Kotaku
I guess those Mr. T ads really struck a chord. Blizzard has just proudly announced that their insanely successful MMORPG World of Warcraft has recently surpassed the 10 million subscriber mark, which means that there are enough active WoW subscriptions currently to keep .1% of the entire world ass-deep in murlocs. Completely and utterly insane.
"It's 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. "We're always pleased to welcome new players to the game, and we're looking forward to sharing the next major content update with the entire community in the months ahead."Blizzard's numbers included paying subscribers, people within their first month of free game time, and internet cafe users who have accessed the game in the past 30 days, but excludes those using promotional trials and of course, those who have managed to kick the habit entirely...for now.
World of Warcraft® Reaches New Milestone: 10 Million SubscribersSubscriber 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.
"It's 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. "We're always pleased to welcome new players to the game, and we're 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 Warcraft's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King™, which was unveiled at the company's 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.
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.
Comments
i can't lie... I rejoined after they added ZA. And after I saw Mr. T. even though he is a stupid Night Elf. Stupid Night Elves...
In before OVER 9000.
[en.wikipedia.org]
Scroll down to about 80 to find the 10 million mark. Who knows, maybe YOUR country is smaller than WoW!
let's see $10 a month (yes?) time x millions of subcribers. wow that's over 9000!!!
It's scary to think that WoW servers have the same population as Serbia.
The bigger they all, the harder they fall.. or so I'm told.
But can it blend?
On a side note I'll probably be back for WOTLK
I don't like any MMOs but if I had to choose one to play it would be WoW. It's super polished and Blizzard is just an amazing developer that puts mucho love into their products. Props to them for inventing a money printer. Can I please have SC2 now?
Haha, I cant believe people actually go back to this game.
I played priest to 70. Raided as far as the first bosses of Naxx before TBC, had max tailoring skill, quite a few lvl 70 epics, a guild with IRL buddies...
I quit because the game becomes a drain, it saps your time, your energy, and your mental focus. You become blind and oblivious, droning on with your "playing" (grind).
When I quit I just left everything as it was, thousands of gold, all gear left etc. And you know what? I never felt the need to go back. I even visited to site to check what they were updating next occasionally. I absolutly can not understand how you can go back to WoW after leaving it.
I'll be honest, I quit the game back in November of 2006 only to finally be sucked back in in December of 2007 when I suddenly had more free time and there was no other game out there to keep my attention. Combine that with the fact that my friends all still played after all that time and I was hooked again.
Six weeks later and my newly rolled Draenei Shaman is level 69 with another two days (estimated) to go until 70. I'm a weak weak person...oh well, at least I'm having fun.
@SAKY: lol I need to see the old DBZ dubs again.
Excuse my language for the amount of players on WoW, but HOLY SHITTING OUT MONKEY BALLS. I really need to at least try the game out. I feel so left out :(
@The_Phiphler: Fixate much?
Glad to not be part of that...
I just jumped back in this weekend. Demon Soul Realm!
god damn you long weekends.
Quitting this game was the best thing I ever did. I know so many people who are utterly addicted to it. =/
My girlfriend is trying to convince me to come back but I refuse to replay. It's evil!! evil I say!
ps. Where's all the SC2 news?!
interresting to see that the ore people subscribe, the less updates blizzard offers
it's like smoking...
you never really quit...you just stop for a little bit...
I rejoined cause of ZA too. I'll probably leave again after a few months, but a new major content drop will no doubt drag me back in. And once Lich King shows up, good by life for about half a year.
I'm one of those new players. I started playing about a month ago and currently have a level 43 human paladin. Once I max him out and get bored with him, I'm going to start working on my alt, a blood elf mage. It's pretty fun, although my internet connection has gone to crap (randomly fluctuates between 24Mb speeds and 28.8Kb speeds), so I may cancel my account.
@The_Phiphler: I stopped playing and went back for the expansion. I played to 70 (Human Priest), was one of the first on the server with an epic flying mount and to max out Jewelcrafting. My guild was on the verge of beating some endgame instance I can't remember the name of it...some unimportant one between a swamp and Duskwood I think...
And everything just became an obligation again. I had to run the same stuff over and over and work long and hard for rewards that weren't worth the time and effort.
