Warhammer OL hits 500K subscribers

Mythic's long-awaited massively multiplayer fantasy role-playing game gets a half-million sign-ups in just one week; EA claims game is "fastest-selling new MMO of all time."

When Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning launched last week, hopes were high. The game had been in the works for more than three years, after Mythic Entertainment picked up the massively multiplayer online role-playing license in the wake of Climax Online's failed attempt.

After Electronic Arts bought Mythic in 2006, it sunk a "huge pile of money" into the title, designer Brian Wheeler said at a recent press event. Indeed, last month, EA Games president Frank Gibeau told GameSpot that he thinks Warhammer has a good chance to "bring something fresh" to the MMORPG space, currently dominated by Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft.

As it turns out, Warhammer is already well on its way to fulfilling Gibeau's aspirations. EA today announced that in its first seven days on the market, the game garnered a half-million account sign-ups--or more than 71,000 each day. Though nowhere near World of Warcraft's 11-million-strong subscriber base, the number is 100,000 more than the first-week performance of Funcom's Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, WOW's biggest challenger to date.

EA claims Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, which it abbreviates as "WAR," is now "the fastest-selling new MMO of all time." It also has room to grow since WAR is currently sold only in North America, Europe, and Australasia--unlike WOW, which is available in Asia proper, including the hyper-lucrative Chinese and Korean markets.

However, it remains to be seen whether WAR's growth can sustain itself, unlike another MMORPG. Despite shipping 1.2 million units, Age of Conan had only 415,000 subscribers worldwide three months after launching.

115 Comments

  • mickiolin

    Posted Apr 7, 2009 3:49 am PT

    It would be fun to know what there subscribers are down to now - guessing around 120K atm.

  • mof0

    Posted Oct 1, 2008 7:44 am PT

    Having played this for almost a week now, I must say the game itself is good but there's one big flaw, and it doesn't have to do with the game itself. It's the lack of official forums. How come Mythic/EA haven't provided official forums for the community? How can a game that's designed to be community-driven with RvR launch without providing the community with forums? How are players supposed to co-ordinate attacks/defense or chat away about in-game happenings? It isn't helped by the fact that hardly anyone uses the in-game chat since all text except warbands, party, guild) has the exact same colour and there're too many sub-zones. It would be much better if an entire tier was a single chat channel. Oh, and make the loot text a different colour please. Everything being white or an offshoot of white is painful.

    Back to the forum issue, for all of Mythic's spin on how it listens to the community and how it is a community-driven company, the fact that they haven't provided forums for the community smacks of cheapness. The community won't be a community if they're all scattered across forums hosted by various fan-sites. What is Mythic afraid of? Are they scared about negative opinions on forums? Are they afraid of accountability (considering they don't have to answer to the community if the community can't ask the questions in the first place)? It's not like they're lacking money. It's EA publishing the damn game. I really hope they launch an official forum for the game.

    As for the game itself, I'm still having fun in it, but my concerns in my previous post a few posts down still stand.

  • Shinkada

    Posted Sep 30, 2008 9:49 pm PT

    Genius, a5h7on. Genius.

  • Adam_the_Nerd

    Posted Sep 30, 2008 4:59 pm PT

    that's incredible. But I remember Age of Conan had the same early success, but it is already beginning to die, a shame. Maybe this won't take that path; i want to pick it up this holiday.

  • JojoX97

    Posted Sep 30, 2008 3:16 pm PT

    You're going to see this with any new MMO that comes out. People want to try something that's different than WoW, but will inevitably go back to WoW because it's superior (read: people have too much time invested in it).

    I tried AoC when it came out, thought it was pretty good, then after two months I was back on WoW. I've been playing WAR for the last week, and honestly, I want to go back to WoW already.

  • Shadow_Fire41

    Posted Sep 30, 2008 2:10 pm PT

    hehehehe, i am one of the lucky few to own a CE version of this game......it was worth every ****ing cent, even though im gonna sell figurine on ebay someday.

  • vandrius

    Posted Sep 29, 2008 8:55 pm PT

    WAR is awesome. Simple as that.

    If you're on the fence, as with any MMO, just wait a couple months and all of the giant "issues" that trolls spout will be fixed up and the game will be brilliant, rather than merely awesome.

    Thoroughly recommended by yours truly (Veteran of UO, DAoC, Shadowbane, AO, EVE, WoW, AoC)

  • Diernes

    Posted Sep 29, 2008 8:47 pm PT

    One of the best launches for a MMO I have ever experienced, and its also a great game.

