Enough With The Overlords, Spawn More Murlocs

Posted on January 22, 2008 by Scott Jennings| 35 Comments

WoW hits 10 million

This entry was posted in 10 Million Pound Gorilla, WoW, _. Bookmark the permalink.
  • Dren

    To think, everyone thought I was crazy when I called 500k+ at Beta.

    See that “+”? That means I was right!

  • http://beafraid.com hellfire

    The last revenue numbers I saw were from 2005 and were only talking 250m or so, have we seen anything more current? Post-TBC estimates perhaps?

    Even subtracting out the locales that don’t use a per-month rate like we do domestically the raw cash coming in to Blizzard at this point has to rival the GDP of some small countries.

  • Aufero

    Wish more companies (*coughLindenLabcough*) took the “somewhat unusual step” of defining what they mean by subscribers.

    Of course, that’s probably an easier decision when you know your paid subs pwn everyone else’s.

  • Merkwurdigliebe

    Dwarves with guns still does not satisfy my need for something other than this Dungeons and Dragons shite.

  • VPellen

    I feel a great disturbance in the blogosphere. As if millions of niche players suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

  • Todd Ogrin

    I heard Blizzard grows new players in vats down in Irvine.

  • http://www.mmogchart.com SirBruce

    That’s a remarkable jump, considering they were sitting at 9.3 million less than 2 months ago, and they hit 9 million back in July. Perhaps the 9.3 million number was erroneous, but gwoth had slowed considerably since they hit 8.5 million not long after The Burning Crusade. So to suddenly be adding 500K subs a month when previously the trend had been 100K – 200K a month is impressive.

    The only thing I can think of to explain this is their new television ad campaign, coupled with strong holiday sales.

  • http://www.mmogchart.com SirBruce

    Er, make that 350K a month for the past 2 months. Math is hard.

  • http://beafraid.com hellfire

    They announced 9.5m on the wow.com frontpage before Christmas.

    And since my mother asked me if I played “that game on TV”, I think the TV spots have had some impact.

    The published churn rate was sitting at 4% before Christmas, I wonder if it will trend up or down once the honeymoon period ends for the holiday nubs. Maybe the 2.3 changes are enough to keep them wrapped up until they hit 60.

  • http://www.mmogchart.com SirBruce

    Do you have any link to the 9,5 number? I can’t find it. There were some places that reported 9.5, but that was actually based on the 9.3 number in the November documents.

  • http://www.cesspit.net Abalieno

    As Raph would say, press releases aren’t consistent.

    The data you see in press releases is usually approximate and a couple of months old, so don’t draw exact parallels on them.

  • http://www.mmogchart.com SirBruce

    True but not really applicable to this case. You can fudge the numbers 250K either way, and WoW’s growth rate the past 2 months is still much faster than it was through the middle of 2007.

  • http://www.thisisnotacommunity.org D-0ne

    I’m just glad I’m not one of the ten million.

    The world wide market will support 30million subscribers easily now. 30 million was doable two years ago as I said two years ago.

  • kalain

    Obviously, WoW is dying.

    …Sorry, someone had to.

  • Michael Pearson

    As somebody playing through the lowbie areas as a newly minted blood elf alt … lots and lots of parents bought their kids WoW for christmas. Ghostlands is the new Barrens.

    Guess it’s cheaper than cable.

    Is it cheaper than cable?

  • hkedi

    My monthly cable bill (basic digital) before I turned in my box and stopped watching TV: $70

    Yes, it’s way cheaper than cable.

  • http://hgamer.blogspot.com Heartless_

    Finally… but damn it, I called 10 million by the end of 2007. Oh well, I was close.

    /wave SirBruce… nice to see you around sir.

  • http://www.mmogchart.com SirBruce

    I had my doubts that WoW would actually reach 10 million with the growth slowing. I’m glad to see it happen, but I’m thinking the peak is probably close (12 million?) and should be happening in the next 12 months.
    I’m more concerned that my prediction for total MMOG subscriptions of 20 million by 2009 might not happen.

