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World of Warcraft: WoW Hits 9 Million Mark
Szark
News ManagerMember Posts: 4,420
Blizzard has announced that World of Warcraft has reached a new subscriber milestone: 9 million subscribers worldwide.
IRVINE, Calif. - July 24, 2007 - Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that World of Warcraft®, its award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), has reached a new milestone, with a player base now totaling more than 9 million subscribers worldwide. The company is currently working with its partner for World of Warcraft in China, The9, to prepare the game's first expansion, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, for launch in mainland China and anticipates an influx of new and returning subscribers in conjunction with that event.
"We're thrilled that gamers around the world have continued to embrace World of Warcraft so enthusiastically," said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment®. "We've worked hard to provide a compelling experience for our players, and we plan to continue updating the game with exciting new content for them to enjoy for many years to come."
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* and has remained at or near the top of the weekly PC-game sales charts for much of 2007 as well. Blizzard's Burning Crusade expansion released to critical acclaim in several regions earlier this year and shattered PC-game sales records in North America and Europe, with nearly 2.4 million copies sold in its first 24 hours of release and approximately 3.5 million in its first month. World of Warcraft is available in seven different languages and, in addition to North America and Europe, is played in mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
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.
;)
Read the full release here.
Comments
I do not even like the game. EQ 2 is such a better game. It is a bit shocking if not disturbing, but when so many gold sellers and bots play, it increases the subscriptions.
See the Asian gold farming video? Factories of WoW gold sellers, bots:
One of China's newest factories operates here in the basement of an old warehouse. Posters of World of Warcraft and Magic Land hang above a corps of young people glued to their computer screens, pounding away at their keyboards in the latest hustle for money.
www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/technology/09gaming.html
WoW continues to grow. That is quite an achievement. What I would like to know is the total amount of accounts created since launch. That number would be indicative for the potential market for mmorpg's that Blizzard might have created with WoW.
--
Delanor
At least it create jobs for the people, no doubt they are gold sellers. But most importantly other company shld learn from Blizz, not that in copying the same format of game play, but why does WoW attract so many players. System stability, fun factor etc....
And thx to WoW, games coming out now will be expected to be of higher standard than before, if you continue to stick to old school method or just copying the same thing, or have a crappy launch, you will not go far...
RIP Orc Choppa
The point here is that even if you (or anyone else on these forums) don't like the game it is still successful enough to have 9 million subscribers in the world. Even if some of those accounts are bot accounts (I wonder how many are in EQ2?) that number still makes "better" games like EQ2 look very poor in comparison. It seems that many more people think WoW is a better game than anything else available on the market.
The fact is that WoW is here to stay whether you like it or not and all the reports of WoW losing subscribers appears to be a lot of rubbish.
I'm sure many people leave WoW (like all games) but *new* subscribers help too
WoW gained 1 million subs since their last press release 6 months ago
I dont care for WoW either but this is good news for MMO gaming
- those WoW subs may try other MMOs eventually
EQ2 fan sites
You come to far to many incorrect conclusions. Just because many people play it doesn't make it a great game or the bet on the market. If enough people say the earth is flat, does that make it flat? Peer pressure is a major factor in WoW's popularity. People join because friends do and keep accounts paid just to keep in contact. In respect to the numbers the game is sucessful but being the best game currently out? Sorry it isn't. Check polls and ratings on various gaming sites, heck I don't think it even made top 20 here.
As for numbers they can skew things easily. I would love to see the Asian market numbers and how much of the new 9 mill they make up. Also these numbers are taken over the quarter so do they coun't accounts that expired in the Q? What about banned accounts? Are those removed from the numbers or not since they might be paid for a month or 2. It is all in how you can read into how they carefully describe a subscriber.
My conclusion is screw the quarterly reports. Give me a weekly accounts that logged on in the U.S. and Europe. Then we would see some real data. Not the vague Asia included $0.50 a month gaming parlor crap.
It's time for other game companies to stop bashing this game and start taking notes. There are 4 things that make WoW a hit, and there is no reason whatsoever other companies can't make a different game with different features and still use this formula:
1. It works. The old "it's a mmorpg, it's supposed to be a buggy piece of crap" are over. Are you listening SOE? Sigil?
2. Casual players and hardcore players both like it.
3. Every player, from Northshire Abby at level 1 to the Black Temple at level 70, feels like a hero. The days of "just wait until you get to level __; then the game starts to be fun" are over.
4. PvP is optional, but meaningfully rewarded.
It amazes me that so many game companies can't figure this out. But until they do, enjoy your meager subscriptions and keep making excuses.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Not to mention the myriad of subsciption plans that the asian publishers usually hand out. Does a guy who has a pay as you play subscirption and pays a dollar to play a day in a month count as a full subscirber in Blizzards roundup ?
I never thought that WoW being so popular is a great thing, just as I dont believe Harry Potter "books" are good for the genre. All it does is create a giant market for games and books like HP, but also it makes it less likely for companies to try and do something different. It basically kills creativity.
