.7. Also in their last release they didn't give the server breakdown.

I mean 2+2.5+5.5? that's afully round numbers.

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1/22/08 12:56:16 PM
 
Valentina writes:

Hmm, cool. Congrats to them I guess, but does this only count active subscribers or are they including inactive accounts as well?

 

I'll never really understand what's so amazing about WoW. I've played it since it came out, and there are other games which are handled better. 1 expansion in 3 years? ehhh

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1/22/08 1:07:12 PM
 
streea writes:

 

Originally posted by pussaykat

This one looks more official. Thread that is

If that was true, why would they release that on a public 3rd party website rather than on the blizzard one?

Warcraft realms has us servers listed at 4.1m and eu at 2.7. Also in their last release they didn't give the server breakdown.

I mean 2.5+2.5+5.5? that's afully round numbers.

 

 

"World of Warcraft now hosts more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and approximately 5.5 million in Asia."

So they're rounding up/down. They also don't count inactives or trial accounts (the bottom of the press release says so if you follow the link on WoW's main page).

I'm really glad though they finally released regional numbers. I've always been curious where their players are mostly from.

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1/22/08 1:13:11 PM
 
saduce writes:

thats not a big shock considering from what ive heard you can take a lvl one to the max level in a day or two using all the cheats for it.  Guess if i had nothing better to do id do it too.

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1/22/08 1:14:52 PM
 
pussaykat writes:

They usually get a big boost in subscriptions/activity around christmas but last year it dropped right after january.

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1/22/08 1:16:56 PM
 
azgarth writes:

Originally posted by saduce

thats not a big shock considering from what ive heard you can take a lvl one to the max level in a day or two using all the cheats for it.  Guess if i had nothing better to do id do it too.


LMAO!

Your information is wrong.

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1/22/08 1:18:36 PM
 
Meltdown writes:

 

Originally posted by azgarth

 

Originally posted by saduce

thats not a big shock considering from what ive heard you can take a lvl one to the max level in a day or two using all the cheats for it.  Guess if i had nothing better to do id do it too.


LMAO!

 

Your information is wrong.

I also lol'd at this comment. *golf clap*

 

It is nice to see some regional numbers. Although if I think about it I have contributed to... 8 of those in NA (go me!)

 

**edit** 4/8 that I know are currently active ;p

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1/22/08 1:25:40 PM
 
thepatriot writes:

The title of the thread is a little off.  WoW is currently serving over 10,000,000.  If you count all the canceled subscriptions just how high would the number served be?

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1/22/08 1:28:53 PM
 
Sovren1 writes:


Originally posted by saduce
thats not a big shock considering from what ive heard you can take a lvl one to the max level in a day or two using all the cheats for it. Guess if i had nothing better to do id do it too.


Ya, me too...I had to lol when I read this. I THINK the fastest time from 1-70 is like 6-7days played time meaning a total of 6-7 complete days with a guide that tells you how and when to pair quest up and finish them with limited grinding (run on sentence, but oh well). That's a few 12 hour shifts and can be done in 99% of the MMO's out there. At least in the majority of the ones I have played.

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1/22/08 1:36:01 PM
 
pussaykat writes:

Originally posted by saduce

thats not a big shock considering from what ive heard you can take a lvl one to the max level in a day or two using all the cheats for it.  Guess if i had nothing better to do id do it too.

Do what exactly? rush to 70? play the game?

How is that related to the topic?

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1/22/08 1:39:35 PM
 
faefrost writes:

Originally posted by Valentina

Hmm, cool. Congrats to them I guess, but does this only count active subscribers or are they including inactive accounts as well?

 

I'll never really understand what's so amazing about WoW. I've played it since it came out, and there are other games which are handled better. 1 expansion in 3 years? ehhh


Blizzard is actually very upfront about what they count for their subscriber numbers. The numbers reflect ACTIVE accounts. Which includes regular accounts that have been active in the past 60 days, new purchase accounts still witin their first 30 days, and internet cafe accounts (Asia) that have been accessed and/or paid for within 60 days. So to be counted an account would have to have been active within at least 60 days.

Cancelled subscriptions do not count. free trial accounts do not count. Box sales have never been revealed in total.

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1/22/08 3:06:13 PM
 
faefrost writes:

Originally posted by pussaykat

They usually get a big boost in subscriptions/activity around christmas but last year it dropped right after january.

The Burning Crusade expansion hit last January. The numbers skyrocketed and half the servers had annoying login queues.

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1/22/08 3:07:39 PM
 
Kyleran writes:

Originally posted by faefrost

 

Originally posted by pussaykat

They usually get a big boost in subscriptions/activity around christmas but last year it dropped right after january.

