World of Warcraft reaches 10 million players

Blizzard hits another milestone, as 63% of the world's nations have fewer people than World of Warcraft does.

January 22, 2008

Blizzard has announced that it has hit yet another milestone in the population of its MMORPG World of Warcraft. The online game now has over 10 million players, according to the firm.

World of Warcraft, which launched in 2001, is the world's largest MMO game by a huge margin. Of the 10 million players, about 5.5 million are located in Asia, 2.5 million are in North America and another 2 million are in Europe.

Analysts have been wondering about World of Warcraft's growth lately, with some suggesting that Blizzard has just about hit their limit of how many gamers are out there and interested in playing the game. Others still are questioning the effect that WoW has on the industry as a whole, wondering if WoW's monopoly is stifling growth. But even if the game has reached a saturation point, the recurring revenue of 10 million monthly subscriptions (at about $15 U.S. monthly each) is nothing to frown upon for Blizzard.

If World of Warcraft were a country, it would rank about 81st by population, meaning that over 60% of the world's nations have fewer people than WoW does.