  • Orrey

    And they doubted the POWER of the price-line negotiator to name his own MMO rates.

  • http://www.raphkoster.com Raph

    I said a peak of 12-13m ages ago. :) So… we’ll see.

    They had a holiday sales period, plus they went to a free download client promo, didn’t they?

  • Ant ButterNut

    Those TV adds were a brilliant idea.

    I think a lot of parents saw them, and bought their kid a copy for Christmas.

    “Over 9 million are playing this game including William Shatner and Mr. T?… Myabe my kid would like to play it…”

  • http://www.mmogchart.com SirBruce

    Don’t forget that they have regional commercials running in France, Germany, and Spain as well, and the European numbers have also been growing along with North America and Asia.

  • http://beafraid.com Hellfire

    Let’s not forget Lich King’s pending bump in “late 2008″ as well.

    Have there been updated churn numbers posted recently? If the 4% figure still stands the churn of active WoW players every month is effectively all of Everquest. In and of itself that’s gotta be encouraging for folks looking to crack the non-behemoth market.

  • http://www.vinnygoldsmith.com Vinny

    I had been wondering about this. I’ve had issues logging into Darkspear lately because it was full – and that hasn’t happened since before BC came out.

    I’m also working on some alts and notice a lot of newbish behavior in game play and questions in the chat. I was like – how do these people not know how to vendor things? How do they not know where the Griffin Master is (hint: move toward the little green question mark).

    So now it makes sense – they aren’t alts – they actually ARE new. Good for them. Say goodbye to having a life ;-)

    I haven’t seen the commercials in a while – but they may have helped.

    But for me I think the main thing is the Writers Strike. I know I’ve been on WoW a lot more lately because of it – and I’m thinking maybe some other people are too.

    Would you rather watch reality TV and reruns or go out and grind off of some mobs?

    Heck – even walking around StormWind is better than another repeat of My Name is Earl.

  • Sullee

    Please make something better guys. That’s a sincere request.

    As they continue to grow it just reaffirms their design. This sets the entire genre back to Diablo-style UI and Diku\EQ1 copied gameplay complete with an absurdly inordinate amount of resources spent on raiding.

    Please.. if you build something even just headed in the right direction we will come.

  • Simond

    Define ‘we’, please. =D

  • Neep

    Myself and my cat Fluffins constitute “We”

  • kalain

    It’s popularity does not scream “hey guys, let’s do something completely different!”

    There may be market for other types of MMOs, but I’m pretty sure WoW has a good idea of what people would like to play. It’s a DIKU with a lot of polish and a relatively simple leveling/learning curve. That’s not a Bad thing.

  • Neep

    I define “We” as myself and my cat, Mr. Fluffums. We’d definately be willing to pay for a good world buider with fun crafting… and by “We”, I mean me, since Mr. Fluffums spends all his allowance on Catnip.

  • ubvman

    SirBruce, please update MMOGChart.com! Wild Ass (but educated Wild Asses) guesses will do! :) :) :)

  • http://www.mmogchart.com SirBruce

    Updating MMOGCHART.COM doesn’t pay the bills.

    But I’m working on it. Essentially, WoW has 10 million, and there’s 15 million total.

  • Soulflame

    Yes, because a piece of flummery from a self aggrandizing dipshit is what we need more of.

  • http://www.mmogchart.com SirBruce

    No, you seem to be doing quite fine filling that role all by your lonesome.

  • ajeba

    Other MMORPG’s are irrelevant. Resistance is futile. We wish to improve WoW. We will add your social life and broadband bandwidth to our own. Your culture will adapt to service WoW.

    We are WoW. Lower your mice and surrender your credit cards. We will add your gaming and technological prowess to our own. Your culture will adapt to service WoW. Resistance is futile.

  • Steve

    What’s funny is that before WoW was released some people who are supposedly “experts” in the MMO industry were saying that no one would play it, because it had a year-long beta, and that anyone who would have been interested in it would have already gone through all the quests. I guess polish counts for something after all.