 

The Burning Crusade expansion hit last January. The numbers skyrocketed and half the servers had annoying login queues.

A lot of new people join during the Christmas holiday.  I met a 45+ yr old woman here at work that started playing (her nephew's got her involved) on Dec 26th.  She loved it so much she went out and bought a new laptop (her husband was pissed she was spending so much time in the den) and she was fully engaged.  This is a person who had never played an online game in her life (or many games at all in fact). 

WOW definitely knows how to bring new folks to their game.

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1/22/08 3:11:45 PM
 
zensaber writes:

I am starting to think their counting accounts made and not active subscribers.

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1/22/08 3:12:44 PM
 
replicant writes:
Originally posted by Sovren1

 


Originally posted by saduce
thats not a big shock considering from what ive heard you can take a lvl one to the max level in a day or two using all the cheats for it. Guess if i had nothing better to do id do it too.

 


Ya, me too...I had to lol when I read this. I THINK the fastest time from 1-70 is like 6-7days played time meaning a total of 6-7 complete days with a guide that tells you how and when to pair quest up and finish them with limited grinding (run on sentence, but oh well). That's a few 12 hour shifts and can be done in 99% of the MMO's out there. At least in the majority of the ones I have played.

The fastest currently from 1-60 is 1d 20hrs using a Frost Mage to Instance PL. From 1-70 is just a little over 3 days played using the same method, but switching 60-70 to a Blood Furnace PL'ing team of 2-4 people. People are finding ways to PL other characters very easily and it will only become easier. Quite a few people are already sub 5 days /played 1-70 just soloing.

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1/22/08 3:15:57 PM
 
BadSpock writes:

Originally posted by zensaber

I am starting to think their counting accounts made and not active subscribers.

"World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules. "

 

Plain english - Only active subscribers, game room players (pay by hour) who have logged in the last 30 days, and those still currently on free trial.

So what they are saying is, in the past month, 10,000,000 active accouns logged in. Scary huge.

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1/22/08 3:20:18 PM
 
jinxit writes:
Originally posted by Valentina

Hmm, cool. Congrats to them I guess, but does this only count active subscribers or are they including inactive accounts as well?

 

I'll never really understand what's so amazing about WoW. I've played it since it came out, and there are other games which are handled better. 1 expansion in 3 years? ehhh


I'd say its a conglomerate of existing accounts, canceled accounts and everyone that got WoW for a gift and just played the free month, its still empressive figures though.

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1/22/08 3:22:22 PM
 
BadSpock writes:

Originally posted by jinxit
Originally posted by Valentina

Hmm, cool. Congrats to them I guess, but does this only count active subscribers or are they including inactive accounts as well?

 

I'll never really understand what's so amazing about WoW. I've played it since it came out, and there are other games which are handled better. 1 expansion in 3 years? ehhh


I'd say its a conglomerate of existing accounts, canceled accounts and everyone that got WoW for a gift and just played the free month, its still empressive figures though.

 

"World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules. "

 

Plain english - Only active subscribers, game room players (pay by hour) who have logged in the last 30 days, and those still currently on free trial.

So what they are saying is, in the past month, 10,000,000 active accouns logged in. Scary huge.

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1/22/08 3:25:15 PM
 
Kalmarth writes:

WOOT thats 4.5 Million Players in the US and Europe and 5.5 Million Gold farmers supporting them, so really if you take out the gold farmers then its more like a real number of PLAYERS.

They also post Active game cards as an account, does that mean all the Cards they have printed that are on shop shelves, as those are active cards ?

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1/22/08 3:26:32 PM
 
Hexxeity writes:

Originally posted by jinxit
Originally posted by Valentina

Hmm, cool. Congrats to them I guess, but does this only count active subscribers or are they including inactive accounts as well?

 

I'll never really understand what's so amazing about WoW. I've played it since it came out, and there are other games which are handled better. 1 expansion in 3 years? ehhh


I'd say its a conglomerate of existing accounts, canceled accounts and everyone that got WoW for a gift and just played the free month, its still empressive figures though.

It truly is as if people are completely illiterate, yet still somehow manage to type messages into the forum.

How does this happen?

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1/22/08 3:28:02 PM
 
BadSpock writes:

Originally posted by Kalmarth

WOOT thats 4.5 Million Players in the US and Europe and 5.5 Million Gold farmers supporting them, so really if you take out the gold farmers then its more like a real number of PLAYERS.

They also post Active game cards as an account, does that mean all the Cards they have printed that are on shop shelves, as those are active cards ?


A card sitting on the shelf is not active. Why? It hasn't been..... activated until used.


5.5 million gold farmers in Asia? Are you racist against Asian people? Are you saying they are all poor and get paid to play WoW all day farming gold?

