10 million WOWed

Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft reaches deca-million milestone; 2.5M NA, 2M Europe, 5.5M Asia users.

Ever since being launched by Blizzard Entertainment at the tail end of 2004, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft has proven monumentally popular. Its original installment set global sales records upon launch, selling 240,000 units in its first 24 hours. That number was reproduced tenfold with its first expansion, The Burning Crusade, which sold 2.4 million copies in its first day on the market.

With Vivendi reporting 9.3 million global subscribers as of mid-November, and the recent launch of The Burning Crusade in China, it comes as no great shock that World of Warcraft has reached the 10 million subscriber milestone. Breaking down its subscriber base today, Blizzard claims to have acquired more than 2.5 million North American and 2 million European players, with another 5.5 million Azerothians plugging in from Asia. WOW's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is expected to arrive later this year for the PC and Mac.

WOW is currently available in North America, Europe, China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, with a Russian version expected to launch later this year. Blizzard noted that the term subscriber encompasses those who have paid a subscription fee, have an active prepaid WOW card, are within their first free month of game access after purchasing the game, or have logged into the game from an Internet cafe within the last 30 days. The tally does not include expired or canceled subscriptions, or those playing under free promotional accounts.

174 Comments

  • mad_tyger

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:44 pm PT

    I wonder if this means we'll see more gamers dying on WoW binges now?

  • Predator_Spear

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:40 pm PT

    10 million people without lives.

  • ctg867

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:36 pm PT

    Lmao, 5.5 million in Asia. Holy crap, that continent is practically built on video games. I'll never get into it though. The game is built in grinding an the addiction to go one more level or one more quest. Kinda bores me.

  • BloodMist

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:33 pm PT

    Been playing for over a year, it's popular for a reason.It's fun.

  • gin_rummy89

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:32 pm PT

    I just bought it

  • MattieIce posted Jan 22, 2008 5:30 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    MattieIce

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:30 pm PT (hide)

    If the graphics looked like the intro movie I would totally play it. Too bad the graphics and animations look like they just zoomed in on warcraft 3.

  • bunyipbrown posted Jan 22, 2008 5:23 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    bunyipbrown

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:23 pm PT (hide)

    crap game.

  • Sonir77

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:22 pm PT

    holy moly

  • The_PC_Gamer posted Jan 22, 2008 5:18 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    The_PC_Gamer

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:18 pm PT (hide)

    "Illidan311

    damn. so basically WoW drove the pc economy off the charts. imagine how many new pc's, graphics cards, and other hardware were bought cause of it"

    Err... no. Wow is one of the worst-looking games. If anything, the reason it seels so much is because it looks like crap and you dont need any decent hardware to run it.

  • MysticDynamite

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:15 pm PT

    Haven't played WoW yet, but those are some impressive numbers. I hope it will let me make another one of those trial accounts...

  • diablobasher

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:14 pm PT

    Ehhh. I do play, but im inclined to beleive that at least a third of those subscriptions are gold farmers. Blizzard REALLY need to do more about them, the more i play, the less i want to play because of gold farmers.

  • mash36 posted Jan 22, 2008 5:11 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    mash36

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:11 pm PT (hide)

    fail

  • Ungdi

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:07 pm PT

    00ooPolarisoo00 lol... you'll get 10,000,000 thumbs down for that! i just made an account...

  • jansdman

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:07 pm PT

    lol @ 00ooPolarisoo00 for saying a game better than Wow that it's not even released yet. I feel sad for you.

  • jansdman

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:06 pm PT

    lol @ 00ooPolarisoo00 for saying a game better than Wow that it's not even released. I feel sad for you.

  • soulsdeparting

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:05 pm PT

    10 million people that need a life.
    seriosuly, the only people i know that played WoW for an extensive period of time now hate how much time they spent on it, and it cost one of them getting into Cornell (he neglected his school to play, even though he is without a doubt a genius)

  • Nishua posted Jan 22, 2008 5:04 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Nishua

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:04 pm PT (hide)

    Crap game.

  • fluffers623

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:03 pm PT

    the requirments for wow are not to high. like a 400 dollar computer could run it with crappy video cards. i played it when it first came out, and had the exact computer ^^

  • matty23211

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:02 pm PT

    Rofl i thought that North america woulda made up most of the pop wow was i wrong >

  • kmanworld

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:02 pm PT

    Should be free by now, with that amount of $$$,$$$,$$$ into the wallet.

  • 00ooPolarisoo00 posted Jan 22, 2008 5:01 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    00ooPolarisoo00

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 5:01 pm PT (hide)

    WoW's crap, Age of Conan is better

  • grafkhun

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:57 pm PT

    what? thats it? naw im just kidding, i dont play WOW myself but w/e.