I just stopped playing (for a second time) and I don't plan on going back.
It's pretty funny actually, for the second time I just disappeared on the guild without saying a word, half done collecting mats for a dozen different patterns and a mailbox full of jewels from guild members looking to get them crafted.
@Waza: What? They've just added a new raid instance and will eb bringing another soon, not to mention the constant arena and PvP updates...what more do you want?
It's cheaper than buying a Toyota pickup truck.
10,000,000 people on this world have been sucked into Blizzard's nefarious time sink (myself included, though for increasingly less time.)
Think about that.
@Budkin: Ha, exactly the same thing I was about to type.
Double the population of Scotland.
Dayum.
@Winterbringer: A real life?
@Winterbringer: Oh, I don't know, maybe some new high-endgame content. ZA was fun for a day or two, but for those of us who cleared Hyjal/BT back in September, it's been four months now without a challenge.
Actually, I should add that I just noticed that this doesn't even count canceled accounts (mind you that is different from expired), which I did with mine earlier this month, so I don't even count toward that mass.
Man, this is just getting retarded now. I played WoW for only a month after its first release, and just got sick of it, not even making it to level 30. I already lost 3 friends to the fucking game because they feel as if it is more important to be in their guild and play instances, and not hang out and live a real life.
Now it's up to 10 million. It's like the friggin black plague. It's just gonna get worse until the game dies out of old age (doubtfully).
The cure? Go to Blizzard and destroy all of their servers!
Hell, Blizzard makes awesome games, and WoW is a masterpiece, but IMO, it's taking too many lives.
Then again, it the persons choice to play the game or not.
I don't know, maybe I'm better off preaching to a wall, lol
The really neat thing about that number is that 10,000,000 people have an active account. They're not counting people who used to subscribe but don't right now, like me (although I'm planning to start up again once I finish moving).
Those Frostsabers look so pissed.
$15/month x 10,000,000 = $150,000,000/month.
Insane.
It is really hard to overstate the significance of . This is just simply incredible, and will shape a lot of business decisions to come within the game industry.
What about all this talk from the commenters here saying "PC gaming is DEAD!" Far from it boys, far from it.
Gah.. I am desync with the general population, because I always like more something else. Today I like LoTRO much more than WoW. And I used to like BF1942 and Quake1 much more than Counter-Strike.
one thing to remember is that while wow does indeed get insane subscription fees, the majority of its players are from china and play on time cards, not the standard subscription rates we pay in the us and european markets. so while the income is ungodly, its not as high as just 15 times the number of subscribers.
@Len Bias Cocaine Surplus: I see what you did there.
8 million Chinese gold farmers can't be wrong.
With every million that Night Elf loses more clothing.
@homernoy: It is dead/dying because apparently everyone is playing WoW instead of investing in good single player player games.
People send $15 a month to Blizzard to do the same lame stuff over and over again while good games like UT3 and CoD4 are pirated and have terrible sales on the PC.
@Stevedroid: But we need to get more honor points to get stuff!
I have to call b.s. on the 10 million number.
@kylenalepa: I feel your pain here in Chilly Hollow (max speed 24Mb). Durn dial up.
Imagine, the $15 a month I spend on this game could be going towards feeding hungry, homeless people in Zimbabwe.
...
But I need them epix...
I occasionally have the urge to play again and half to remind myself how tedious the actual game is. I love the wow (or more accurately warcraft) mythology but I'm done with the game.
@Stevedroid: People send $15 a month to Blizzard to do the same lame stuff over and over again while good games like UT3 and CoD4 are pirated and have terrible sales on the PC.
Let me get this straight. World of Warcraft leads to PC piracy?
@Raynre: haha, awesome comment.
I'm currently waiting for the expac. Screw TBC and the shit its caused me :<
@explodingmanMK2: yeah... ok there. /Tinfoil hat.
SAVE TEH NOOBZ
@Stevedroid:I was being a smart ass. I am very happy though, with the games released and coming to the PC. Sales are slow though.
@xAnarChisTx: Yes, to a wall.
I wish they would make the subscription cheaper.
@Stevedroid: Except UT3 isn't a good game, it's the same old REHASHIN'. Hence why it didn't sell well; people also pirated it because it wasn't worth buying.
Pantsu? =D