World of Warcraft sustaining ginormous subscriber base, surpasses 12 million

by James Ransom-Wiley on Oct 7th 2010 10:30AM

Blizzard today announced that WoW has topped 12 million subscribers, following the Wrath of the Lich King expansion launch in mainland China just over a month ago and in anticipation of the third expansion, Cataclysm, coming this holiday worldwide.

For a time, it seemed as though World of Warcraft's subscriber base was well on its way to 20 million -- somewhere in the ballpark of Australia's total population. Then, in December 2008, the game reached 11.5 million subscribers, and six months later, the number hadn't changed. It appeared the world's most popular subscription-based MMO had reached its cap.

When Cataclysm is released on December 7, World of Warcraft will have passed its sixth year in operation. And with 12 million-plus paid subscriptions? Wow.

Source: Blizzard

Tags: Activision-Blizzard, Blizzard, mac, pc, subscribers, World-of-Warcraft, WoW

Reader Comments (44)

12 million accounts, not players. I'd wager 5-6 million active players.

To them, it makes no difference. It's all money in the bank.

@koehler83
It says 12 million subscribers, not players or accounts. I used to play wow, but I no longer do. I have an account but am not currently a subscriber. People with active subscriptions are paying for something. WOW has 12 million active subscriptions, and probably millions more of inactive accounts.

That is what I gather from the word subscriber.

@Poor Tom

Why doesn't blizzard release total account numbers?
Maybe this really is the number of total accounts...

@Poor Tom I realize they are all ACTIVE accounts but they aren't all players.

There are a million players at least with multiple accounts. Maybe with ridiculous numbers of accounts. 30+ for single players in fact.

Blizzard has no idea and cannot track the number of actual players in the game.

@jackolo

Why would they release both the number of accounts and subscribers? All it would do is show how many people have picked it up and stopped playing. That would be bad marketing imo

@koehler83

Why does it matter? 12 million accounts, or 12 million subscribers? Either way, Activison/Blizzard have made more money than you'll ever make.

And it says "12 million subscribers". Learn how to read. Also says the number of subscribers was stuck at 11.5 million. I'm sure accounts are made everyday.

@koehler83

According to my account i am still subscribed, but my status is "frozen". The subscription is never fully "canceled" so it is possible it's just non banned account total. For a true figure we would need to see total accounts as well really, would also show a wax/wane in times of years people activate there accounts again as well as that will probably affect things.

@koehler83

"World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, 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 over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules."

That's kind of the best they can do or else they start splitting hairs between people who play often and people who don't play often. Thing's get a bit subjective from there. Overall,they're measuring who liked the game enough to shell out money for it.

@PlayboyX It doesn't matter, which is why I said it doesn't matter.

There is just a difference between active 'players' which was highlighted in the article and the more accurate number of active 'accounts'.

That difference should be pointed out.

@koehler83
Who cares if 1,200,000 people have ten accounts each? It's all money in the bank to ActiBlizzion

@koehler83
Many people who have multiple accounts have them linked under the same battle.net account.

As a wise man once said, "IT PRINTS MONEY!"

That number is going to increase even more once Cataclysm comes out; there's loads of former players like myself coming back for it. I don't even see it hitting 20 millions; but I can see it reaching 12.5 or 13 by January-March of next year.

No way in the world does it mean 12 million active players. There was a time when I knew about 15 people that played WoW, now I only know two. I'm not the only one with an experience like that.
The last time I played on Aggramar (high pop) was about June; no quues, no friends ever "online".

6 years....that's incredible longevity.

Does Activision/Blizzard have enough cash to just buy the debt of the United States yet?

@ilduce620

After cataclysm they can buy the united states/

@goliathsdkfz
I'll support this by buying the Special Edition, 2 month card, Blizzcon VR ticket, WOW TCG and that nagga razor mouse.

@husher

I just got back from my local GameStop.

Apparently, they stopped selling pre-orders for the Collector's Edition, already. The clerk couldn't answer why, but she was cute enough to dissuade me from berating her.

@Chareth Cutestory pfft gamestop and suck a fatty **** I'm going to best buy.

I'm genuinely surprised by this news...when I quit WoW earlier this year, people were quitting the game right and left...everything had become completely stagnant, and I'm pretty sure that the only thing that's been added to the game since then was a small 1-boss raid. It baffles me that their subscriber base is actually going up...I would have expected that to happen after Cataclysm was released.

@Putts
News on these things tends to lag behind reality. That said, you probably don't notice much outside of your social wowcircle.

@Putts They hadn't released any subscriber figures for a long time before now. My guess is that numbers had stagnated or fallen for a while but there has been a recent surge of people re-subscribing with the news of cataclysm's release date, which is what bumped the number up.

@Brodi

Sounds likely.

Wrath was loaded with missteps, and really wasn't friendly to new players in any manner.

It sounds like they learned a lot from it, though, so my hopes are still high for Cataclysm.

I used to play WoW until raiders became so elitist that I couldn't even walk into easy level raids just because I was wearing a mix of PvP and PvE gear.

