WoW surpasses nine million subs

By GamesIndustry International Published 25 July, 2007

Blizz promises "years" of support.

Blizzard Entertainment announced that its World of Warcraft MMORPG has now reached a player base of more than nine million subscribers worldwide, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

"We're thrilled that gamers around the world have continued to embrace World of Warcraft so enthusiastically," said Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard. "We've worked hard to provide a compelling experience for our players, and we plan to continue updating the game with exciting new content for them to enjoy for many years to come."

World of Warcraft was launched in North America in November of 2004, and became the top-selling PC game of 2005 and 2006.

Blizzard is currently preparing to launch World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade in mainland China.

The game is available in seven different languages and is played in North America, Europe, mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Overlush #1 5 years ago

    Army of nerds.

  • EmiliasHorse #2 5 years ago

    Yup and proud to be a nerd.

  • Mickle #3 5 years ago

    -1 User now though as i've unistalled the game and thrown away the box. Woo I just got my life back lol
    Edited by Mickle at 25/07/07 @ 09:33

  • SuperBas #4 5 years ago

    That's a lot of money.

    Edit: in other news, grass is green and the sky is blue.
    Edited by SuperBas at 25/07/07 @ 09:39

  • EmiliasHorse #5 5 years ago

    @Mickle
    Were you the lvl 1 gnome who kept whispering "plz give 1g"?

  • Psi #6 5 years ago

    eq2 ftw!

  • Mr-Brett #7 5 years ago

    Seriously what's wrong with people?

  • viper_h #8 5 years ago

    -1 more user.

    thanks EG for reminding me to cancel my subscription to this crap.

  • Wayne #9 5 years ago

    I'd love to plat WoW again, but I have a house and a wife now in real life.

  • afghan_jones #10 5 years ago

    A guy I work with has set up multiple characters. He gets his blacksmith character to make armour, then gives it to his enchanter character t oenchant it who then gives it to his warrior.

    Bloody stupid game.

    Cant stand tlokein-esque RPG/MMOs myself. horrible things.

  • psychokitten #11 5 years ago

    I wonder how many of those are actually active subscriptions, I think they're counting inactive ones aswell, a lot of people seem to have quit.

  • EmiliasHorse #12 5 years ago

    Ho ho the usual EG apathy squad are out in force today.

  • Katsumoto #13 5 years ago

    Cue another million comments about how WoW is the saddest thing in the world and anyone who plays it is a complete dickspasmcock. Let's not forget we're all gamers here!

  • MightyMouse #14 5 years ago

    Dying game imo, though admittedly quoting statistics to support this is difficult since the only ones out are from blizzard. As psychokitten pointed out these accounts don't necessarily translate into people actually online playing it.

  • jamespo #15 5 years ago

    played it a fair amount

    quit it

    went back for a couple of months

    remember why I quit and quit again

    don't miss it

    waiting for quake wars

  • Jigglybean #16 5 years ago

    all those credit farmers bumping numbers up. god bless em

  • paulf #17 5 years ago

    In this case subscribers means people with an active subscription, ie paying to play the game

    World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition
    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.

    from wow site

    people may indeed be leaving but it looks like others are taking their place (edit typo)
    Edited by paulf at 25/07/07 @ 10:59

  • Redeye #18 5 years ago

    "Blizz promises "years" of patches and overpriced DLC."

    Fixed. ;)

  • orakio #19 5 years ago

    Years? don't count on it. The game World of Warcraft will be dead in 2 years

  • ZuluHero #20 5 years ago

    "I'd love to plat WoW again, but I have a house and a wife now in real life. "

    Me too, and you can have all three AND still have a full time job. Thats the beauty of WoW.

    "Blizz promises "years" of patches and overpriced DLC."

    What? One paid for expansion that was pretty much another full game and you feel the need to post that why?
    Edited by ZuluHero at 25/07/07 @ 11:23

  • ZeroAX #21 5 years ago

    lol wow will die in 2 years? star wars galaxies is still played. ultima on line is still played. and they never had the numbers wow has. though i'm sure a lot of people will flock to warhammer once that is out.

  • Kami #22 5 years ago

    Also -1.

    MMO free. Seriously, too much fucking hassle...

  • Hangman #23 5 years ago

    I wonder if the Blizzard staff are happy they're gonna have to work on this title forever. I bet some of them never want to see a fucking troll again

  • Wulfo #24 5 years ago

    I'm not going to rip into the playerbase like you guys, but I think a lot of them seem to forget that games are supposed to be fun, not repetitive marathons of boredom.

  • Azazel #25 5 years ago

    Never played WoW. Precisely because I'm the kind of person is really really susceptible to throwing away their life for a game. I mean: Guild Wars even managed to do it to me, and I thought it wouldn't have been that bad!

  • DjTrash #26 5 years ago

    Its going to be around for for many years yet, even if warhammer does take a few subcribers.

    To those saying, oh I play games to have fun. Warcraft like any other mmo is what you make it. Join a guild make some friends, have some fun. Its not all grind grind grind.

    Lofz
    Level 70 Human Paladin
    Captain of The Lion Rampant
    Hellscream EU

    Edited by DjTrash at 25/07/07 @ 13:37

  • TheUnionFrag #27 5 years ago

    Enjoying LOTRO and every bit of it. Nice, quite small closely knit community. Why would I want to go back to WoW or GW where you can't move for a gold farmer or idiot?

  • Moonprince #28 5 years ago

    Lofz
    Level 70 Human Paladin
    Captain of The Lion Rampant
    Hellscream EU

    I can't help it, sht like that makes me giggle inside...

  • DjTrash #29 5 years ago

    I can see why you found it funny, thats why I done it, I don't take that seriously really

    All the best

  • Kami #30 5 years ago

    "Its not all grind grind grind."

    No, but as I found as an endgame Paladin, it's all Raid Raid Raid. I didn't like raiding much but that's all anybody wanted me for. Then I got a rogue to 70, was having fun but no-one wanted me at all.

    Maybe one day, we'll find an MMO that really does go on forever. Until then, I think I'm staying back with the single-player RPG's. I enjoy the plots more, the characters moreso and the combat much moreso...

  • ZuluHero #31 5 years ago

    "Wow is not a game, its akin to being a chartered accountant but with pretty graphics and the fact that you pay them for the privilege of working. "

    ????

  • FortysixterUK #32 5 years ago

    Well I've been out of it for six months now....I feel "clean"...but I can feel the game calling me to go back for a month...

  • Aria #33 5 years ago

    LOTRO has just been launched and still it's miles better...

  • Orange #34 5 years ago

    I'm sceptical of the 9 million number.

    In any case, I'm glad I quit the game and I practically everyone I knew from the start has done so as well. It is the best mmo currently out there, but still a very flawed one.

    Also an MMO being excessively popular isn't necessarily a great thing for the players, every month the number of self-centred emos and tards (invariably young kids) increased in WOW.

    I'm looking forward to what comes next in the genre. Hopefully something a bit more mature to deter the kids, which is one reason why I'm dubious about playing Warhammer. Also a move away from the grinding, which is constant in practically every facet of WOW unlike the claims of the bubbleboy above.

  • bdc #35 5 years ago

    World of Warcraft, utter legend. Will be player for years to come.