World of Warcraft: Population 2,000,001 (and rising)

Many in the game industry consider China to be the ultimate prize in the massively multiplayer online role-playing-game market. Today, the public got some proof why. Blizzard Entertainment announced that, less than a week after it launched its überpopular World of Warcraft in China, the game's worldwide subscriber base has surpassed two million.

The figure marks an increase of over 500,000 subscribers since mid-March, when World of Warcraft was already the fastest-growing MMORPG in North America, Europe, Korea, and Oceania. China contributed many more subscribers, with anticipation for WoW was extremely high in the country. That enthusiasm hasn't diminished now that the game has been released. According to Blizzard, the beta test of the Chinese WoW localization saw 500,000 players online concurrently--roughly the same peak-number figures for North America, Europe, and Oceania combined.

"World of Warcraft continues to surpass all expectations as gamers around the world embrace it with overwhelming support," said Blizzard president and cofounder Mike Morhaime. "We want to thank our players for their incredible response, and we promise to continue supporting World of Warcraft with more updates and content."

Although already hugely popular, World of Warcraft recently got some new content in the form of two battlegrounds, Alterac Valley and Warsong Gulch, and a new player-versus-player (PvP) honor system. For more on the original World of Warcraft--which was named GameSpot's 2004 Game of the Year--read the full review.