3.5 Million WoW Subscribers

July 20, 2005 12:03 PM

115

So a little while back a lot of people were marveling at the fact that World of Warcraft managed to bust past 1million subscribers so quickly. Well Blizzard just put out a PR announcing some even more staggering numbers. Having launched WoW in China not very long ago they have now surpassed 1.5million subscribers in China alone. The total number of WoW subscribers is now at over 3.5 million. Put that in your calculator.

IRVINE, Calif. – July 20, 2005 – Blizzard EntertainmentÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â®, Inc. today announced that World of WarcraftÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â®, its subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), has surpassed 1.5 million paying customers in China – just a month following the game’s commercial launch on June 7, 2005. The critically acclaimed World of Warcraft has now achieved another significant milestone as the largest MMORPG in the world, with more than 3.5 million global customers.

3,500,000 X $15 = $52,500,000 every month in revenue. Although they probably charge less in China, how much is it over there?

Steve Gibson

Steve Gibson is the cofounder of Shacknews.com. Originally known as sCary's Quakeholio back in 1996, Steve is now President of Gearbox Publishing after selling Shacknews to GameFly in 2009.

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Faluzure

 reply
July 20, 2005 12:06 PM

HOooooly fucking shit. WoW is the biggest MMORPG now?
- Wombat Woo
  
   reply
  July 20, 2005 12:13 PM
  
  Close but I doubt it. I imagine that lineage is still in the lead. I'd like to see the WoW USA sub numbers. China and Korea probably make up the vast majority of that 3.5 million.
  - Vincent Grayson
    
     reply
    July 20, 2005 12:16 PM
    
    The numbers were at 2 million pre-Chinese launch.
    - Faluzure
      
       reply
      July 20, 2005 12:38 PM
      
      Well the quote from the excerpt: The critically acclaimed World of Warcraft has now achieved another significant milestone as the largest MMORPG in the world, with more than 3.5 million global customers. made me ask that.
- snuff
  
   reply
  July 20, 2005 2:32 PM
  
  http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart7_files/Subscriptions_12473_image001.gif
  
  That was in June before the China launch I think.
  
  http://www.mmogchart.com/
  - snuff
    
     reply
    July 20, 2005 2:37 PM
    
    so yes, WoW is the current biggest. You can't add up two games and count it as one. Plus you don't know how many of those are the same person playing both games.
  - Wombat Woo
    
     reply
    July 20, 2005 2:43 PM
    
    Nice, it even topped lineage's max sub back in 2003. I wonder what kind of subscription model they have for WoW in China and Korea. I bet it's similar to what lineage had.
  - ]aratex[
    
     reply
    July 20, 2005 11:11 PM
    
    Wow.... Is EQ2 really doing that poorly?
    
    I never realized.. I always just assumed there were massive swarms of people there, too. Then again, WoW has like 80 US servers, so that shoulda told me something.
  - OrkO
    
     reply
    July 21, 2005 1:46 AM
    
    would Ragnarok Online eat up that pie chart?