I have canceled my account. Make it 8.9 mil
All canceled. Waiting on Warhammer Online : Age of Reckoning.
9 million minus one is not 8.9 million
This was well said. There are many more reason why WoW is huge. It always gives me a chuckle to hear all the haters on this site bash the game because it proves no matter how much 'leet gamers' whine and cry
, the numbers don't lie and at the end of the day, it's Blizzard who reaps the rewards of the number one game, not any of us secretly banging away on it and posting how much we don't like it on this forum.
To add to the nice list here, it's easy to learn and gets more complex as you go. The interface is user friendly. GM's respond right away and actually help (unlike EQ). Mods are a way to get players personally involved in development and very helpful. No zoning. Patches typically are beneficial, not detrimental. They recognize that not everyone wants to worship made up gods. Guild tabard is a cool idea and very customizable. Guild rosters make sense. Raids are manageable. Tradeskills are interesting instead of a boring grind. It's easy to find merchants/auctionhouse that you need. PvP is better than EQ1, EQ2, GuildWars, etc. The list goes on, but I'm sure each of us 9 million players have something to add.
http://www.allaboutgod.com/
lmao.
I think it's still only about 3.5million users across the western world (USA and Europe). The fact Blizzard are quite easily willing to say 9mil subscribers, but wont tell us how many players per region tells us just how much they're milking the eastern market - the increase in figures is most likely from China alone.
mhm, I am still confused with these numbers. 9 million ACTIVE subscriptions, is that correct? or 9 million copies sold?
if it is active subs, then it would be interesting to know how many copies were sold, since quiet a few have quit or paused.
anyway, it's still good for the industry, because, as one has mentioned here, it means you can't just publish anything. well, some try anyway, e.g. LOTRO (don't get me wrong, I like the game, but it's not what it could have been). Speaking of, didn't they want to hit the 1 million mark soon after launch? haven't heard any news on that so far.
on the other hand, take STO - they devs stated supposedly, that they will do a "wow-clone" because the risk with the expensive license is too great
anyway, why does everone talk about wow-clones? it should actually be EQ1(2)/DAOC clones imho !
weeeeell, depens on how generously you round off/down ...
WoW has some of th eworst meaningless PvP around today. Most games are better than WoW at PvP even Everquest 2 is better.
"Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god."
-- Jean Rostand
Should silence the annoying twerps that keep saying that people are leaving WoW en-masse, or that WoW is dying, for a week at least, before we hear that it's dying again.
Still waiting for your Holy Grail MMORPG? Interesting...
You just described WAR
(Of course, if Mythic manages to deliver what Videos and Feature Explanations show)
Someone else already corrected the line about PVP... might as well tackle this one.....
But, people looking for a meaningful crafting system, skill based character development, player housing, boats, endgame objectives beyond obtaining yet another piece of armor or weapons (such as controlling territory), and a mature, intelligent, helpful player community are sort of left out in the cold.
Yes, its a good game for the average player....
It is my curse to be above the average
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Obviously WoW does ALOT of things right.
Honestly, the 1st few months I played I had a blast, it was awesome.
I'll give here the good points of WoW as I see them :
The polish, the best ever as far as mmorpg's go.
The quest system, questing is leveling, and the natural progression from 1 area to another, just plain great.
The class and talent system, not perfect, not alot of diversity between horde and alliance, BUT it works, and with talents you really can get totally dufferent play styles in 1 class.
The fast paced combat, the combat system in itself is imho the best I played, except for planetside and oblivion, wich are FPS style ( wich I obviously prefer ).
The World, the exploring, the content, all just great.
The graphics, well they are not THAT great, but the cartoony look is very forgiving, it looks good now, and it will look good a few years in the future. And overall alot of attention to detail.
Handcrafted world, always better then random generated.
5 man instances were alot of fun. Perhaps a bit much of that, but I think they can have their place in a mmorpg.
Here the points that were pretty bad at launch, but got improved alot :
Launch and Server stability : unlike implied by a pervious poster, the launch of WoW USA AND WoW Europe were pretty much a disaster. Ofc because too much people wanted to play the game. What I never understood is that after the big problems with the launch in the US, the same problems happened in Europe. They should have learned form their mistakes imho ...
Anyway, the performance and stability issues have been handled slowly, but adequatly. So good points for improving this.
At launch the Community sucked so hard it wasn't even funny, but that was to be expected, there were alot of new players who never played any mmorpg before. Now, a few years after release, the community has matured and learned from their mistakes. Not saying it is A+, but at least a C+ nowadays.
PvP, I always hoped for a more RvR kind of PvP in WoW, I always envisioned it would be like that. But it never happened. Blizzard 1st nerfed outdoor pvp by adding BG's. Then nerfed outdoor PvP by penalizing people that raid towns by giving negative points for killing civilian NPC's.
