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Over 10 million served...

...WOW!!!!   Just WoW!!!!

Let's see, 10 million people is roughly the size of Chiacgo.  Think about that!  You could have one of the world's largest cities populated by WoW players.  This is an unprecedented achievement, and whether you like the game or not (I do NOT), you have to tip your hat to Blizz...  Kudos on this massive milestone!

SOE and NCSoft are still waiting for a million or two to get bored and try out their products, but this doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon.  Most people want to be where the party is at, even if they are serving Miller Lite.   Most people would rather do that instead heading to a  smaller party serving Newcastle.

Beer, is there anything that is can't explain?

Here is the qualifier statement for the #'s:

*The company counts more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and about 5.5 million in Asia. Blizzard said it includes as subscribers not only active, long-term members but also prepaid subscription cardholders and players who recently bought the game and are within their first free month of service.

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Comments

  • lomillerlomiller Member Posts: 1,810
    WoW has sold something like 20 million boxes, but only has 4.5 million still subscribing. (players in Asia don’t buy boxes, they buy keys or can start up an account for free). This tells me there are already 15 million former WoW players out there most of whom have never shown any interest in playing any other MMO. Judging by other sites they are all off playing their X-Box 360 or PS3.  
  • rikiliirikilii Member UncommonPosts: 1,084

     

    Originally posted by Dis_Ordur


    ...WOW!!!!   Just WoW!!!!
    Let's see, 10 million people is roughly the size of Chiacgo.  Think about that!  You could have one of the world's largest cities populated by WoW players.  This is an unprecedented achievement, and whether you like the game or not (I do NOT), you have to tip your hat to Blizz...  Kudos on this massive milestone!
    SOE and NCSoft are still waiting for a million or two to get bored and try out their products, but this doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon.  Most people want to be where the party is at, even if they are serving Miller Lite.   Most people would rather do that instead heading to a  smaller party serving Newcastle.
    Beer, is there anything that is can't explain?

     

    Keep in mind that the 10 million number is artificially inflated by the fact that it consists to a large degree of subscribers in China and elsewhere in Asia who do not pay a monthly subscription fee, but play on an hourly basis.  I assume, (I could be wrong), that they count everybody, whether they played for 1 hour, or 100, and they may even be including people who didn't play any time recently, because they have never "cancelled" their accounts.

    Less than half of those are in N. America and Europe.  Still an amazing achievement, mind you, but a far cry from 10 million.

    ____________________________________________
    im to lazy too use grammar or punctuation good

  • Dis_OrdurDis_Ordur Member Posts: 1,501

    See post edit with explanation of #'s.  It looks to be real close to 10 million actual...

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  • lomillerlomiller Member Posts: 1,810
    Originally posted by rikilii


     
     
    Keep in mind that the 10 million number is artificially inflated by the fact that it consists to a large degree of subscribers in China and elsewhere in Asia who do not pay a monthly subscription fee, but play on an hourly basis.  I assume, (I could be wrong), that they count everybody, whether they played for 1 hour, or 100, and they may even be including people who didn't play any time recently, because they have never "cancelled" their accounts.
    Less than half of those are in N. America and Europe.  Still an amazing achievement, mind you, but a far cry from 10 million.

     

    They only count people who have played in a certain number of days. In China people pay ~$0.05 per hour and as best I can guess Blizzard gets about 20% of that or ~$0.01 per hour played. They do pay ~2.50 to start an account; again Blizzard gets ~20% of that. 

     

    Hourly charges are somewhat higher in Korea but starting an account is apparently free, which is bound to inflate the numbers. 

     

    NA/EU subscription accounts make up ~4.5 million, Asian pay per hour accounts are ~5.5 million. 
  • Pjay2kPjay2k Member CommonPosts: 260

    Originally posted by lomiller

    Originally posted by rikilii


     
     
    Keep in mind that the 10 million number is artificially inflated by the fact that it consists to a large degree of subscribers in China and elsewhere in Asia who do not pay a monthly subscription fee, but play on an hourly basis.  I assume, (I could be wrong), that they count everybody, whether they played for 1 hour, or 100, and they may even be including people who didn't play any time recently, because they have never "cancelled" their accounts.
    Less than half of those are in N. America and Europe.  Still an amazing achievement, mind you, but a far cry from 10 million.

