A new report says that there seems to be a pretty large market for even a very pricey mount. It helps if you have a wildly loyal community and a steadily running reliable game, which are part of why World of Warcraft has survived this long.
Research was done over at Wowhead into the possible sales and revenue of the Reins of the Trader’s Gilded Brutosaur. Which granted you the Trader’s Gilded Brutosaur. They were on sale for a limited time from late October 2024, in the 20th anniversary celebratiion update, through January 6th, 2025 for $90.
When we say gilded, we mean a brontosaurus covered in a golden, gem-encrusted armor. It’s designed to give you FOMO. And for many people, they plunked down the $90 cost - to the sound of an estimated $15,000,000+.
The team provided their research methods, as well as guidance on some of the potential limitations on the data they were collecting, Acknowledging that some things could be incomplete or they could be off in their estimates.
Still, if their estimates are anywhere near close, as far as debates over microtransactions and expensive cosmetics go, it shows that there could still be a sizable market if you're raking in over 15 million dollars.
World of Warcraft has lasted for 20 years for a lot of reasons and the fact that they do have enough people to go in on something like this is in part because they also understand that they expect Blizzard to be running this game for quite some time. Of course there are plenty of mount collectors, but not everyone is willing, or able, to fork over $90 for an armored sauropod.