WoW's population hits 9.3 million in Q3 2007
by Mike Schramm 
Nov 15th 2007 at 1:30PM
Blizzard's publisher Vivendi is rolling in the cash-- they just announced their their quarter videogame numbers, and they're up a whopping 19%. They claim that World in Conflict gave them a nice boost, but c'mon, do you know anyone who's played World in Conflict? Didn't think so.No, the boost came from our favorite game, World of Warcraft-- Blizzard raised their subscriber numbers by just under a third of a million, making their population now 9.3 million, a raise of over a million in the past year. Burning Crusade's release in China definitely helped, too, and Vivendi's games division raked in $315.2 million.
Now, far be it from us to call a number like 9.3 million "disappointing," but it doesn't seem like WoW will hit that 10 million mark we all expected in 2007. Then again, patch 2.3 could bring a lot of folks back to the game-- is there a chance that .7 million people will sign back in, or will we have to wait for the next expansion to see a big boost?
[Via Massively]
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, News items, Economy
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Scoottie Nov 15th 2007 1:37PM
at least 20% of those 9.3 million are gold sellers and bank toons. the bank toons accounts will go inactive shortly with the guild banks now in place. i would say another 10% are second or third accounts that people got from friends that don't play anymore.
Nef Nov 15th 2007 1:42PM
Dear retard, learn to read.
"Warcraft now has 9.3 million subscribers -- 300,000 more than the the number reported last quarter."
Not toons but subscribers.
Razzic Nov 15th 2007 1:48PM
I love it how people try to downplay this news.
I've been hearing "expect the subscriptions to drop dramatically" since WoW freakin' came out. lol
Ahoni Nov 15th 2007 1:55PM
@1
At least 80% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
redxiii Nov 15th 2007 1:56PM
Just so you finally get to know someone who played World in Conflict: I did. And its a great game. Still it doesnt get you as addicted as Warcraft3. And its nothing compared to WoW ;)
Dolan Nov 15th 2007 2:02PM
9.3 million eh? So how come it still takes an hour to form a group for any non-Outland 5 man dungeon?
Cross-realm dungeons FTW
lupo Nov 15th 2007 11:58PM
At $15 a month that is $139.5 million a month.
That would be $1,674,000,000.00 a year
Take ½ of that as over head and they still making $837 million a year.
Why do they charge us $50 for expansions again??
Todd Nov 15th 2007 2:20PM
@Nef
You retard. Lots of people pay for secondary accounts for the sole purpose of having additional bank toons. I know several in my guild alone who do so. Scoottie is correct. With the addition of guild banks, those secondary accounts will disappear.
redxiii Nov 15th 2007 2:30PM
@7 question is: why not?
Ahoni Nov 15th 2007 2:36PM
@7
The answer is: because you will pay it.
Also, see #4 about statistics. Your numbers are made up and have no bearing on reality. Yes, there are 9.3 million subscribers. Yes, I pay $15 a month. That doesn't mean all subscribers pay $15 a month. Where do your figures for costs come from? Oh, you made it up. Few businesses run on a 50% profit margin. Blizz is raking in some serious cash, but don't make up numbers.
Paul Nov 15th 2007 2:42PM
@4
9 out of 10 people incorrectly believe that
:)
glaci3r Nov 15th 2007 2:43PM
@1 and @8
basically people don't agree with you because you state a fact for the entire 9.3 million population based on your own experiences with a few dozen to hundred - inductive reasoning.
your logic is faulty. making up statistics without any data makes you actually look ignorant instead of what you may be shooting for - smart.
HG_Atzy Nov 15th 2007 2:45PM
As staff at a World in Conflict fansite, I can attest to the fact there are a LOT of people who play World in Conflict and are quite addicted to it. But in the sense that they still have a life beyond their game. :P
Mike Schramm Nov 15th 2007 3:01PM
Ok, ok, I shouldn't have bagged on World in Conflict. I apologize. But seriously, before this post I had never heard of anyone playing it, and I thought it was amusing that Vivendi picked that as the other title to brag about.
Vathris Nov 15th 2007 3:10PM
Man the guys over that joystiq.com are throwing off wild estimated profits from wow. People are assuming that: 15$ per month X 9.3 mill = profit. Wrong! First off they are not accounting for the purchase of the original game and furthermore that is gross profit not net.
Out of that, Blizzard has to pay for dev teams, story writers add campaigns,
bandwidth, servers IT's, GM's, marketing, shipping, etc.... Let's not
forget that the money received is also being used to produce newer
games (Starcraft 2 etc).
Now they are still netting serious money but it is not the inflated
numbers we see thrown around here.
The more your know,
-Vathris
penor Nov 15th 2007 3:16PM
Fact: Vivendi was near bankruptcy before World of Warcraft.
Implication: World of Warcraft turned Vivendi around completely, making it actually a profitable company.
While World in Conflict probably did help Vivendi's profits, it has nowhere near the effect that World of Warcraft had, and continues to have on their profit margin. They no doubt make well over $1 billion per year on subscriptions to WoW, and while a significant chunk probably does go to game maintenance/development, there is also probably a significant chunk that comes in as pure profit. Combine that with package sales... yeaaaah.
Numbers are only going to go up with Wrath of the Lich King too. Tons of people say WoW's population is decreasing and while that may be true as far as actual players are concerned, their subscription count continues to increase.
Razzic Nov 15th 2007 3:41PM
@15 (Vathris)
Also, everyone here seems to forgot that people in China are not paying $15 a month for WoW.
And Blizzard still makes expansion packs because it helps to rebuild hype for WoW and gets another packaged WoW product on retail shelves. Look how well BC did in this regard.
Ahoni Nov 15th 2007 3:47PM
@16
Fact: a statement or assertion of verified information about something that is the case or has happened
Where is you source for this information? Do you have financial statements showing Vivendi was near bankruptcy before World of Warcraft? Please share.
Otherwise you are just making crap up like #1 & #7
TORO Nov 15th 2007 4:01PM
lol
penor Nov 15th 2007 4:14PM
@18
Here's a nice news article from '05 for you: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/01/business/vivendi.php
See the quoted sections:
"The French telecommunications and media company, which flirted with bankruptcy in 2002 and wiped out the savings of thousands of private investors..."
"The success of the online game World of Warcraft helped turn an operating loss of €203 million in 2004 at the company's games unit into a profit of €41 million in 2005."
Do a little research yourself before you randomly claim things false.