WoW passes 8 million subscribers
by Eliah Hecht 
Jan 11th 2007 at 1:47PM
Yes, in a twist that surely suprises no-one, Blizzard announces that WoW now has over 8,000,000 subscribers worldwide. This includes 2 million in North America, 1.5 million in Europe, and 3.5 million in China. They have a fairly tight definition of "subscriber," too: a subscriber is someone with active paid time or game card time, people within their free month, and "Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days" (not really sure what that last one means). They don't count people with trial accounts or lapsed subscriptions.Come to think of it, that 2 million in North American actually feels low to me. If you add up the populations of the US and Canada and divide by 2 million, you get 167: one in every 167 US/Canada residents is a WoW player, approximately. It feels like more than that to me, but that probably says much more about the kind of people I know than anything else.
I can't help but think back to when I first heard about WoW, when Blizzard announced it as their next project. I was upset, since I figured I would never want to play a game that required a subscription fee (I was a huge Diablo II fan at the time), and like everyone else, I underestimated the size of the MMO market in general. Which just goes to show, when Blizzard announces that their next project is a cross between NiGHTS Into Dreams, Cooking Mama and DDR, don't doubt them. They'll find a way to pull it off.
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joe Jan 11th 2007 1:57PM
2+1.5+3.5=7 million. Where's the last million at?
Eliah Hecht Jan 11th 2007 2:09PM
Well, Blizz writes that WoW "is played in North America, Europe, mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau," so I'd say the last million comes from some of those places not covered by the first 7 million.
Kahja Jan 11th 2007 2:19PM
The beach.
Sylythn Jan 11th 2007 2:16PM
Australia, New Zealand and the other Oceanics I'll bet.
Anyhow, 1 in 167 is astonishing to me...I can't imagine the last time something was so popular with such a large percentage of people.
As for that last statement about game room players - I've had a bit of first hand experience (having spent 6 weeks in SE Asia recently). The market in SE Asia is heavily skewed towards purchasing game cards rather than renewing subscriptions - and there's a massive market for playing games like WoW in internet cafes.
I think it stems from two things (though I could be wrong) - the first being that it's more common practice to buy as you go (cell phones often work like that too...US started with subscription, then went to pay-as-you-go - SE Asia started and stuck with pay-as-you-go). The second being that there's a greater population of people who don't have their own PC or do, but have limited internet connection to their residence, and hence gather at internet cafes.
csulok Jan 11th 2007 2:30PM
"Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days" (not really sure what that last one means) = the chinese players.
Deathlike Jan 11th 2007 2:41PM
Don't forget: more than likely, if you're a WoW player, you don't hang around much in old age homes or with the friends of your parents.
There's a whole lot of those, and I'd put money down that most of them don't play. So the number is still rediculous.
Daghol Jan 11th 2007 2:54PM
Two things...
1. Part of why the internet cafes are big is because Internet access is much more expensive there. That is why internet on your phone is also very popular. People just don't have it at home.
2. Hasn't North America been at 2 million forever? Isn't there significant growth here? Maybe its fading? but the holidays made all the server super busy. People who paid and are just coming back or new subcribers? Hmmmmm
Noroth Jan 11th 2007 3:35PM
"Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days"
These are people accessing WoW from computers setup in a shop that sells time on the computers, and has officially registered with Blizzard for a number of accounts for the store that can be used by people who pay for time on the computers. Meaning the store pays for a few accounts, and gets access to them without the players themselves paying Blizzard/Vivendi directly. If I remember correctly from working at a LAN shop a couple of years ago.
Jeff Taylor Jan 11th 2007 4:08PM
3.5 million in China? I thought that excessive fun was considered "degenerate" and too "bourgeois" for our enlightened communist cousins... maybe they can only play an hour a day if their local party leader says it's okay :P
Jeff Jan 11th 2007 4:15PM
I wonder what the # would be if they could separately count the people sharing accounts, like families where both parents and a few children all play on one account. 1 in 167 have a subscription in North America. Think about how many actually play.
guest Jan 11th 2007 4:41PM
Wonder what the figure would be (1/X) in the 15-25 age bracket.
Tyler Jan 12th 2007 1:01AM
FYI...Mexico is part of North America as well...so you have their population to factor into the total as well.