MMO Dofus has 30 million users

By Robert Purchese Published 19 April, 2010

And 3.5 million paying subscribers.

Attractive turn-based cartoon MMO Dofus has a whopping 30 million "registered players".

What's more, 3.5 million of those pay around €5 to play each month.

Ankama Games revealed the numbers at the Ankama Convention in Paris at the weekend. And you have to be wealthy to have your own convention - just ask Blizzard.

Further number-crunching revealed that Dofus counted, on average, 1 million players a day, peaking at 250,000 simultaneous connections. Alors!

It's not surprising, then, that Anakama reckons Dofus is the top MMO dog in France (where 60 per cent of players live) and the French-speaking regions of Belgium, Switzerland and Canada. Apparently there's a healthy following in Spain and Latin America, too.

Dofus scored 8/10 on Eurogamer in April 2008. Not content, Ankama transformed the game to Dofus 2.0 in December 2009, overhauling the graphics engine as well as server and client code. Dofus will grow again this year with new expansion Frigost, made specifically for level 100-200 characters.

Ankama's also taking the game east to Russia and Japan at some point in 2010.

That's in addition to making PVP spin-off Dofus Arena (due to launch on June 21st), co-operative dungeon crawler Slage, sequel Wakfu, and XBLA action-adventure Islands of Wakfu. Oh, and an animated TV series, created by Ankama itself, now in its second season in France and watched by 1 million people per episode. And a browser game spin-off from the TV series called Wakfu: The Guardians. And Dofus manga (800,000 copies sold). And and and.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • sneetch #1 2 years ago

    I love that line in the review: "Dofus, a glamorous blend of both 'oaf' and 'doofus', invokes the kind of person who regularly gets their tongue caught in barbed-wire fences."

  • Bravestinsane #2 2 years ago

    tbh the only word that comes to mind is

    "WOW"

    (not as in world of warcraft but as in jesus fucking christ thats a lot)

    Got to admit looking through the screenies on your review it looks like a nice quirky little game and i like the animation type graphics rather than them trying to get it looking realistic. Might look into it at some point.

  • butler` #3 2 years ago

    PC is dead.

  • YoungPayters #4 2 years ago

    i have never heard of this game, huh

  • grenade_master #5 2 years ago

    Dofus is VERY addictive. It's very grindy but it doesn't feel that way since each battle/crafting is not the same(unlike *cough*Aion 1,2,3,1,2,3). You just realise that days have gone past without you knowing it :)

  • Shikasama #6 2 years ago

    I can't believe I've never heard of something this big. I don't just mean the game, the entire brand. I haven't even heard of the company.

    Pretty impressive stuff

  • Vixremento #7 2 years ago

    I dunno...watched a quick youtube clip of the gameplay and read the review from 2008 and to be honest I don't see any appeal. To top it off "Clicking on an enemy triggers the combat screen, in which the current map is overlaid with grid squares. Both enemy and player are given a choice of starting positions, before the turn-based battles commence" - I hate turn-based games as it is and I don't think I'd ever subscribe to one (and to be honest the gameplay looked kinda super cheesy). Still impressive that they have so many paying subscribers!

  • Miths #8 2 years ago

    I tried it briefly a couple of months ago but got sidetracked with other games before I even got off the starter island. I should probably give it a try again, as I quite liked the turn based combat (though very simplistic in those early battles, it looked like it had potential at higher levels once you have more skills/spells) and the art style.
    It was also a game that felt like the kind I could have running in a window most of the day and switch to for brief sessions when I need a break from work and web browsing.

  • Eyhren #9 2 years ago

    That's a lot of numbers.

  • hardtech #10 2 years ago

    I also have tried this briefly. I can see how it would be enjoyable but I will admit I stuggled a lttle to get into it but thats very common thing to happen to me doing free to play MMOs, don't really try hard enough to get into them.

  • Miths #11 2 years ago

    @rodpad
    It isn't?! Clearly then I made a big blunder when I clicked the article link.

  • Bloodhunter #12 2 years ago

    Seriously never heard of this..

    Could be cos I dont like mmo's, probably is.

  • Ryboy #13 2 years ago

    @butler`

    Fuck off you septic cunt.

  • faselei #14 2 years ago

    Dofus is a good looking, nice game. Good fun.

    It is MASSIVE in france where they have graphical novels, figures etc.

    It deserves to be successful. Well done Ankama!

  • poopmonster #15 2 years ago

    I played this for a while a few years ago - it's very pretty, but didn't hook me enough to pay a sub.

    Worth having a play if you find yourself with an afternoon to kill - the client is very lightweight, like Puzzle Pirates.

  • easychord #16 2 years ago

    Turn based games are such an outdated minority interest, nobody would play one if an alternative was there. What? 30 Million users? Well then, this would be one of those exceptions that prove the rule. Some other turn based game with no popular appeal or marketing behind it sold terribly and there is no reason to think that any other turn based game could sell well either.

    My logic is flawless.

  • Altrezia #17 2 years ago

    I played this for a while - was good fun. Simple enough to pick-up-and-play, but deep enough to spend some time with. Good stuff.

  • alcides #18 2 years ago

    I think the general mistrust towards all these browser based (is it browser based?) games is down to the fact that they did no rely on conventional support from the gaming press (other than advertising, of course)

    All I can say is Dofus sounds epic, looks attractive and fun maybe.

  • hardtech #19 2 years ago

    @alcides

    It is download as far as I know.

  • grenade_master #20 2 years ago

    @hardtech it's not free to play - it's free to start playing. Only a couple of starter areas are open to f2p

    @alcides it's a standalone game. atm new version 2.0 running on AdobeAir thingy. Oh and it's epic all right! It just fools you with it's childish look.
    Edited by 2 at 20/04/10 @ 00:15

  • Quickstick4 #21 2 years ago

    That be allot me thinks

  • andylee #22 2 years ago

    so amasing

  • butler` #23 2 years ago

    Ryboy, you and 20 other mouth breathers didn't get the sarcasm, then?

  • Luckz #24 2 years ago

    Dofus iz pure evil :(