    I was bored in 10 hours playing wow. This game I am completely and utterly hooked on. Here is a pointer regarding scenario's. ignore them and go raid a siege of join a open Rvr server!

  • DiscGuru101

    Posted Sep 29, 2008 2:09 pm PT

    Warhammer online is totally awesome. All the nit picking of it is hilarious to me. Kind of like when GTA4 came out. Sure you can split hairs over content and x, y, or z. Overall, you have one liquid awesome smooth game on your hands.

  • IXIWhistIXI

    Posted Sep 29, 2008 11:38 am PT

    Akguc, their intentions were to focus on one specific thing because there's no way they could develop a game as big and good as wow with out having it out for a little making profits.
    Rather than taking the conan route and saying "WE ARE GOING TO HAVE THIS AND THAT AND THIS AND THAT!" and then having only a few of those things at launch, they decided to just say they're going to be focusing on one thing.
    There's no doubt if this game doesn't go under that they will expand the pve content greatly.
    They just don't have the time or the budget to be able to develop wow v2 from the start.

  • a5h7on

    Posted Sep 29, 2008 9:12 am PT

    Yeah Warhammer Relay Suck, Its Got more Instanced Battlegrounds, then WoW dose After 4 Years. Who The hell wants a PvP based MMO, that dosent Require you to join a guild and Run the same Raid bosses to get Loot, and There are Way too many Different PvP based Game types, and with over 20 maps its way too confusing. i just want to play a game were people pvp not to win, but to get that last token for a some new boots, on the same map that I've grown to love after playing that same map for the last 4 years. Who the hell wants to win, when you can be #1 on the killing blows on the leader board.

  • akguc

    Posted Sep 28, 2008 8:49 pm PT

    WAR is too much RvR based in my opinion. you can sit and do rvr scenarios all the time you have and you can get much better exp than questing and in addition you get renown exp which can be used to develop your toon. I dont see why developer choose to give regular exp as well as renown exp since game world is rich and beautiful , instead they literally make you to do same scenario in a small map over and over. I really like WAR but I think if they dont cut exp for rvr scenarios it will soon be boring for a lot of players.

  • SteveTwo

    Posted Sep 28, 2008 12:22 pm PT

    Gooeykat said "The Silmarillion (which was fantastic)"

    Wow, that's the one book I couldn't get into! I think the different between the lore in WAR and WoW is that the lore in WAR has been around for 25 years and is considered set in stone. WoW changes the lore every expansion pack to accomodate new ideas. The difference is subtle, and they may both fall under the catagory of cliched fantasy, but atleast the lore in WAR has some sense of weight to the history.

  • Gooeykat

    Posted Sep 28, 2008 10:41 am PT

    People actually read the warhammer stories and lore? Seriously, I don't want to put anyone down but 99% of it is cliched fantasy. I mean the Tolkien was cool and I read the LoTR and The Hobbit and even The Silmarillion (which was fantastic). Any who, liking WAR so far.

  • djwood84

    Posted Sep 28, 2008 9:30 am PT

    I must say; player pop, or Order VS Destruction doesn't seem to be a problem, at least not for me. I can get into a scenario in 2-5 mins usuually, and, as Order, I win about 75% of the time.

    However, I do agree that the PQ's may well end up dead content in the early areas as the player base grows in level. How on earth will they fix this? NPCs? Something has to be done, influence not functioning for the first 10-20 levels of the game would be a big problem.

  • majere613

    Posted Sep 28, 2008 8:41 am PT

    I have to second mof0's concerns. Since WAR is entirely based on factional RvR, the population imbalances are looking like they could be a big problem. On my Destruction toons, it takes ages to get a scenario battle and I've never lost. On my Order, it takes no time at all and I've never won. The problem's worse in the open world.
    Mythic may well need to do something about this, but short of forcing people to switch faction (not a realistic option imho) it's hard to see _what_ they can do.

  • Gezquester

    Posted Sep 28, 2008 6:34 am PT

    Ahh I really wanna play this!

  • mof0

    Posted Sep 28, 2008 4:10 am PT

    Playing WAR for about 3 days now and it has surprised me. Having not followed the game much nor having played in any of the betas, I wasn't expecting much. It is quite fun though; the zones, characters and stories are well-made, the mixture of PvE and PvP is done well, and the Tome of Knowledge is a very nice idea. However, the skewed Destruction:Order population on every realm is a cause for concern. In every server, Destruction outnumbers Order by a large amount (OK, maybe not every server, more like 90%). And given the nature of Public Quests and the RvR quests, I don't know how long the early areas can sustain the number of players required for such quests.