     

    They only count people who have played in a certain number of days. In China people pay ~$0.05 per hour and as best I can guess Blizzard gets about 20% of that or ~$0.01 per hour played. They do pay ~2.50 to start an account; again Blizzard gets ~20% of that. 

     

    Hourly charges are somewhat higher in Korea but starting an account is apparently free, which is bound to inflate the numbers. 

     

    NA/EU subscription accounts make up ~4.5 million, Asian pay per hour accounts are ~5.5 million. 



    jesus, even if world of warcraft had only 3 million subscribers overall that would be far far more than any other company would ever want to have...

    now 10 millions is just unbelieveable...

    respect blizzard, you guys got it goin on... can't wait for their next big project... (hope its world of starcraft)

    SOE and NGE-Star Wars Galalaxies:
    Raph Koster: "It's like dumping the girlfriend who has always been patient and loving to chase after the supermodel who probably won't love you back."

  • SempaiEclipseSempaiEclipse Member Posts: 164

    SOE and NC doesn't have the big fanbase like Blizzard does, and SOE doesn't hype there games like they should. Also NC and SOE there MMOs are a lot harder then WoW.

    Wow is a real laid back MMO.. Any class can solo to lvl70 with no problem.. Blizzard also gets more hype then SOE and NC..

    Hype sells.. I can name tons of crappy games that had great hype and sucked and tons of great ass games that had no hype and failed..

    image
    Thanks Impyriel for the sig^^

  • Dis_OrdurDis_Ordur Member Posts: 1,501
    Originally posted by SempaiEclipse


    SOE and NC doesn't have the big fanbase like Blizzard does, and SOE doesn't hype there games like they should. Also NC and SOE there MMOs are a lot harder then WoW.
    Wow is a real laid back MMO.. Any class can solo to lvl70 with no problem.. Blizzard also gets more hype then SOE and NC..
    Hype sells.. I can name tons of crappy games that had great hype and sucked and tons of great ass games that had no hype and failed..

    Bitter EVE player FTW?

    image

  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775
    Originally posted by SempaiEclipse




    Wow is a real laid back MMO.. Any class can solo to lvl70 with no problem.. Blizzard also gets more hype then SOE and NC..
    Which is one of WOW biggest strength .. casual friendly. I don't think most people want their entertainment to come with stress of corpse loss & death penalties. If I want stress, real life has plenty of it
  • GameloadingGameloading Member UncommonPosts: 14,182
    Originally posted by rikilii


     
    Originally posted by Dis_Ordur


    ...WOW!!!!   Just WoW!!!!
    Let's see, 10 million people is roughly the size of Chiacgo.  Think about that!  You could have one of the world's largest cities populated by WoW players.  This is an unprecedented achievement, and whether you like the game or not (I do NOT), you have to tip your hat to Blizz...  Kudos on this massive milestone!
    SOE and NCSoft are still waiting for a million or two to get bored and try out their products, but this doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon.  Most people want to be where the party is at, even if they are serving Miller Lite.   Most people would rather do that instead heading to a  smaller party serving Newcastle.
    Beer, is there anything that is can't explain?

     

    Keep in mind that the 10 million number is artificially inflated by the fact that it consists to a large degree of subscribers in China and elsewhere in Asia who do not pay a monthly subscription fee, but play on an hourly basis.  I assume, (I could be wrong), that they count everybody, whether they played for 1 hour, or 100, and they may even be including people who didn't play any time recently, because they have never "cancelled" their accounts.

    Less than half of those are in N. America and Europe.  Still an amazing achievement, mind you, but a far cry from 10 million.

    As you can read it every official Blizzard press release on the blizzard website, subscriber definition:



    Anyone with an active WoW subscribtion, and for internet cafes, anybody who accessed their account at least once in the past month.

  • hulons1hulons1 Member Posts: 74

    "They only count people who have played in a certain number of days. In China people pay ~$0.05 per hour and as best I can guess Blizzard gets about 20% of that or ~$0.01 per hour played. They do pay ~2.50 to start an account; again Blizzard gets ~20% of that."

    Well, if I pay $15.00 a month for a WOW subscription and I play 8 hours a day how much am I paying per hour to play WOW?

  • MaldusterMalduster Member Posts: 109

    You go' S E R V E D.

