WoW reaches 12 million

Heh, sorry if this is a repost, but I found it interesting; I thought the game was either declining very slowly or stabilized. Seems like it is still growing O_o.

"Today we announced that World of Warcraft has passed another major milestone and now hosts more than 12 million current subscribers around the globe. Check out thepress releasefor the full announcement, and thank you to all of our players for making this possible -- we're grateful for all of the support and enthusiasm you've shown over the years, and look forward to continuing to provide you with great entertainment experiences for a long time to come."

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/press/pressreleases.html?101007

Well deserved in my opinion.

It have only stoped growing... Or well thats not true... It have increased with 500 000 subs this year... Its not going anywhere any time soon.

World of Warcraft is a great game and I also think it's well deserved.

Does this count the amount of accounts made or the ones currently still active ?

I think the increase in numbers is due to the release of WotLK in China. I expect the numbers to jump again, once cataclysm is released and north american/ european players start coming back.

Unsurprising. WoW only registered a decline once in his lifetime, it's about time it reached 12M.

Also, that's the number of total *active* accounts.

[QUOTE="SupergumXP"]

I think the increase in numbers is due to the release of WotLK in China.

-wildflower-

That's exactly what I was thinking. Funny how these press releases dried up whilst Blizzard was having all of their issues in China but now that everything has been resolved...Bam! roll out the self-promoting press releases! Coincidence? I guess 8 million Chinese gold farmers can't be wrong.

They aren't going to report that they lost about half their user base when the chinese gov't banned WoW. It was an estimated 6.6 million chinese players when they mentioned their 11.5 million milestone.

This is ACTIVE subs... Not the nr of accounts. Would be funny to see the nr of accounts for some reason i think its sky high O.o

[QUOTE="-wildflower-"]

[QUOTE="SupergumXP"]

I think the increase in numbers is due to the release of WotLK in China.

XaosII

That's exactly what I was thinking. Funny how these press releases dried up whilst Blizzard was having all of their issues in China but now that everything has been resolved...Bam! roll out the self-promoting press releases! Coincidence? I guess 8 million Chinese gold farmers can't be wrong.

They aren't going to report that they lost about half their user base when the chinese gov't banned WoW. It was an estimated 6.6 million chinese players when they mentioned their 11.5 million milestone.

does this also count players that have accounts that aren't active

How much do the Chinese pay?

does this also count players that have accounts that aren't active

MaddogQ80

No.

How much do the Chinese pay?

Baranga

Hardly anything, which is what makes this announcement lackluster.

They pay about 6 cents per hour (no monthly fee). In addition, Blizzard has to split a large amount of the money with their Chinese partner, Netease. The estimate is 4-6 million of the 12 million players are Chinese.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/193148-blizzard-s-world-of-warcraft-the-china-growth-story

Its just marketing hype from Blizz. Their WoW profits have to be down in the past few years.

Yet they're still making more money than any other MMO. And 12 million users is impressive regardless of how much they pay.

Other developers shouldn't try to compete with WoW. It's obviously the exception in this genre.

Chinese players pay an average of $5 a month for WoW...the guy get's corrected in the comments section. His estimate was obviously low on the revenues from Chinese players...there was an ~200 million differential in his estimates and based on his $0.06/hr X 10 hr a month player average...he wrongly said that was from legacy title sales. Anybody who thinks starcraft/warcraft/ect still sells enough to to make that kind of profits (works out to almost 7 million copies a year) is nuts. The Chinese market is still very profitable for Blizzard, though of course not so much as other regions. Any way you slice it they are bringing in over a billion dollars in sales from a single game, and they have 12 million subscribers. That's not marketing 'hype'...that's reality.Renevent42

Well said. I definetely agree WoW is a huge success (I was a subscriber myself for over 5 years). I also have owned every single Blizzard product since Warcraft 2. I'm not a WoW basher, but it does irk me a little bit when marketing talk leaves out these kind of details from their press releases. Regardless, it proves that WoW is still very popular for a good reason.

Blizzard really deserves this....honestly, regardless of how the game has changed since vanilla, its really quality, polished and great. I played the game for 3 years and I was never hooked to any game like I was with WoW at one point in my life. I quit recently after I cleared Lich king 25 heroic...I felt like I had nothing left to acomplish and I have not reserved cataclysm...its time to relax.

I will continue to support blizzard...SC2 is great, and Diablo 3 looks to be amazing.

you gotta remember there are lots of people out there with many many accountsicedout06

And also "lots" of people "out there" who share one account in "many many".

Ok I'll admit it, after 1 year break I started playing WoW again :(

shame on me

This milestone brought to you in part by your good friends at susanexpress and wow4gold.

Without them ( and that 20 boxing nelf hunter that has been in azshara for 4 years ) this would not have been possible.

[QUOTE="Renevent42"]Chinese players pay an average of $5 a month for WoW...the guy get's corrected in the comments section. His estimate was obviously low on the revenues from Chinese players...there was an ~200 million differential in his estimates and based on his $0.06/hr X 10 hr a month player average...he wrongly said that was from legacy title sales. Anybody who thinks starcraft/warcraft/ect still sells enough to to make that kind of profits (works out to almost 7 million copies a year) is nuts. The Chinese market is still very profitable for Blizzard, though of course not so much as other regions. Any way you slice it they are bringing in over a billion dollars in sales from a single game, and they have 12 million subscribers. That's not marketing 'hype'...that's reality.mkaliaz

Well said. I definetely agree WoW is a huge success (I was a subscriber myself for over 5 years). I also have owned every single Blizzard product since Warcraft 2. I'm not a WoW basher, but it does irk me a little bit when marketing talk leaves out these kind of details from their press releases. Regardless, it proves that WoW is still very popular for a good reason.

wow , the best 3D game, agree?? so 12 million of course, will be more...

Heh, sorry if this is a repost, but I found it interesting; I thought the game was either declining very slowly or stabilized. Seems like it is still growing O_o.

"Today we announced that World of Warcraft has passed another major milestone and now hosts more than 12 million current subscribers around the globe. Check out thepress releasefor the full announcement, and thank you to all of our players for making this possible -- we're grateful for all of the support and enthusiasm you've shown over the years, and look forward to continuing to provide you with great entertainment experiences for a long time to come."

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/press/pressreleases.html?101007

Well deserved in my opinion.

eh? Ofc they dont play 24/7...

Guys, please realize, the 12M is current, active, paying accounts. This is a huge number, good for them as well. It's a great game.LethalEu4ia

I wonder if that number would hit 13M with the release of Cataclysm. Its shaping out to be a very promising expansion pack.

Blizzard really deserves this....honestly, regardless of how the game has changed since vanilla, its really quality, polished and great. I played the game for 3 years and I was never hooked to any game like I was with WoW at one point in my life. I quit recently after I cleared Lich king 25 heroic...I felt like I had nothing left to acomplish and I have not reserved cataclysm...its time to relax.

I will continue to support blizzard...SC2 is great, and Diablo 3 looks to be amazing.

SRTtoZ

[QUOTE="LethalEu4ia"]Guys, please realize, the 12M is current, active, paying accounts. This is a huge number, good for them as well. It's a great game.Priapus101

I wonder if that number would hit 13M with the release of Cataclysm. Its shaping out to be a very promising expansion pack.

I wish there were numbers for players who have played for months or years and quit the game. Then we could atleast estimate how many could return for the world chages and then Cataclysm.