It's not illegal or against the EULA of ANY MMORPG to farm. It's only illegal to sell in game items for real life currency.

Gold farmers are players, they are logging in and playing the game. Gold SELLERS are not players, they are against the Agreement terms they supposedly read when they signed up.

Nice try.

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1/22/08 3:32:46 PM
 
jinxit writes:

Originally posted by Hexxeity

 

Originally posted by jinxit
Originally posted by Valentina

Hmm, cool. Congrats to them I guess, but does this only count active subscribers or are they including inactive accounts as well?

 

I'll never really understand what's so amazing about WoW. I've played it since it came out, and there are other games which are handled better. 1 expansion in 3 years? ehhh


I'd say its a conglomerate of existing accounts, canceled accounts and everyone that got WoW for a gift and just played the free month, its still empressive figures though.

It truly is as if people are completely illiterate, yet still somehow manage to type messages into the forum.

 

How does this happen?

Eh?

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1/22/08 3:34:34 PM
 
andykimbroug writes:

I guess I will never make it in marketing.  WoW is a great game, but does not really stand out as all that different from the other games since the original EQ.  It seems that most of the fantasy MMO since EQ are more or less the same.  Why did this one blow up so big and the others did not?  There are lots of games just as good as WoW.  It is great for blizzard.  With that kind of subscriber base, they should have the funding to do amazing things going forward.  I can't see how any fantasy game will be able to approach WoW now due to the crazy funding that they have.  They are bring in like 150 million per month in revenue.  I bet that is bigger than most games yearly income.

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1/22/08 3:39:02 PM
 
SaintViktor writes:

Wether people are creating accounts to farm or whatever you'll never see an article stating WOW's numbers decreasing. By the time WOTLK gets here and release Blizzard will tell you they in herited more accounts somehow, some way just to market/ hype their product up. Smart marketing move I would say but it is just unreleastic that every mmo can lose accounts except for Blizzard ? Come on people, use common sense. Nothing new here.

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1/22/08 3:41:46 PM
 
Kremlik writes:

well it's not surprising WoW is asia heavy is it built like one of their 'standard' type of mmos (not that it's a bad thing ofc, i like FFXI :)) but if their not facting in farmers trail account bots ruff guess i'd say about 1% are famer account tbh.. so still a lot of subs from asia, then again SC is HUGE there :)..Now all they need to do is add Mechs and in WoW (and possibly call it 'the world') and they've got the whole market, HELL if they did that I'll be back in :P

but 4/5-ish million of the westen market.. not bad, at least theres still room for other mmos to have a densent amount of subs past the WoWaholics out there :)

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1/22/08 3:43:29 PM
 
Greatness writes:

Two people I know who were disgusted with WoW after playing it so much suddenly got back into this winter as well. Crazy, I think Blizzard using some subliminal messages

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1/22/08 4:07:50 PM
 
Ontblod writes:

---> shot in the face to all the trollposters on this forum claiming the death of Wow. Yes 10 million subscribers, the game is going to die really soon. Geez...

I have a feeling more and more people are starting to play MMO´s this year for the first time and the new games that are coming is not going to draw people away from Wow, lets face it. But big deal, play whatever game you find funny but lets be realistic. Wow is going to be king of the hill for a long time.

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1/22/08 4:44:49 PM
 
SonofSeth writes:

Damn, I was expecting this after WotLK, not so soon.

Well, FOR THE HORDE!!

 rogue

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1/22/08 5:00:34 PM
 
kxmode writes:

Good god. Why do uninformed people feel the need to make comments on things they know nothing about?

@saduce -- thats not a big shock considering from what ive heard you can take a lvl one to the max level in a day or two using all the cheats for it.  Guess if i had nothing better to do id do it too.

Blizzard significantly increased level 20-60 quest XP in patch 2.3.0. I've noticed this right away. This coupled with Brian Kopp's alliance guide, or Joana's Horde guide, still takes more than two days to reach level 70. Even if you played 24-hours straight it would take you about 4-7 game days depending on your class and skill. NO, you cannot reach 70 in two days. o_o

@pussykay -- They usually get a big boost in subscriptions/activity around christmas but last year it dropped right after january.

Burning Crusade was released on January 16, 2007 and Blizzard's subscriptions increased dramatically after. Your information is flawed.

@thepatriot -- The title of the thread is a little off.  WoW is currently serving over 10,000,000.  If you count all the canceled subscriptions just how high would the number served be?

10 million. o_o

World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.
from http://www.blizzard.com/press/080122.shtml

@pussykay -- Do what exactly? rush to 70? play the game? How is that related to the topic?

It's a little of both. Guides are useful for those that have already "played" the game to 70. A guide serves as a way in which to accelerate leveling alts. Most players have alts. I have 6 alts. Alts are not part of the 10M number.