    All in all, WAR is not looking like a flash-in-the-pan that AoC was. Nice to have some real competition in the MMO-market. That being said, I'll surely play WotLK when it comes out. Hopefully WAR continues to grow once that releases.

  • DiabolicalX

    Posted Sep 28, 2008 2:52 am PT

    @Blazius: I've read a lot from both and I can honestly say that warhammer is much larger in depth and scope

    @BloodMist: a) spell my username right pls b) have u ever read or even seen anything from warhammer?

  • Lord_Regnier

    Posted Sep 28, 2008 2:32 am PT

    Will this keep up when the new wow expansion comes out?

  • js0823

    Posted Sep 28, 2008 1:02 am PT

    I don't know about you guys, but I've known both warhammer and warcraft stories for a long time, but for me I love both stories. Who cares if warcraft came later? The fact that we have two lores which both compete and give us double amount of stories to read makes it all the better.

  • Fuseking

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 11:58 pm PT

    I read both the books for Warhammer and the warhammer 40k series which rocks overall. I have warcraft books but they are the usual gibberish. I have read even all the lore and stuff in the original warcraft 2 and 3 when you buy the game and get the booklet. I think Warhammer or "WAR" is the next step up now from Wow. I personally never get to deep in these games becuase well..I have a life now and all. Though I can't wait to see what warhammer 40k online will turnout like and I love warcraft 2-3 and warhammer 40k games so I have dipped in both areas.

  • OmegaTau

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 8:31 pm PT

    for the people that dont know warhammer lore is the reason warcarft exist look it up warhammer been a table top game for a long time I rember seeing it in a card shop all painted up and I was 12 then now im 22 years old. any who I play wow well i did once my pally hit lv 70 I will be back on when litch comes out but at the same time im getting warhammer this october once my new rig comes.

  • Blazius2

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 3:26 pm PT

    A lot of people here are saying that warhammer lore is much richer than WoW's. I guess that depends on your opinion in the end, but I doubt that all of the people saying that have even read one book based on the warcraft universe. ONE book. Probably all of you know is that there's the horde and the alliance, lead by the orcs and the humans, and they're at war. There's, umm, Illidan, and he's going to take over outland, so we gotta kill him. Arthas looks like the king of the death knights or something, and uhh, he controls the undead, but i dunno wtf is up with the undead race not being controlled by him. Now I'm not saying that all of you don't know anything about wow lore, but I am saying that a lot of you see that people who do seem to know what their talking in warhammer lore and WoW lore are saying that it's better, so you go and say that as an excuse to get a 1-up for warhammer. And I do think that the majority of the people subscribing to warhammer previously played WoW.

  • BloodMist posted Sep 27, 2008 10:56 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    BloodMist

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 10:56 am PT (hide)

    @Diobolical

    Sure, Warhammer rips off sci-fi as well as fantasy.

  • IXIWhistIXI posted Sep 27, 2008 9:12 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    IXIWhistIXI

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 9:12 am PT (hide)

    Funny, my friend who has an account said some time last week that they lost 200,000 subscribers...
    I guess those are being replaced by new people?

  • doctorj11111

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 8:59 am PT

    I love this game, I don't think I will play WOW anymore after playing this. This is like an updated version of WOW. You do need a powerful system and high resolution to get the full experience though. This is also great for WOW players, because now blizzard can't just sit on their butt collecting money, maybe now they can think of a true sequel instead of more of the same expansion packs.

  • makemeweak

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 7:14 am PT

    That's awesome. This game should give WOW a run for it's money.

  • Blank2k2

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 7:12 am PT

    Im sure they'll hit 1million subs before the months up but that will be there peak, WoW is played out. WAR is a remake of WoW, so doesnt interest many MMO veterans, unless they played warhammer when they were younger.

    Just remember AoC hit high subscribers in its first month, and that game is concidered a flop. (Since most of those subs, myself included though i lasted abit longer) left after there 3rd month.

  • combatsoldier

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 6:32 am PT

    very cool Warhammer is awsome.

  • 56708

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 5:27 am PT

    most of WOW players are people in Asian sweatshops or bots trying to lvl chars and farm gold to sell for real world cash

  • mikolajjj

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 3:33 am PT

    Faephoenix_Eyes, they said "WAR is currently sold only in North America, Europe, and Australasia--unlike WOW, which is available in Asia",
    WAR is not available in Asia, WoW IS.
    Btw WAR is great, I played since early access and it is FUN, it brings back the good values of mmos, RvR is just great. This game is gonna be the hit.

