WoW surpasses 10 million subscribers, now half the size of Australia
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Jan 22nd 2008 at 3:30PM }
Blizzard defines subscribers as those who have paid a subscription fee or are using an active prepaid card, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game during the last 30 days are also counted as subscribers, but players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or canceled subscriptions and expired prepaid cards are excluded. WoW currently totals more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America and approximately 5.5 million in Asia.
[Via WoW Insider]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nick the Hero of Canton @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:34PM
Wow!
God that was lame.
Jerk Face @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:39PM
Dude, I love you. LOL
NukeAssault @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:35PM
Sad much?
Shagittarius @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:37PM
Does this mean that half the population of Australia are transvestites?
Jerk Face @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:43PM
Yes.
edgore @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:37PM
So, in other words, unlike the numbers for Second Life, these numbers actually have something to do with the number of people playing the game...
NoHitHair @ Jan 22nd 2008 6:50PM
I'll admit - I'm surprised at Blizzard's method of counting subscribers. Usually companies will pull any strings they can to inflate whatever numbers compliment them best. If it's true that Blizzard isn't counting unsubscribed players then kudos - 10 million is quite impressive.
Andy @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:39PM
Never played it. What am I missing?
alan @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:42PM
lololololol
Henry @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:45PM
You're missing a nasty addiction which almost made me fail my first year of university.
Its a good game though...
...ahhh! *Must...not...re..subscribe....*
JerJerBinks @ Jan 22nd 2008 4:29PM
You are missing out on the Happy meal of MMOs. All flash, no substance. Whats great about the 10 million number is that less than half of those accounts are active.
Rayonic @ Jan 22nd 2008 5:14PM
@JerJerBinks:
You sound like a subscriber to one of those other, inferior MMOs.
NoHitHair @ Jan 22nd 2008 6:53PM
Unless you're interested in following rules, meeting schedules and being bossed around and bitched at (i.e. raiding), all there is at the end of WoW is PvP. I don't enjoy PvP whatsoever (I much prefer cooperative multiplayer) so WoW to me is a game to quit once you reach level 70.
Cabcru @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:23PM
@JerJerBinks: Didn't really bother reading the news article (or the press release) before you started typing, did you? They're active accounts.
JerJerBinks @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:33PM
@Rayonic
Nope, I dont do MMOs anymore. My first was EQ, my last was WoW. Its just more of the same in every generation.
@Cabcru
I didnt say that they werent paying customers, just that the accounts were inactive. As in, they are paid up but nobody plays them. I actually know 5 people who are in this situation because they paid for 6 months or a year, but no longer play. It happens.
copa @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:44PM
"If Blizzard drafted all WoW players into a private army..."
You would bear witness to the world's first armed invasion of a Krispy Kreme.
Saneless @ Jan 22nd 2008 3:51PM
"the armed force would easily trump the size of the world's ten largest armies combined."
Actually, given the "size" of each subscriber, you could do that with much less than the total number of them.
Rich @ Jan 22nd 2008 4:01PM
First Australia...then THE WORLD! mwhahahaha!
Ted @ Jan 22nd 2008 4:11PM
No offense but an army made out of WoW players would be a pretty crappy army. (Unless they used the $2 billion to build a large force of robots).
Mr Khan @ Jan 22nd 2008 5:38PM
They could build an army of robots, but then link the command of the robots to player character commands, then build a new map that looks exactly like North Korea...
UltimateQ @ Jan 22nd 2008 4:11PM
Wrong. Wow passes 10 mil subscriptions. that does not mean 10 mil subscribers. I know people who own 3+ accounts.
Saneless @ Jan 22nd 2008 4:23PM
Well, to the investors, 1 person or 3, if they're paying the worth of 3 people then all is good to them.
UltimateQ @ Jan 22nd 2008 4:51PM
Your absolutely right.
ThornedVenom @ Jan 23rd 2008 1:58AM
No, YOU'RE absolutely right. ;P
Laggy @ Jan 23rd 2008 10:23AM
Well someone must be absolutely right.