@zensaber -- I am starting to think their counting accounts made and not active subscribers.

Then you are a moron.

@Kalmarth -- They also post Active game cards as an account, does that mean all the Cards they have printed that are on shop shelves, as those are active cards ?

They are just as valid as monthly subscriptions. One reason they are valid is a kid wouldn't have a credit card, but he may get an allowance. So he goes to a BestBuy and buys a couple game cards every other month.

@heeroya -- Plain english - Only active subscribers, game room players (pay by hour) who have logged in the last 30 days, and those still currently on free trial.

Yes to all. No to "logged in the last 30 days." My account was active, and I was paying every month, but I hadn't logged in until only recently. Even though I didn't log into the game my account was still active and paying. Regardless Blizzard counts that as an active account regardless of whether I log in or not.

@andykimbrough -- WoW is a great game, but does not really stand out as all that different from the other games since the original EQ. It seems that most of the fantasy MMO since EQ are more or less the same. Why did this one blow up so big and the others did not?

Because most MMOs are niche and accommodate certain gaming styles. WOW actually offers something for everyone. You have all sorts of play styles clashing together into one server. If it's a PVP server things get even more interesting. Personally I'm a casual PVP'er, but I like to raid. I also love the process of leveling while doing quests instead of grinding mobs all day long. My co-worker actually prefers grinding. He plays a horde. I play an alliance. In the game we're enemies; in real life we're co-workers. And we share our experiences as if they were real-life events. I guess its something like this.

@SaintViktor -- Wether people are creating accounts to farm or whatever you'll never see an article stating WOW's numbers decreasing.

This is because they aren't. Yes, there really is 10M. The 14 minute queue times during peek hours are proof. o_o

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1/22/08 5:50:00 PM
 
Enforcer71 writes:

Originally posted by Kyleran

 

Originally posted by faefrost

 

Originally posted by pussaykat

They usually get a big boost in subscriptions/activity around christmas but last year it dropped right after january.

 

The Burning Crusade expansion hit last January. The numbers skyrocketed and half the servers had annoying login queues.

 

A lot of new people join during the Christmas holiday.  I met a 45+ yr old woman here at work that started playing (her nephew's got her involved) on Dec 26th.  She loved it so much she went out and bought a new laptop (her husband was pissed she was spending so much time in the den) and she was fully engaged.  This is a person who had never played an online game in her life (or many games at all in fact). 

WOW definitely knows how to bring new folks to their game.

No way, I thought all of us that play WoW are immature kids..

I have a mid 50 year old in my guild as well, I think it is really cool seeing the older generation get into these games as well, not that I am a youngster myself but its nice to see.

Like Blizzard or hate them they still bring out a quality product for anyone and all ages to enjoy.

New Post Quote
1/22/08 6:26:40 PM
 
Ngeldu5t writes:

I`m not surprised to see a large increase in subs because Blizzard did what others thought was impossible ... having more than 250k subs.That was the main aim of all mmos and they kept making niche games,Blizzard simply open MMOs to a wider population where Mr and Mrs everybody can be a Hero without the hassle of the other MMOs.

Even if I don`t like the game I say kudos to Blizzard and I see them  leading the market for the next 3 years.

New Post Quote
1/22/08 9:11:10 PM
 
b0rderline99 writes:

im really not surprised at all, i keep hearing about people in my area who never play video games but were introduced to WoW and cannot stop playing

for instance my english teacher has begun to skip school occasionally to play her warlock

New Post Quote
1/22/08 9:47:55 PM
 
RogueSeven writes:

lol, 5.5 million in asia, where around 90% of those are farmers, pl'ers, etc

New Post Quote
1/22/08 9:55:56 PM
 
zensaber writes:


Originally posted by heerobya

Originally posted by zensaber

I am starting to think their counting accounts made and not active subscribers.



"World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or canceled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules. "


Plain English - Only active subscribers, game room players (pay by hour) who have logged in the last 30 days, and those still currently on free trial.
So what they are saying is, in the past month, 10,000,000 active accounts logged in. Scary huge.


I'm sorry, i forgot that blizzard was above Christ and doesn't sin, screw lying. They are not capable of it, impossible right?Also learn to use fucking spell check.

New Post Quote
1/22/08 10:53:25 PM
 
MuffinManXIV writes:

Originally posted by zensaber

 


Originally posted by heerobya

Originally posted by zensaber

 

I am starting to think their counting accounts made and not active subscribers.



"World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or canceled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules. "

 


Plain English - Only active subscribers, game room players (pay by hour) who have logged in the last 30 days, and those still currently on free trial.
So what they are saying is, in the past month, 10,000,000 active accounts logged in. Scary huge.