At that point its not worth it. I'm not going to let some cheeto stained weirdo who lives in his mom's basement tell me I can't raid because my gear might be missing 30 hit raiding. We'd crush the instance anyway.

Honestly the day I quit WoW, I felt like a huge weight was lifted. I don't feel the need to log in, I don't feel the need to grind out trinkets and items. It all became...so pointless.

@ReadingRambo
I agree with this 50000%

I sold my account last month and rebought a slim 360. I was the happy.

@Otimus

Tell us again about the time you sold your WoW account and bought other stuff, grand-dad!

... Really joystiq? wow.com is a part of your site now and you STILL report on WoW news?

@kooda

Joystiq is a blog about all things gaming (and then some). Sure wow.joystiq.com and massively are part of the same network but they focus on a particular genre or game. Joystiq does gaming in general justice.

@kooda

Ummm....so joystiq should not have any wow news ever at all? Regardless of other sites that it has, joystiq wouldn't be doing its job as a gaming blog without reporting on all relevant gaming news, regardless of what other sites it may have.

Well, they did say it coincided with the China release of Wotlk, chances are the U.S. playerbase has diminished as people have posted here. That being said, cataclysm will bring back a good chunk of players (at least for 3-4 months), so yeah I could see it hitting 12.5 by March, but I'd bet it drops back down to 12 after that.

That's $2.16 billion a year. What do you think they are doing with that money?

@EvoHelix

building kotick's large in-ground pool that is made of $100 bills?

@EvoHelix buying buildings and servers and support staff ect ect ect and funding for their NEXT MMO

Too bad about 9 million of them are gold spamming farmer/bots.

@Kougeru

Gold farmers don't buy accounts. They exploit free trials and steal the accounts of actual players.

A lot of people play WoW, casual and hardcore gamers. Nerds, Jocks, Adults, Kids, even Grandma and Grampas play. This number is for paying customers, so stop arguing the fact stared. When Cataclysm hits, it will surpass 13 million. My guess is that there is still alot of people who play WoW but keep it to themselves. Look at past expansion launches, and look at the people waiting in line, they are from all walks of life...

Still about 1/9th of Maplestory's pop (not trying to start anything, just saying its not unbelievable for an mmo to have that many people in it). Honeslty though, I think there gonna have some tough competition soon with TOR coming out soon.

@Brockobama123

Those darn suckers! If only they'd thought to search their asses for the REAL number of active accounts in WoW, too. They'd realize how pitiful of a number 6 million (hell, lets call it 4 million, or even 3 million!) subscribers to a pay-to-play MMO is.

The only "spin" you should be concerned with is that which you do while you sit.

That sound you hear on the edge of your sanity? That's Bobby Kotick laughing hysterically as he sits around masturbating in piles of cash.

@PlasticRat

Can't a Blizzard success story be told without that image being engraved into my head? Seriously, it's rather annoying. =(

@Falcon6

Most people are already annoyed just by seeing Bobby Kotick's face somewhere. Everything that happens after that usually takes them straight into outright rage.

Over 12 million subscribers, huh?

That'd mean, what, about 7 million middle aged virgins?

In other words, if you work at Blizzard, go ahead and buy that Yacht, your future is secure.

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft sustaining ginormous subscriber base, surpasses 12 million

Reader Comments (44)

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 10:35AM koehler83 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 10:39AM Poor Tom said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 10:42AM jackolo said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 10:52AM koehler83 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 10:54AM Grey said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 10:57AM PlayboyX said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 10:57AM Milky1985 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 10:59AM Snowleopard233 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 11:09AM koehler83 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 11:32AM sigma8 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 12:51PM Arizone said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 10:40AM copa said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 10:44AM fdisk said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 10:48AM EazySCT said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 10:51AM TheTARDIS said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 10:53AM ilduce620 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 11:04AM goliathsdkfz said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 4:29PM husher said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 8:09PM Chareth Cutestory said

Posted: Oct 8th 2010 1:59PM husher said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 11:01AM Putts said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 11:34AM sigma8 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 12:21PM Brodi said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 8:07PM Chareth Cutestory said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 11:19AM ReadingRambo said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 12:47PM Otimus said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 8:05PM Chareth Cutestory said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 11:19AM kooda said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 11:36AM Aquaryon said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 12:58PM JasonA said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 11:29AM Aekero said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 11:49AM EvoHelix said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 12:14PM shadowhowl1900 said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 4:32PM husher said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 1:36PM Kougeru said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 8:01PM Chareth Cutestory said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 4:42PM Razorlution said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 7:57PM Doctor Who said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 8:50PM Chareth Cutestory said

Posted: Oct 7th 2010 8:58PM PlasticRat said

Posted: Oct 8th 2010 5:54AM Falcon6 said

Posted: Oct 8th 2010 10:21AM PlasticRat said

Posted: Oct 8th 2010 12:11AM ZigmaTheEliminator said

Posted: Oct 8th 2010 3:52PM 2late2die said

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