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World of Warcraft: 1,000,000 + In Europe

StraddenStradden Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
in News & Features Discussion

 


WORLD OF WARCRAFT® REACHES MORE THAN ONE MILLION CUSTOMERS IN EUROPE


Total worldwide population for Blizzard Entertainment®'s massively multiplayer online game now more than 5.5 million customers

Irvine, California - 19 January, 2006 - Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.'s World of Warcraft®, the world's leading subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, has surpassed the one million customer milestone in Europe, more than quadrupling the previously estimated size of the entire European MMORPG market since its launch in February 2005. In addition, World of Warcraft topped the sales charts* for full-price PC games in Europe last year. Worldwide, the game has a growing audience of more than 5.5 million customers.

"It is extremely rewarding to see so many European players enjoying World of Warcraft," said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment®. "The players have supported our belief in the European MMORPG market, and we thank them for helping us make World of Warcraft one of the most popular games in the world."

Available in English, French, and German in Europe, World of Warcraft is operated by Blizzard's local European office. Established in late 2003 and already comprising more than 400 employees and 22 different nationalities, Blizzard Europe - the second-largest Blizzard office in the world - has expanded rapidly to keep pace with the growth of World of Warcraft in Europe.

World of Warcraft has steadily grown in popularity around the world since its initial launch in North America, Australia, and New Zealand last November. Following successful launches in Korea, Europe, China and Singapore, World of Warcraft launched in the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.

For more information on World of Warcraft, please visit the game's official website at www.wow-europe.com.

World of Warcraft's Customer Definition
World of Warcraft customers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or purchased a prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the installation box bundled with one free month access. Internet Game Room players that have accessed the game over the last seven days are also counted as customers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired pre-paid cards. Customers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.

* Based on numbers from Media Control & GFK panels across Europe as well as internal studies and account data.

About Blizzard Entertainment®, Inc.
Best known for blockbuster hits including the Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® series, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Vivendi Universal Games, is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating many of the industry's most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard's track record includes nine #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company's free Internet gaming service, Battle.net®, reigns as the largest in the world, with millions of active users.


[ expand article ]

Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com

Comments

  • TorvacTorvac Member UncommonPosts: 135

    maybe dont count the 200.000 players that cant actually play since december because telias bad routing in europe

  • RaenzRaenz Member UncommonPosts: 81

    This, to me, is mind boggling.

    5.5 million SUBSCRIBERS. At roughly $15 a month.
    82.5 million a month in gross revenue.

    Considering bandwidth costs, marketing, staff for ALL of Blizzard, I would venture that they spend about 50-100M a year.

    82.5 x12 = 990,000,000 annually. That truly is WoW!

    -Raenz-

  • EffectEffect Member UncommonPosts: 949

    Not really. Seems they are saying "customers". Even with that number we don't really know if they are counting closed accounts or not. Do we? Sure they have all these people coming in, exactly what is the number of people leaving? It's not like they would just discount all the people that left, nah counting them even though they are gone just makes Blizzard and WoW look even better.

  • werdnawerdna Member Posts: 14

    Lol I remember when people were saying that this initial increase in people was not going to last and new MMORPGs would take it down.

  • slakslak Member Posts: 83

    Doesn't matter how many idiots play it, it's still crap.

  • TiiKiiTiiKii Member UncommonPosts: 163

    Blizzard now has ONE great player base... both in Europe and America image

    NOW..

    Can they fix the "Q's", so we don't have to wait from 45mins to an hour to get in, in the evenings!! image

    "Huntress"

  • Jd1680aJd1680a Member Posts: 398
    Im just wondering.  Does blizzard really watch for that 1,000,000th account?  I wonder if they offer that person a free three month subscription or something because of it.

    Have played: CoH, DDO EQ2, FFXI, L2, HZ, SoR, and WW2 online

  • JhughesyJhughesy Member Posts: 419
    So many sheep. image
  • grinreapergrinreaper Member Posts: 507

    Remember kids, blizzard isnt really an MMOG company...they may be looking at boxes sold, notice they dont say subscribers, but customers...and as for the guy saying they havent been taken down...the games that have a shot to be wow killers havent been released yet, if i were Blizzard, I would be sweating DDOL and WAR just like the old guard sweated when WOW hit...but wow will always have a few million BNet drones to fall back on

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