 

I'm sorry, i forgot that blizzard was above Christ and doesn't sin, screw lying. They are not capable of it, impossible right?Also learn to use fucking spell check.

What is with all these conspiracy theorists that are crying out claiming blizzard is actually going out and lying about their subscriber base?  Why can't they have 10mil subscribers?  What is their motive for lying?

 

Also, the post you quoted doesn't have any spelling errors...

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1/22/08 11:25:20 PM
 
Arcken writes:

Hey McDonalds and WoW have some things in common it seems, theyre both selling an inferior product thats helping the worlds youth get fatter by the minute.

New Post Quote
1/22/08 11:42:13 PM
 
graill writes:
Originally posted by Arcken

Hey McDonalds and WoW have some things in common it seems, theyre both selling an inferior product thats helping the worlds youth get fatter by the minute.


omg!! Arcken, well said, well said.

New Post Quote
1/22/08 11:45:23 PM
 
slannmage writes:

"served" suggests they arn't playing anymore

New Post Quote
1/23/08 4:44:32 AM
 
CyberWiz writes:


Originally posted by graill

Originally posted by Arcken

Hey McDonalds and WoW have some things in common it seems, theyre both selling an inferior product thats helping the worlds youth get fatter by the minute.


omg!! Arcken, well said, well said.


LOLOL

Either way, WoW IS a quality product and IS easy to get into.

At the time of release it was the ONLY mmorpg that was as polished and easy to learn, get into ( harder to master ).

The combat system was fast and dynamic ( compared to most others ).

The leveling thru questing system was evolutionary, borderlining revolutionary. The 5 man instances were alot of fun.

My only gripe is that as the endgame they took the hardcore raid route, instead of the RvR route they always claimed they would follow. ( Like large PvP battles between Horde and Alliance in the Open World, not instances ).

Then after WoW was released every mmo publisher and his brother tried to mimmic this success, so mister innovation was murdered.

It even went so far that nice sandbox games like Star Wars Galaxies were wowified to try to steal away some of the WoW players.
This horribly failed of course. People will never learn, they had examples from UO mimmicing EQ by releasing Renaissance ( Trammel ) and Age of Shadows ( L33T Items ), and guess what, they failed. Same goes for DAoC, they released Trials of Atlantis ( heavy PVE in a RvR - PvP game ) hoping to get some of the EQ players, and failed hardcore. I hope that by now, developpers know they have to stick to the ideals of the game and not entirely change the playground, or they get smacked.

Still WoW remains that very polished game, easy to get into, timeless graphics, wether you like cartoony or not, you have to admit that these kind of graphics hardly age with time, unlike realistic graphics, that after a few years need a major update or will otherwise be subpar compared to the rest, and lastly loads of content, for both casual and hardcore players.

The only thing I hope now, is that with all the fundings Blizzard has now, they will make an awesome polished sandbox game with quality guided content at the start ( to get into the game ) next. Because I honestly think that Sandbox games, if well done, can provide the better endgame. This does not exclude questing and guided content as a means to get max level/skill.

And there is definatly a market for it, if SWG could have 300.000+ subscribers with an unpolished sandbox game, I am sure if Blizzard makes one, millions will play it :p

WoW does have 10 million ACTIVE paying subscribers, wether you like it or not.

Greetz

New Post Quote
1/23/08 4:53:51 AM
 
adrianemery writes:

Congrats to Blizz on getting to the big 10 million mark, what would be a more interesting figure though would be what is the average playing time for an active account?

Are they constantly pulling in new players who stick it out for 10 months then leave never to rtuen or is it closer to people playing it year in year out?

I doubt we will see that sort of info though.

What made me leave was a combination of the focused raid intensive end game and that on the EU side Blizzard''s ISP is Telia, and frankly they are an awful choice, they always seem to have a problem somewhere and frankly I said I wasn't going to pay for a service when it was terrible week in week out.

Perhaps with all this cash coming in they could perhaps move the servers to Germany, or Holland?

New Post Quote
1/23/08 6:41:33 AM
 
slannmage writes:

Originally posted by CyberWiz

 


Originally posted by graill

Originally posted by Arcken

 

Hey McDonalds and WoW have some things in common it seems, theyre both selling an inferior product thats helping the worlds youth get fatter by the minute.


 

omg!! Arcken, well said, well said.


 

LOLOL

Either way, WoW IS a quality product and IS easy to get into.

At the time of release it was the ONLY mmorpg that was as polished and easy to learn, get into ( harder to master ).

The combat system was fast and dynamic ( compared to most others ).

The leveling thru questing system was evolutionary, borderlining revolutionary. The 5 man instances were alot of fun.

