WoW: Welcome to Azeroth, Population 8 Million
It seems like just yesterday that Ingrid reported the astounding number of six million subscribers for Blizzard’s behemoth MMORPG. From early March of last yest until January 11th of 2007, World of Warcraft has somehow managed to suck even more people into the colourful virtual void. Up 2 million subscribers this year, the game that everyone keeps waiting to plateau shows no signs of slowing, and with the impending release of The Burning Crusade expansion pack, the number could grow by leaps and bounds yet again.
WoW, Wow, w0w, wOw…however you want to abbreviate it, now sits at a comfortable 8 million registered, paying accounts. Let’s do a little math.
Eight million gamers have dished out at least $19.99 for the retail boxed version, or the online acount upgrade (after a trial):
8,000,000 x $19.99 = $159,920,000
After the “free” month that you get when you purchase, you are charged $14.95 USD per month to continue playing, so:
8,000,000 x $14.95 = $119,600,000 per month
I’m going to assume that every month, 10% of subscriptions lapse, but that they are replaced with new users. That means that over a year, in addition to the $160 million Blizzard has already made on the selling the software, they rake in an astounding:
$119,600,000 x 12 = $1,435,200,000 per annum
In case the zeros are a little blinding, that’s $1.44 billion dollars per year. Billion. Factor in a 25% increase in total subscriptions from year to year, and the amount of extra cash that will be shelled out for The Burning Crusade, and the total starts to look downright ghastly.
I’m not going to consider in all of the licensed gear and apparel profits, not anything other than the actual subscriber costs, and will even cut Blizzard some slack by recognizing that a game of this size requires a lot of revenue to keep it staffed, running and smooth. So let’s half the proposed total. That leaves us with seven hundred and seventeen million, six hundred thousand dollars ($717,600,000). Not too shabby.
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POSTED IN: MMORPG, Online Gaming, World of Warcraft
4 opinions for WoW: Welcome to Azeroth, Population 8 Million
Scott
Jan 15, 2007 at 6:07 am
The china in asia pay about six cents per hour to play. (according to the internet, which has known to be wrong)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft
Scott
Jan 15, 2007 at 6:08 am
dude. i need a nap. That was supposed to say the folks in china.
Karine
Jan 15, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Europeans pay more, since I think they are charged 14.95 euros per month, which as of today represents $19,34. Then again, cost of support in Europe is probably more expensive too.
the play girlz gaming blog: because guys aren’t the only players » Western MMOGs Expected To Break Billion Mark By 2011
Mar 24, 2007 at 4:47 am
[…] which found that Blizzard’s raw income from the WoW subscription base alone was worth about $1.44 billion dollars per year, it comes as no surprise that analysts are now estimating that western MMORPG’s will […]
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