But they again improved PvP by adding outdoor PvP objectives with ok rewards. They also removed the penalties for killing NPC civilians, so people could raid towns again if they feel like it.
They added Arena's, fun for some, not for all tho.
Also the change in how you get Honor Points and how you get equipment was a very good change. ( alot more casual now )
So overall the PvP improved, it will never be true RvR ( Horde vs Alliance on a grand scale ), but it is probably the second best. And with the current state of DAoC, I even think that CURRENTLY the best and most fun MMORPG PvP is to be found in WoW. ( Except for Planetside, but that is not a real mmorpg, it is more a mmofps, also the space combat in SWG is better, FPS will always be better then point and click imho )
It is a pitty that WoW never offered ( and prolly never will ) a true great endgame PvP ( RvR ) system. It would have increased it's longetivety ALOT ( for me ).
Now the things I do not like about WoW :
The main problem I have with WoW is that it tries to convert the casual gamer into a hardcore raider. I liked raiding for a while, and WoW does raiding well. But in the end, raiding in instances with capped numbers ( 10 and 25 these days ) makes the community very small. Cause you play with the same 10 to 50 people over and over again. It is also VERY hardcore, especially for the leaders. I now swore to myself, that if I return to WoW, I will NOT EVER go raiding again.
Now I would never have had this problem with raiding if there was a valuable endgame alternative in the form of PvP ( RvR ), if there would have been RvR like in DAoC, then there would have been a choice in endgame. Yes there is choice now, but the PvP in WoW is too meaningless. Unless you played DAoC, you dont know what I talk about. Realm Identity and Realm Pride were awesome in DAoC ( were, DAoC is dying now, I hope it will be revived soon, but that is another story ).
I guess that is the only thing I currently dont like about WoW
But it is enough for me to not play it anymore.
Some people claim that people WANT WoW to be PvE minded and that they dont need RvR type of PvP. I disagree, mainly because there are ALOT more PvP servers in WoW then PvE servers.
The majority of WoW is PvP minded, and they are satisfied to some extend, but it could have been alot better, and I am pretty sure Warhammer will fill this void. ( Altho Warhammer is getting some questionable design decisions as well )
Finally, I would like to add that I am sure WoW is growing good in Asia, cause there are the grinders and raiders.
But I have doubts that EU and US servers are gaining population. I rather think they are on a status quo, and when the next best PvP mmorpg comes out, people will leave.
Greetings
If you are interested in subscription or PCU numbers for MMORPG's, check out my site :
http://mmodata.blogspot.be/
Favorite MMORPG's : DAoC pre ToA-NF, SWG Pre CU-NGE, EVE Online
But, people looking for a meaningful crafting system, skill based character development, player housing, boats, endgame objectives beyond obtaining yet another piece of armor or weapons (such as controlling territory), and a mature, intelligent, helpful player community are sort of left out in the cold.
Yes, its a good game for the average player....
It is my curse to be above the average
Agreed, I feel the same.
Casual gamers will never get to raiding, cause there is too much to do before raiding.
Many Hardcore gamers love raiding, and therefore have np with it.
But the true hardcore gamer that wants to build a world and a community is left in the cold.
Greetz
If you are interested in subscription or PCU numbers for MMORPG's, check out my site :
http://mmodata.blogspot.be/
Favorite MMORPG's : DAoC pre ToA-NF, SWG Pre CU-NGE, EVE Online
It amazes me how some of you are trying to trivialize this achievement. Sure, WoW has it's problems but the numbers are simply stagering whether they're 9 mil or 8.9, or 5.9. It's still an amazing achievement in MMO history. And it's ridiculous to say sure 9 mil play but that doesn't mean the game's a good one!!111 That reminds me of a kid trying to hold on to their anger even when they're totally in the wrong and don't have a leg to stand on. Wake up and get over yourselves and your hate-obsession. Your not liking a game or a company does not automatically mean the game or company is bad or that the game sucks. The numbers for this game are not dwindling they're growing which in itself is amazing seeing as how long it's been live.
And no I don't play anymore but I still see these numbers (whatever you want to round them to) as simply amazing.
I would truely like to see the breakdown per region (ie NA/ EU/ Asia) and the trend over time. i would expect that most growth if not all of it comes from Asia, and things are pretty saturated in NA/EU. Sure you'll get new players, but also you'll have people leaving.
To be fair if I had still had my lvl 60 and hadn't deleted her in a fit of rage, then I would have probably come back to the game at least to play BC.... I can't however bring myself to lvl another character through what must now be pretty empty content from 1-60 and do the same quests and instances over again...
Still playing LOTRO at the moment, lvl 44 now, and its less and less fun to be fair and the cracks are showing. It doesn't have a hugely different combat system to WoW, and it doesn't have full PvP to really have fun with, so looking forward towards AOC and WAR in the future.
Is this 9 Millions since release or is that 9 million current active accounts?
As far as I can see on the server I was playing on people were leaving out of bordom