My only gripe is that as the endgame they took the hardcore raid route, instead of the RvR route they always claimed they would follow. ( Like large PvP battles between Horde and Alliance in the Open World, not instances ).

Then after WoW was released every mmo publisher and his brother tried to mimmic this success, so mister innovation was murdered.

It even went so far that nice sandbox games like Star Wars Galaxies were wowified to try to steal away some of the WoW players.
This horribly failed of course. People will never learn, they had examples from UO mimmicing EQ by releasing Renaissance ( Trammel ) and Age of Shadows ( L33T Items ), and guess what, they failed. Same goes for DAoC, they released Trials of Atlantis ( heavy PVE in a RvR - PvP game ) hoping to get some of the EQ players, and failed hardcore. I hope that by now, developpers know they have to stick to the ideals of the game and not entirely change the playground, or they get smacked.

Still WoW remains that very polished game, easy to get into, timeless graphics, wether you like cartoony or not, you have to admit that these kind of graphics hardly age with time, unlike realistic graphics, that after a few years need a major update or will otherwise be subpar compared to the rest, and lastly loads of content, for both casual and hardcore players.

The only thing I hope now, is that with all the fundings Blizzard has now, they will make an awesome polished sandbox game with quality guided content at the start ( to get into the game ) next. Because I honestly think that Sandbox games, if well done, can provide the better endgame. This does not exclude questing and guided content as a means to get max level/skill.

And there is definatly a market for it, if SWG could have 300.000+ subscribers with an unpolished sandbox game, I am sure if Blizzard makes one, millions will play it :p

WoW does have 10 million ACTIVE paying subscribers, wether you like it or not.

Greetz

Inferior?

Look at the quality of all the other mmorpgs out there and then say that again......... theres not one mmorpg out there with the polish and quality WOW has.

New Post Quote
1/23/08 7:50:40 AM
 
Qmire writes:

Why are there so many ill informed and stupid people here? So many of them can't even manage to bloody read the information giving to them, which is right in front of them....

Blizzard doesn't count "bought", "trial", nor "cancelled" accounts, in thier numbers, they are prolly the only mmo company out here giving straight numbers about how many active players they got, all others either lie or only say something stupid like "yay 4 million chars made in our mmo"....

 

People here just seem to hate blizzard and can't take it that WoW is such a great game and it being so succesful?

When WoW came out it was the most polished mmorpg ever to set foot on the market, it had made the best quest system, which killed the seemingly long grindmill through just killing mobs all day long, you actually got some quest that made sense and areas with history so the stuff you did actually seemed to serve a goal of fun and not just a random kill tag.

The WoW combat was alot better than any other current western mmorpg active, it had borrowed some dynamics from asian mmorpgs, who made good choice in combat gameplay and pace.

Why does WoW gather so many people? simple! They made WoW a  "wide/broad" game, blizzard try to please all the different styles of play types there are and try to adapt to how people's gameplay is, hardcore or casual, they give both things to do, they make alot of ways to gain some cool stuff. The computer req are low so even very old comps can play wow on them, which make it a game everyone can play, they have made a perfect stepstone game, where you can jump right into the fun part and then along the way you learn all the more advanced gameplay. They made the levelling not too fast nor too slow, the areas are different but still seem to fit into the whole world, even with low gfx the world looks very good, since it's artistic with easy features to make it vivid.

WoW has also along the way become a social hub, it's a perfect virgin mmorpg player, which even can collect those who you would never have dreamt of playing a mmorpg, WoW simply is a mass social game now, it has something for everyone, young or old doesn't matter.

 

I honestly didn't expect WoW to reach 10 mill already but that's just a nice surprise i guess, even though i don't play wow much these days.

 

EDIT:  also why does so many racist pricks keep the typical asian farmers term? Don't you know that the mmorpg market is alot bigger in the East compared to the west? You don't see many of the asian mmorpgs here, because the companies there only focus on the asian market (language ect.), so half of people here prolly don't know some of the larger mmos there anyway.

The Asian mmorpgs were imho better untill WoW came around, the western were mostly a complete bore in the combat gameplay, many of the new mmorpgs you see here on the western side have key combat feautres, which some old asian mmorpgs had long ago, the bad thing with asian mmorpgs were mostly just the large amount of mobgrind along with some hacks.

So don't just ditch the Asian market just because you are a racist white trash, thank you very much.

New Post Quote
1/23/08 7:52:16 AM
 
Dorkhan writes:

To come back to this levelig speed... are you speaking about the number that comes when you type /played in-game or in real life 24h days with nights and days?

If /played then it can easily be done with 4 days if you concentrate on leveling instead of money/professions/community.

You can do it in 4 real-life days too if you A)Sleep in winters

                                                                           B)Got Absolutely no life and share the character with someone in different time-zone who will play with your character while you sleep.