  • CorpsePit

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 3:26 am PT

    Ahahahaha half a million in a week, that's awesome. It'll be sweet if that kind of rate keeps up over the next few weeks. I doubt WoW will ever die, but I'd sure like to see it taken down a peg or two, Being number one is one thing, but being a Shark in a goldfish bowl is another thing entirely.

  • Faephoenix_Eyes

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 3:25 am PT

    @ jazilla, what the hell you mean the chinese/korean population in Asia doesnt play WOW?! your crazy. Hella people play WoW in asia and China's players dominate arenas in WoW more than any other. Ive played both taiwanese and north american WoWs.

  • DiabolicalX

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 1:49 am PT

    If all those could take a step back from the old saying of everyone copied everyone else for one minute and just take this as fact, Blizzard came to Games workshop and asked if they could make a game about warhammer, GW said no as they were a tabletop hobby company not a gaming company, so Blizzard went ahead and made it anyway, but changed the names and places just enough to avoid plagerism, they did the same thing with Starcraft, I don't recall any similar confrontation with Tolkein as the idea of Elves and Dwarves had been around since Celtic and Norse mythology and also that Warhammer take on said mythos is incredibly different from Tolkeins world, so for those who do claim that warhammer is a copy of LOTR, take a step back and read about warhammer you'll find it's incredibly different

  • Mjolnirukl

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 12:39 am PT

    Took a look at my sis playing the game: I don't think they'll have any problems in keeping subscribers the way the game is going. It prolly will be in the top 5 MMOs if this keeps up, but then again look at how AoC is doing now. I hope it does well tho, Ive been itching to play since I saw it's website.

  • Lukasz253

    Posted Sep 27, 2008 12:17 am PT

    500k nice for the time being

  • js0823

    Posted Sep 26, 2008 8:41 pm PT

    Selling loads of copies is one thing, keeping subscribers is another. I hope this game does well though. I'm tired of WoW now o_O need more spins for MMO market!

  • h1dd3n5had0w

    Posted Sep 26, 2008 7:12 pm PT

    Its good that the companies are competing with each other in this manner instead of having one dominant company have all the market share. In the long run, hopefully they will create more ideas and be more creative in their future games. I would just hate to see the same thing over and over again within the next decade.

  • Sundaze

    Posted Sep 26, 2008 6:36 pm PT

    "And Warhammer ripped off LotR, and all of fantasy and all of sci-fi.Everything ripped of everything.That's no excuse."

    You are right, but Warhammer developed a version of the Tolkien-esque lore that had several differences. WoW's fantasy lore is very representative of the Warhammer universe described by the tabletop games and books. The warcraft universe was being developed to be a warhammer universe, but the Games Workshop did not license them to use it. Blizzard kept a lot of what they were developing, but changed it just enough. Everyone copies everyone. Can't they both be very different, but very good games?

  • Phenom316

    Posted Sep 26, 2008 5:37 pm PT

    Niceee!!!!!!

  • BloodMist posted Sep 26, 2008 5:33 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    BloodMist

    Posted Sep 26, 2008 5:33 pm PT (hide)

    And Warhammer ripped off LotR, and all of fantasy and all of sci-fi.Everything ripped of everything.That's no excuse.

  • binghanem

    Posted Sep 26, 2008 5:29 pm PT

    WAR is way better than WoW, I played both of them and I wish people understand that WoW copied everything from Warhammer stories.

  • BloodMist

    Posted Sep 26, 2008 5:16 pm PT

    "just a few words, get a life"

    Look who's talkin.

  • bigsexypimp posted Sep 26, 2008 5:11 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    bigsexypimp

    Posted Sep 26, 2008 5:11 pm PT (hide)

    just a few words, get a life

  • Jazperson posted Sep 26, 2008 4:47 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Jazperson

    Posted Sep 26, 2008 4:47 pm PT (hide)

    Yeah I don't like the game either. Poor graphics and copy cats of WoW.

  • earlthecannibal posted Sep 26, 2008 4:11 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    earlthecannibal

    Posted Sep 26, 2008 4:11 pm PT (hide)

    Two games with crappy 1999 graphics = pass

  • jedinortd_basic

    Posted Sep 26, 2008 4:04 pm PT

    i currently play WOW, WAR, and LOTRO. i really enjoy all three. now i have to cycle through them every month or so cause i dont want to pay for all 3 at once lol

  • Warchief_Zuljin

    Posted Sep 26, 2008 4:03 pm PT

    They might wanna wait a month after the launch to see how many subscribers they actually have..

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