  • VincenzVincenz Member Posts: 1,498

    Originally posted by hulons1



    "They only count people who have played in a certain number of days. In China people pay ~$0.05 per hour and as best I can guess Blizzard gets about 20% of that or ~$0.01 per hour played. They do pay ~2.50 to start an account; again Blizzard gets ~20% of that."
    Well, if I pay $15.00 a month for a WOW subscription and I play 8 hours a day how much am I paying per hour to play WOW?

    too much?

  • GishgeronGishgeron Member Posts: 1,287

    Originally posted by hulons1



    "They only count people who have played in a certain number of days. In China people pay ~$0.05 per hour and as best I can guess Blizzard gets about 20% of that or ~$0.01 per hour played. They do pay ~2.50 to start an account; again Blizzard gets ~20% of that."
    Well, if I pay $15.00 a month for a WOW subscription and I play 8 hours a day how much am I paying per hour to play WOW?

    If my math is correct, you would be paying right around $0.06 per hour.

     

    Which is essentially the same cost they pay.  The main difference here is that if you happen to play MORE hours your cost per hour actually goes down...whereas theirs would stay the same.  Given that the people most likely to play that much have been those in that market for some time...I'd say they are paying far more than us overall.  Until their country put a limit on it, that is.

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  • ZindaihasZindaihas Member UncommonPosts: 3,662

    Well I don't play WoW and I, for the life of me, can't understand why so many people do.  To be able to zip through the levels like that and do it solo to boot is like eating fast food all the time, imo.  But, the fact remains that it is by far the most popular MMO out there and I do tip my hat to Blizzard for that.  From what I hear, they built a game that was one of the most polished ever at the time of release and they deserve congratulations for that.

    I don't know if another game will ever achieve WoW's numbers, but I certainly hope better ones will emerge in the future as I would become bored with such and easy game in a matter of hours.

  • keltic1701keltic1701 Member Posts: 1,162

    McDonald's has sold billions of burgers. All this proves is that alot of people like cr@p food. Same can be said about WOW and MMO's.

  • Pride7Pride7 Member Posts: 289

    <sigh> The McDonald's argument is the standard WOW haters reply. 

    So if 10 Million players doesn't make it the best MMO on the market, what would?  How about reviews/reatings?  Well the FACT is WOW is the Best Rated/Reviewed MMO on the market - See for yourself go to www.gamerankings.com do an advanced search on all MMO's.  WOW has a 91.849% score.

  • VincenzVincenz Member Posts: 1,498

    Originally posted by Pride7


    <sigh> The McDonald's argument is the standard WOW haters reply. 
    So if 10 Million players doesn't make it the best MMO on the market, what would?  How about reviews/reatings?  Well the FACT is WOW is the Best Rated/Reviewed MMO on the market - See for yourself go to www.gamerankings.com do an advanced search on all MMO's.  WOW has a 91.849% score.

    since "BEST" is a completely subjective term, what would make it "BEST" is if I thought it was the "BEST"...I don't.

     

    Biggest?  not subjective.  Most successful?  not subjective.  Most popular?  not subjective.

     

     

  • RecantRecant Member UncommonPosts: 1,586

    If WoW is MacDonalds then other MMOs must be crappy hot-dog stands with sub-grade meat, with an oven that doesn't work properly, takes too long to cook, and food that is often served before it's ready.

    Wait, why are we making food analogies for MMOs?  Oh yes.. the popularity != quality argument.  A fast-food argument if I ever heard one - little thought or interpretation required.

    Lets see...   WoW is not only the most popular MMO, the most critically acclaimed MMO, the most successful, single-handedly bringing MMOs to the attention of everyone.  But it's not the "best", because you don't like it. 

    Which is cool, I'm not a big fan of the Godfather but I wouldn't get uppity because a lot of critics consider it to be the best film ever made.  Feel free to live in scorned denial of the game being 'arguably' the best MMO out there, but try not to be so miserable about it.

    For the Horde, btw!

    Still waiting for your Holy Grail MMORPG? Interesting...

  • VincenzVincenz Member Posts: 1,498

    Originally posted by Recant


    If WoW is MacDonalds then other MMOs must be crappy hot-dog stands with sub-grade meat, with an oven that doesn't work properly, takes too long to cook, and food that is often served before it's ready.
    Wait, why are we making food analogies for MMOs?  Oh yes.. the popularity != quality argument.  A fast-food argument if I ever heard one - little thought or interpretation required.
    Lets see...   WoW is not only the most popular MMO, the most critically acclaimed MMO, the most successful, single-handedly bringing MMOs to the attention of everyone.  But it's not the "best", because you don't like it. 
    Which is cool, I'm not a big fan of the Godfather but I wouldn't get uppity because a lot of critics consider it to be the best film ever made.  Feel free to live in scorned denial of the game being 'arguably' the best MMO out there, but try not to be so miserable about it.
    For the Horde, btw!

