World of Warcraft Hits 11 Million Subscribers

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Blizzard's highly-successful 2004 MMO World of Warcraft (PC) has now amassed over 11 million subscribers worldwide, the developer proclaimed today.

The milestone comes roughly a month and a half after Blizzard announced the November 13 release of Wrath of the Lich King--the title's second expansion pack--and noted that the game had more than 10.9 million subscribers.

"It's been very rewarding to see gamers around the world continue to show such strong support for World of Warcraft," said Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. "We remain fully committed to responding to that enthusiasm with a high-quality, constantly evolving game experience."

Although Blizzard has another MMO in development, the studio recently promised that the new title will be "different" and vowed that World of Warcraft will be supported "as long as people want us to support it." WoW is expected to net at least another 1 million subscribers across the next year, according to analyst predictions.

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.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 28, 2008 8:50 AM

    I don't normally follow these numbers but is that 11 million current subscribers or 11 million total?

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      October 28, 2008 8:51 AM

      Paying accounts.

    • reply
      October 28, 2008 8:51 AM

      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.

      • reply
        October 28, 2008 8:56 AM

        thanks Faylor. I don't remember seeing that there the first time I read the story. I wonder if they will ever release complete figures that include the canceled accounts etc if/ Wow ever dies down.

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          October 28, 2008 9:02 AM

          Yeah, I added that in after I noticed it in the e-mail. I'm sneaky :)

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            October 28, 2008 9:34 AM

            So... does Blizzard and other Big Name Devs have a massive Address List where it goes like this?

            Big News! Open Outlook > To: Reputable Game News Vendors > Send

            Then we all learn of the cool stuff on Shack [and other sites for the non-believers]

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              October 28, 2008 9:39 AM

              That's part of it, yeah. Other stories come from our experiences, interviews, and investigations.

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                October 28, 2008 10:21 AM

                Obviously, Peter Molyneux is a high maintenance interview :D

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        October 28, 2008 11:46 AM

        Thank you. Now we can link to this post whenever another fuckers joins the wow-sucks-meme and questions the numbers.

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