Irvine (CA) – Blizzard said that the subscriber base of its massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft has surpassed the 11 million mark, which is about the same as the population of New York City and Chicago combined, the population of Ohio – or more than the entire population of Greece.

As the next stage of World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King, is nearing its completion (launch on November 13) Blizzard said that there are currently more than 11 million subscribers to the game worldwide. The original game was released in November 2004. The first expansion pack, The Burning Crusade, holds the record for fastest-selling PC game of all time, with nearly 2.4 million copies sold in its first 24 hours of availability and approximately 3.5 million in its first month.

World of Warcraft was recently launched in Russia and Latin America, and is currently available in eight languages. In addition to North America and Europe, the game is played in mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Chile, Argentina, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, Blizzard said.

Warcraft growth

Oct 29, 2008 12:04     

The reason The Burning Crusade, was the "fastest-selling PC game of all time" is that people thought they were getting more of what they liked in the original game. However, the game seems to be departing from the original concept and evolving into a shooter and pvp game, with software changes that require less talent to play characters. Also, they have made the original game quest easier to enable people to reach level 60 to play in the expansion. Whether the "watered down" lower game will hold new players to reach all the way to level 80 remains to be seen.

Dave report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

How many *active* subscribers though?

Oct 29, 2008 14:43     

That's a far more important metric.
hank report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

re; hank

Oct 30, 2008 05:52     

well, why would someone be paying the monthly subscription if they were not an 'active' member. I think thats there is nothing wrong with using that statistic. They never said how many people bought the game, now that would be something to complain about.
Andy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

@ Dave

Oct 30, 2008 06:14     

I have to disagree with the "watered down" lower game. I used to think that myself, but then I realized why. As time progresses, the majority of players are going to be a max level, and as max level increases along with additional content, fewer and fewer players are going to be playing at the lower levels. I believe blizz has a time frame for reaching max level so they are simply keeping the time it takes to reach max level around the same constant.

Overkil report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

@Andy

Oct 30, 2008 08:57     

The 11 million number also includes I believe about 5-6 million in the Asian market. The Asian market does NOT pay a monthly fee. I believe they pay about 10 cents each hour they play.
Grayson report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0