    LOL!  not remotely miserable about it, if you like WoW cool...have fun.  I don't, but I'm also not sitting waiting on some future release to enjoy, I have a game I like too.  I could care less if some new game is a "WoW killer" as long as my game is still up and running and has enough people playing that it's fun.

     

    Much like I could care less if WoW has 10,000 players or 10,000,000 players.

  • lomillerlomiller Member Posts: 1,810
    Originally posted by hulons1



    "They only count people who have played in a certain number of days. In China people pay ~$0.05 per hour and as best I can guess Blizzard gets about 20% of that or ~$0.01 per hour played. They do pay ~2.50 to start an account; again Blizzard gets ~20% of that."
    Well, if I pay $15.00 a month for a WOW subscription and I play 8 hours a day how much am I paying per hour to play WOW?

     

    Players in China are legally restricted from playing more then 3 hours in a day.  They can circumvent the controls by owning multiple accounts, but that’s just more evidence the numbers are misleading. The Average account in China pays The9 ~$1 per month and Blizzard gets maybe $0.2.  

     

    At the end of the day Blizzard is taking in maybe $40 million - $50 million a year from China compared to over $700 million from NA + EU even though most of the account numbers they report come from Asia. Any of the second tier games like EQ2, EVE, LotRO  with 200K subs are taking in as much money in NA/EU then WoW is taking in in China with 5 million accounts.   

     

    If you are going to compare account numbers it has to be like to like. Pay per hour accounts in Asia can only be compared to other pay per hour accounts in Asia. Blizzard is skewing the numbers by combining pay per hour and subscription based account.  
  • Pride7Pride7 Member Posts: 289

    The Best Rated/Reviewed MMO on the market isn't subjective and the FACT is WOW is the Best Rated/Reviewed MMO on the market.

  • VincenzVincenz Member Posts: 1,498

     

    Originally posted by Pride7


    The Best Rated/Reviewed MMO on the market isn't subjective and the FACT is WOW is the Best Rated/Reviewed MMO on the market.

     

    I assume you've compiled all the reviews from all the sources on all of the internet, print, and other media outlets, for all the MMOs on the market today, and run all the averages to claim this fact?

     

    oh, and p.s.  by definition a review itself is subjective...

  • miagisanmiagisan Member Posts: 5,156

    McDonald's has the best food of all time...billions and billions served!

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  • candygirl6candygirl6 Member Posts: 412
    Originally posted by miagisan


    McDonald's has the best food of all time...billions and billions served!

    We know, you think an MMO is a restaurant. It's a McDonald's? Ok....sigh, I have no idea how the analogies come about, but .. ok.

    This is sorta the thought process to get to this analogy:

    -It's succesfull but I want to discredid it....what do I compare it with.....oh ok, a McDonalds.

    Ok..sigh. You make an analogy that has similarities not some random stuff thrown together.

    lol =l.

  • candygirl6candygirl6 Member Posts: 412

    Originally posted by lomiller

    Originally posted by hulons1



    "They only count people who have played in a certain number of days. In China people pay ~$0.05 per hour and as best I can guess Blizzard gets about 20% of that or ~$0.01 per hour played. They do pay ~2.50 to start an account; again Blizzard gets ~20% of that."
    Well, if I pay $15.00 a month for a WOW subscription and I play 8 hours a day how much am I paying per hour to play WOW?

     

    Players in China are legally restricted from playing more then 3 hours in a day.  They can circumvent the controls by owning multiple accounts, but that’s just more evidence the numbers are misleading. The Average account in China pays The9 ~$1 per month and Blizzard gets maybe $0.2.  

     

    I read that too, and it's true. But I know a lot of chinese players that play a lot longer from the same account. I'd love to know how that actually works.

    Do they lock WoW IP adress, does the game have a lock, is it the ISP's locking any WoW host, is it just WoW?

    hah, I'd love to hear if anyone could answer that

This discussion has been closed.