 

GZ for Blizzard for 10mil ticker.

New Post Quote
1/23/08 8:09:44 AM
 
Hyperboy01 writes:

 

Originally posted by kxmode

...

@heeroya -- Plain english - Only active subscribers, game room players (pay by hour) who have logged in the last 30 days, and those still currently on free trial.

Yes to all. No to "logged in the last 30 days." My account was active, and I was paying every month, but I hadn't logged in until only recently. Even though I didn't log into the game my account was still active and paying. Regardless Blizzard counts that as an active account regardless of whether I log in or not.

...

 

Just a little note that you missed the phrasing on what was said. He stated that GAME ROOM players are the ones that need to have logged on within the last 30 days. The rest of your post is pretty much spot on though.

(*note: after some further reading I withdraw my comment that I thought to be fact based in regard to Asia*)

New Post Quote
1/23/08 11:06:51 AM
 
Recant writes:

Originally posted by Kalmarth

WOOT thats 4.5 Million Players in the US and Europe and 5.5 Million Gold farmers supporting them, so really if you take out the gold farmers then its more like a real number of PLAYERS.

They also post Active game cards as an account, does that mean all the Cards they have printed that are on shop shelves, as those are active cards ?

How do 5.5 million Asian accounts provide gold to Western accounts, when these are completely seperate from each other?  You cannot transfer gold between US, EU or Asian accounts.  You never have been able to and probably never will.

So you're either being ignorant or you're being racist by saying that Asian players are gold farmers.  Either way, you couldn't be more incorrect if you tried.  As for your question, well, what part of "Active Game Cards" is difficult to understand?  Hint:  read the first word.

Denial is an ugly thing but if it drives people to write thoughtless drivel like this, one wonders about the chances for survival of the Human race.

New Post Quote
1/23/08 11:27:10 AM
 
Nasa writes:

"Over 10,000,000 Served"

Sounds like a busy hooker

New Post Quote
1/23/08 1:49:53 PM
 
Sovren1 writes:


Originally posted by replicant

Originally posted by Sovren1




Originally posted by saduce
thats not a big shock considering from what ive heard you can take a lvl one to the max level in a day or two using all the cheats for it. Guess if i had nothing better to do id do it too.


Ya, me too...I had to lol when I read this. I THINK the fastest time from 1-70 is like 6-7days played time meaning a total of 6-7 complete days with a guide that tells you how and when to pair quest up and finish them with limited grinding (run on sentence, but oh well). That's a few 12 hour shifts and can be done in 99% of the MMO's out there. At least in the majority of the ones I have played.



The fastest currently from 1-60 is 1d 20hrs using a Frost Mage to Instance PL. From 1-70 is just a little over 3 days played using the same method, but switching 60-70 to a Blood Furnace PL'ing team of 2-4 people. People are finding ways to PL other characters very easily and it will only become easier. Quite a few people are already sub 5 days /played 1-70 just soloing.

Ok, i've found vids of warriors pling to match the time of the mage you speak of and only since 2.3. I guess I was speaking from the point of view of a few months ago when I believe 1-70 solo was about 6 days played. Think since 2.3 it's down to 4+ by the same person. At least thats all I could find anyway.

New Post Quote
1/23/08 2:30:35 PM
 
kxmode writes:

 

Originally posted by Arcken

Hey McDonalds and WoW have some things in common it seems, theyre both selling an inferior product thats helping the worlds youth get fatter by the minute.

 

I occasioanlly eat McDonalds and play WOW. I weigh 176 pounds. I don't consider myself a fatso. You suck Arcken.

New Post Quote
1/23/08 4:04:34 PM
 
saint4God writes:

World of Warcraft keeps adding servers and there is a queue on a lot of them, unlike 6 months ago.  I'm meeting more new players daily.  Maybe it is the Christmas spike, but Blizzard seems to have the best membership retention numbers if statistics are to be believed.  That says something.

New Post Quote
1/23/08 4:13:47 PM
 
Aguy writes:

This thread in a nutshell:

 

Woot nice Blizz!

How many of those are active?

Lawl such a lie WoW sux!!

All accounts are active, if they are inactive they don't count.

WoW sux!

Is this information credible?

This is amazing I'm glad this happened!

Haha half are gold farmers!

Yeah but its like all asians lol

All accounts are active, if they are inactive they don't count.

All accounts are active, if they are inactive they don't count.

All accounts are active, if they are inactive they don't count.

All of you saying this isn't true are stupid.

stfu.

I can't believe how ignorant people are!

 

And there you have it folks.

