WoW sits atop the list of money making MMOs of 2008
by Adam Holisky 
Feb 2nd 2009 at 8:00PM
DFC Intelligence announced a "comprehensive study" in which they took a look at the top money making MMOs. And who sits at the top? Why our very own World of Warcraft, of course.According to the report, which was brought to our attention by Shawn Schuster of our sister site Massively, WoW earned over $500 million in 2008. We know that there's a substantial divide between WoW and the rest of the MMO market, and to drive the point home: WoW is the only game in the $500 million+ category.
DFC Intelligence will be releasing a more detailed analysis of the top MMOs on February 16th. Be sure to keep an eye out on Massively for coverage of the other games on the list, and we'll bring you the WoW information when it comes up.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Economy
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mattimus Feb 2nd 2009 8:21PM
Honestly, articles stating "WoW makes a lot of money" nowadays is akin to writing articles declaring water wet, and the sky blue.
Sentient Feb 2nd 2009 10:39PM
What?! Water's wet?!!
Mattimus Feb 2nd 2009 10:58PM
From what I hear, extremely. In fact, sources indicate that water is actually as wet, or wetter!, than beer, or vodka.
conker87 Feb 3rd 2009 7:50AM
Depends which sky you're talking about, Mars' sky isn't blue. You need to declare this!
Ebontail Feb 4th 2009 3:34AM
It says they made 500 million plus, which puts the paying population at 33.33 million at 15 dollars a month, sumthing doesnt add up
darkgabman Feb 23rd 2009 12:49AM
Seems you forgot there's 12 months in a year. If you redo your math, you'll see that it puts the paying population at 2.7 million. Much less than Blizz reports, but 500+ is quite vague.
brent Feb 2nd 2009 8:58PM
/agree.
id like an article on blizz model designers... they do have them dont they?
oh wait no they dont. If they had even 1 full time person who designed models then druids wouldnt still be running around looking exactly the same.
and dont get me started on this recoloring skins bullsh!t
Liel Feb 3rd 2009 8:06AM
I think what we are seeing is the eventual cap on possible 3D models the current wow engine can do. They need to save models for future sets for pvp and raiding.
F0REM4N Feb 2nd 2009 9:45PM
I demand Act-Blizzard to go non-profit and put all revenue back into game.
Mattimus Feb 2nd 2009 10:17PM
Bobby, I've got propane in my urethra.
pwkalt1 Feb 2nd 2009 11:52PM
Congratulations F0REM4N, your comment just cause an actiblizz executive to die of laughter!
Loadead Feb 2nd 2009 11:46PM
wait... there's an economy... of... scale?
Zhe Feb 3rd 2009 4:23AM
Did anyone notice the revenue statistics for the other games are 50-150 million? That's like me saying 2-15 people out of 100 will be Asian.
The range is HUGE and doesn't seem very accurate to me.
Bossy Feb 3rd 2009 5:20AM
Worthless report.
The range of "error" is bigger than the rankings on which the games are based.
A range of 50 - 150 million or a range of 150-500 million is a laugh really.
You could put position 10 in position 3 or vice versa with these kinds of "estimates".
I guess the only thing about this ranking is that Wow has more than 500 million and the others are between 1 and 500 million.
Worthless: I would fire the guys who made me such a report.
Btw: the Vivendi financial group estimated a 1.2 to 1.3 billion dollar reveny from Blizzard for 2008. Indeed that's 500 million +.
"+" is a lot then.
Leon Feb 3rd 2009 12:30PM
…and btw
“ Btw: the Vivendi financial group estimated a 1.2 to 1.3 billion dollar reveny from Blizzard for 2008. Indeed that's 500 million +.”
This is a pointless remark, Blizzar IS NOT WoW. Blizzar could have close 2008 with 1.2 to 1.3 billions or 100 billions, WoW 500+ revenue is nothing more than one more source of revenue of Blizzar’s total income.
jay Feb 3rd 2009 6:02AM
What I want to know is when Blizzard say they have 11 million subscribers, does that mean they have 11 million 'active' subscribers or is this number made up from inactive accounts?
If so, then how could these figures be accurate, also, would Blizzard be so willing as to disclose the exact amount of active subscribers they currently have?.
Ishkate Feb 3rd 2009 9:25AM
The most hilarious thing about it... this piece of prime 'facts' is for sale, at the low low price of only $1995...
fernando Feb 3rd 2009 9:31AM
ok, how much of those 500 millions did Blizzard put on Madoff funds ??? (Madoff is a rogue, obviously, although his stealth finally wore out)
Leon Feb 3rd 2009 10:14AM
Every time that Adam brings a report that tries to shift the ordinary trend of conversation he gets a lot of unnecessary and unproductive heat. If this is not the kind of article that interest u then don’t replay to it, or even better, don’t read it. I do think that the report is pretty vague and stays in the surface of the issue. But I think that the article is intended to be this way, I’m sure that Adam is aware that a deeper analysis would be out of place in wowinsider. But a report like this its just a spark to open up to a different kind of conversation, and I appreciate the effort and I think I understand the intention, and I think is very positive.
Don’t ruin it with worthless comments, thank you.