  • Illidan311

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:57 pm PT

    damn. so basically WoW drove the pc economy off the charts. imagine how many new pc's, graphics cards, and other hardware were bought cause of it

  • tekmojo

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:52 pm PT

    grats

  • Qwert929 posted Jan 22, 2008 4:50 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Qwert929

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:50 pm PT (hide)

    The calculation is more like this:

    10,000,000 - 4,000,000 b/c not everyone who bought WoW is still playing it
    ------------------
    ~6,000,000 x $14.99/ month = $89,940,000 per month

  • higgs64

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:50 pm PT

    also in response to FF6fan's comment, they do release large content patches periodically, not just in the expansion packs. New dungeons, new gear, new objectives and quests, and they retool the different classes to try to keep each class balanced while giving players the ability to choose how they wish to play their class.

  • bigelf72

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:49 pm PT

    Grats Blizzard *Time to log in*

  • ColdfireTrilogy

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:46 pm PT

    WOW.................................................................

  • imnodewd

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:44 pm PT

    Hmmm... 10 million players and how many WoW widows? I'd be curious to see the stats on that...

  • nytemarex

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:44 pm PT

    Here's the number one reason why PC gaming is dying.... It's WoW FAULT!!!!! Damn Blizzard. How much more money can you make off of it!

  • p0rkp1e74

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:42 pm PT

    i refuse to get sucked into this game for my life will end as i know it if i get started on this game.....i willl be happy to watch others lose their life in it's addictive ways!!!!!

  • finaleve

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:40 pm PT

    FF6fan > I think its down to 30 now, i forget though, really havent looked. Still, Blizzard still has its Battle.net servers up. Diablo and any of the other online games they got still run. Its just...they hardly ever patch that game. Maybe its because of WoW or because they are working on new projects

    I ended my subscription a few months ago. I had it for about a year and a half. There's a lot to the game I like and don't like, but the likes overpower the dislikes. I'm trying to start the game up again when I get a friend to play, since he and I both quit at the same time...

  • gasmaskman

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:36 pm PT

    "Man its kinda funny since with WoW u buy the game for 50 $ and then pay to play it... Not to mention the expansion packs which cost additional $50-100... but its kinda understandable for a MMORPG since it takes alot to keep up the server... Though i miss the free online play from blizzard."
    The game is only around $30 for both WoW and the expansion, and you get a free month. The servers must be a b to keep up because there are 10 million players...

  • scayan25

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:34 pm PT

    To FF6fan. heres what he says

    Man its kinda funny since with WoW u buy the game for 50 $ and then pay to play it... Not to mention the expansion packs which cost additional $50-100... but its kinda understandable for a MMORPG since it takes alot to keep up the server... Though i miss the free online play from blizzard.

    But the game only costs 20 not 50, the expansion only 40 not 50-100. are u that ignorant to post such things? plz look into stuff before u open your mouth

  • freitax posted Jan 22, 2008 4:33 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    freitax

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:33 pm PT (hide)

    quote:
    -----------------------
    cloudstrife75

    10 million suckers haha
    ----------------------
    XD
    xD I don't know why laughed so hard

  • ScreamDream

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:32 pm PT

    I thought there were more than 2.5 million NA subcribers. I think I know about 10 people that play that game.

  • theclaw135

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:24 pm PT

    10,000,000 players x $9.99 monthly would be $99,900,000 per month.

    I don't even want to know the real amount of profit they might be getting here...

  • Zendric

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:22 pm PT

    To Iebubu

    Nothing mean, just want to point out that different regions have different subscription fees. Players in China do pay less than 10-15 a month for example. So they may or may not be pulling in 1 billion US dollars a year from subscription fees.

  • EPaul

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:19 pm PT

    WoW how much bigger can it get

  • Gooeykat

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:13 pm PT

    I'd like to know how much growth came from the North America and Europe. I'll bet a majority of it is now coming from Asian markets.

  • Jambi86

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:13 pm PT

    $$$

  • Funkyhamster

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:10 pm PT

    Wow... and I mean that in more ways than one.

  • THE_PREZIDENT

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:08 pm PT

    They should see that south park episode.

  • Cwagmire21

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:05 pm PT

    Glad I got out when I did.

  • FF6fan

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:05 pm PT

    Man its kinda funny since with WoW u buy the game for 50 $ and then pay to play it... Not to mention the expansion packs which cost additional $50-100... but its kinda understandable for a MMORPG since it takes alot to keep up the server... Though i miss the free online play from blizzard.

  • RomisSandthief

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:03 pm PT

    I don't even want to see what this is doing for their wallet.

  • superbobo64

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:03 pm PT

    blizzard FTW!

  • PSP-topher

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:00 pm PT

    I've been "WOWed" by this story!

  • DarkSan00

    Posted Jan 22, 2008 4:00 pm PT

    think they can give some free cash?

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