 

New Post Quote
1/23/08 4:49:36 PM
 
AbIeL writes:

lol people still play wow. WoW is old now cmon people move on

New Post Quote
1/23/08 4:51:41 PM
 
Recant writes:

Originally posted by AbIeL

lol people still play wow. WoW is old now cmon people move on

Move on to what?  Most of the MMOs that have been released since WoW had terrible launches, poor reviews, or don't offer anything significantly different from WoW.

Until something decent comes along, there's no real point unless you've played the game to death.

New Post Quote
1/23/08 4:57:32 PM
 
pulsarite writes:

Who cares if WoW dosent have 10mil players out there? Its still the most successful MMORPG out there...

New Post Quote
1/23/08 5:12:54 PM
 
Kyleran writes:

Here's an interesting comparison.  Back in Jan, 2007 WOW's sub breakdown looked like this.

Asia 3.5 m

EU - 1.5 m

US - 2 m

And with the most recent numbers the breakdown is now:

Asia 5.5 m  (30% gain)

EU 2 m  (25% gain)

US 2.5 m  (20% gain)

So the game continues to gain ground in all markets, though the lion's share of the gains came from Asia.

 

New Post Quote
1/23/08 5:19:15 PM
 
faefrost writes:
Originally posted by Kyleran

Here's an interesting comparison.  Back in Jan, 2007 WOW's sub breakdown looked like this.

Asia 3.5 m

EU - 1.5 m

US - 2 m

And with the most recent numbers the breakdown is now:

Asia 5.5 m  (30% gain)

EU 2 m  (25% gain)

US 2.5 m  (20% gain)

So the game continues to gain ground in all markets, though the lion's share of the gains came from Asia.

 


Keep in mind that in Jan 2007 the TBC expansion was hitting in NA and Europe. Asia didn't get it, and experience the related surge, until months later.

New Post Quote
1/24/08 4:23:44 PM
 
rsreston writes:

Does it really matter how many subs WoW has? Wouldn't it be much more relevant to know how many subs are active?? Like, how many accounts have been active for more than 3 months??

New Post Quote
1/29/08 6:58:31 AM
 
spune writes:

Wouldnt suprise me that these numbers are this high as there isnt that many games that keep adding this much content and is so easy to play. LOL, 4yr olds can play WoW and level a toon. Alot of the MMORPGs that have come out have been rushed out to the public so companies can get there hand on some of the easy cash so none have been very good in the last little while. With the coming of some more hyped games like Warhammer online and Age of Conan, you may see the numbers shift here soon as long as those companies have done there research. Grats Blizzard .

New Post Quote
1/29/08 7:36:34 AM
 
yayitsandy writes:

i ve played wow for two and a half years on and off ( currently am having a break from it ) . i ve tried most other mmos on the market ( just about to try dark age of camelot ) . thus far i ve found nothing to match it . thats not saying the likes of lord of the rings and city of heroes arnt great games but they all lack the scope of warcraft . lots focus simply on pve or have very limited pvp options . some have no ingame ecconomy etc . warcrafts not perfect , i d like to see the option of player built towns etc and more meaningful world pvp . but bottom line is warcrafts fun to play . with the absence of any real competition with mass appeal it does nt suprise me warcraft is still rising in popularity .  i ve been hopeing something will come along to challenge only to be disapointed by the like of vanguard ddo etc . i have hopes that warhammer and conan might busrt blizzards bubble but i m not holding my breath .

New Post Quote
1/29/08 9:46:40 AM
 
Lucano writes:

I'm pretty sure Blizz will try to release WotLK at the same time with WAR and will totally dominate the market for at least 2008 and 2009.

 

I'd like to add to the reasons why this game is so succesful, the lore and background games (warcraft III). WoW does have an extensive lore that has years of development since warcraft I back in 1994 (?). That adds a solid background, the game is solid what can you say.

 

And the arena is becoming slowly some sort of e-sport, I'm sure it will grow a lot during 2008.

 

Usually a new player will want to try the best out there and the best out there is WoW. That's why they get new players everyday. 

New Post Quote
1/29/08 10:30:14 AM
 
savagegoose writes:

10 MILL  at $15  AMONTH!

 

THATSSSSSSSSSSSS $150 MILL  a month  or

 

150x12

1.8 bill a year?

 

 

 

New Post Quote
1/29/08 6:43:57 PM
 
HYPERI0N writes:

Originally posted by savagegoose

10 MILL  at $15  AMONTH!

 

THATSSSSSSSSSSSS $150 MILL  a month  or

 

150x12

1.8 bill a year?

 

 

 

Your quite wrong as this assumes that everyone pays a 15 a month subscription and that everyone who plays pays in $$$$'s.

One example would be the 5 odd million Chinese players who pay per hour i believe in Internet shops.

New Post Quote
1/29/08 6:56:12 PM
 
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