RankHypocrisy @ Jan 23rd 2008 10:28AM
Valid point, but on the other hand, I know people (spouses, roommates, etc) who share a single account.
Any way you slice it, it is a ton of people.
Negativecool @ Jan 22nd 2008 4:33PM
God damn...what can Blizzard DO with all of that money!? They are now getting paid 2 B-I-L-L-I-O-N dollars/year!
My hope is that, one day, they would fund the most ridiculously expensive (overshadowing anything ever done in movies x10), most mind bendingly deep and beautiful game. It would represent the greatest human achievement in the digital world ever!! Lightyears ahead of anything that was ever even in the realm of thought for what a game could be!
And they could call it Wow2.
Junior @ Jan 22nd 2008 5:01PM
I think its been done already I think the games called World of Warcraft
Mike @ Jan 22nd 2008 5:14PM
@Junior
Ouch, I just heard your reputation crash through the floor. =[
Mike @ Jan 22nd 2008 5:20PM
Seriously though, World of Warcraft is about as graphically and intellectually appealing as Two Worlds on the 360... BEFORE they patched it.
Axela @ Jan 22nd 2008 5:50PM
I'm one of those that's been playing it since the beginning and the only thing that keeps me playing are my guildmates and the people who make the game fun and interesting. The game itself could not sustain me on it's own, that's for sure. It's the interaction that keeps me around.
70-Human Rogue on Uldum realm. My guild is The Uldum Cabal. www.theuldumcabal.com
Hilarious @ Jan 22nd 2008 5:54PM
Why the crap do people like this game...
moo083 @ Jan 22nd 2008 5:57PM
That's funny because the only city on the west side of the country with a bigger population is Perth. In other words, you were just trying to make a picture, but its entertaining because most people live on the east side.
Sethaan @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:48PM
Living in Perth, that is pretty accurate, there would be probably about 3 million total in the highlighted area, most of them in the south west corner. Nitpicking is fun - point of the picture is understood :)
But, hey if Blizzard wants to stage a coup; I'm all for it. At least then we might get some decent technology infrastructure over here.
also; lol, tasmania
moo083 @ Jan 22nd 2008 8:55PM
Sethaan: Yeah, totally, when I was visiting Australia last January, when we told people we were going to see Tasmania, there were way more Australians than we expected who had never been there.
I remember watching TV when the iPhone was announced. They were all saying, US gets it in June, and....we get it at some point, God only knows when...
I love my iPhone. And I love my 10 mbps internet (though I would always love more). Sorry, citizens of Perth!
DaxterKing @ Jan 23rd 2008 5:48PM
Why didn't people make jokes like this when XBLA has 10 mil?
Mike @ Jan 23rd 2008 7:40PM
Err... because World of Warcraft is an MMO and XBL is a service that provides a wide variety of games to people?
I mean seriously, how do you answer that question? It's ridiculed basically for the same reason sales numbers are. Typically they're skewed or fail to include what all they do and do not include in their definition of "sales" "subscribers" "subscriptions" and so forth.
I could easily say "Wii sold 5 million units in Japan, but the 360 has moved 10 million units."
That statement could be made totally true if by "moved" I simply meant "Built and placed in storage until they could be shipped to stores + the number already sold" and I would not be lying. (By the way, I obviously made that number up.)
The fact is, either Blizzard is boasting over false numbers or even if they are true, 95% of us here are sick of hearing about World of Warcraft from everywhere else. Just like the PS3 fanboys here are tired of "Delaystation" and the 360 fanboys are sick of "M$" and the Wii fanboys are sick of "OMG, bad graphics" comments.
To put that huge rant in a nutshell: We don't care and we're kind of tired of hearing about it.
And honestly, who cares how many people play a game? We don't get a prize for it... Blizzard doesn't give you anything for it... it usually just means that you now officially know how many people get on your nerves and crowd the areas when you log into the game. Yippie!
ThornedVenom @ Jan 23rd 2008 2:00AM
10 million is the population of Paris.