WoW - The Burning Crusade - Sells 3.5M

Dhruin

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Blizzard has released a new press release on their WoW numbers, stating The Burning Crusade has sold 3.5M copies and the total subscriber base has hit 8.5M. Here's a snip, courtesy of Shacknews:
READING, England. – March 7, 2007 – Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that World of Warcraft®: The Burning Crusade™ sold through approximately 3.5 million copies within one month following its mid-January launch in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia.* This includes nearly 1.6 million sold in Europe, and more than 1.9 million sold in regions that play on North American realms, including more than 100,000 copies in Australasia. World of Warcraft’s worldwide subscriber base now numbers more than 8.5 million and is continuing to grow as new and returning players join existing players in the game.
Blizzard previously announced that this first expansion set for World of Warcraft sold through nearly 2.4 million copies worldwide in its first 24 hours - more than any other PC game in history had sold within an entire first month of availability.* With approximately 3.5 million copies sold through, The Burning Crusade has now established the new one-month record for PC-game sales.
More information.
 
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I'm very much beginning to doubt these numbers. Not the sold copies, but the total numbers of subscribers. I have the feeling that they forgot to substract the accounts that were canceled...
 
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In my opinion, they were always dodgy. They are including Chinese accounts that are bought by the hour at 16c/hour (if I recall the rate properly)...someone paying 48c for three hours play is not a subscriber in the same sense as a westerner paying $15 up front every month.
 
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True, but just counting those Americans and Europeans paying 15$/€ up front every month is enough to set a record for MMORPGs. What I really want to know is what's the average length of a subscription, I mean is there a constant influx of new players buying WoW because of the hype and word of mouth, playing for 3-6 months, getting bored and dropping it. Or is the majority veterans who have been around for more than a year?
 
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And let's not forget all the bots and goldsellers that need quite a few accounts each.
 
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Dhurin...3 hours a day for 30 days at 16cents an hour is $14.40.

I don't want to flame you but you deserve it. Racist and mathematically inept.
 
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It's about time someone took him down a peg.
 
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Where did you get 30 days from? You just assumed three hours per day for 30 days as opposed to just simply three hours total.

Ad-hoc by-the-hour players are not "subscribers" in the same sense as someone who plays a flat monthly fee in advance every month. If I go to an internet cafe and pay 16c for one hours internet access, should Comcast count me as a subscriber?

I'm neither mathematically inept nor racist but thanks for the incompetent argument.
 
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If I go to an internet cafe and pay 16c for one hours internet access, should Comcast count me as a subscriber?

Depends on whether they are trying to show their stockholders stability or growth that quarter ... ;)

And while the 'total subscribers' numbers for some areas are dodgy, there is no question about the sales numbers being meteoric, and of the huge, unprecedented amount of players putting $15 a month into it.
 
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That's a good point about the subscribers numbers in the Far East. The Chinese and Koreans account for a huge percentage of MMORPG players and they don't pay $15 a month. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't even pay $2 a month for it, given incomes and standards of living there. Still, the numbers are huge regardless.
 
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Whatever the number of Chinese and Korean players is, the success of WoW in the Western world is absolutely amazing and unmatched. The game has AFAIK never ever left the top 10 PC charts in the U.S. ever since it came out in the fall of 2004. It has in fact claimed the top spot for many, many months in a row, only to be pushed off the #1 spot occasionally by a Star Wars, Sims or EA sports title. Well, and now it's getting "pwned" in sales by its own expansion ;) .
Now even if we assume that 75% - 80% of WoW's current players have already bought BC (which would be a very daring guess IMHO... the real number is probably much lower), it would mean that the game has an active subscriber and player base of about 5 million in the territories where BC has shipped so far.
Who really cares if there are another 3 million "not real" Chinese and Korean "subs"? Even the (quite probable) number of about 5 million regular subs is several 100% more than the next contender has. It's impressive either way ;) .
 
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Even the (quite probable) number of about 5 million regular subs is several 100% more than the next contender has. It's impressive either way ;) .

Impressive indeed - assuming that there are ~5 million people paying $15 a month, over the course of a year that is ~$900 million! Add in >$125 million in sales of Burning Crusade in just the first month ... and you get a whole heck of a lot of money!
 
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I think when Blizzard bragged about their numbers the last time it turned out in the western world they´re only counting active accounts. Not trials, suspended, reactivated for free or whatever.
 
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WoW is wildly successful and I wouldn't want to suggest otherwise. I also believe their NA/Euro/Apac numbers, which alone run multiple rings around the competition. From that perspective, yes, some numbers around the edges are irrelevant.

On the other hand, I've read several articles about the success and potential of WoW in China and it's common to see comments in forums along the lines of "Blizzard makes 8,000,000 x $15 / month! Crap!", which isn't accurate. It's still a ridiculously big number overall to be clear. Besides, I'm an inept racist asshole, so that's the main point to remember.
 
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Besides, I'm an inept racist asshole, so that's the main point to remember.
I don't think you're generally inept, just mathematically ... and no one is discussing your sphincter issues.


:D
 
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I actually wonder what they wanna do with all of this money.

Put it into a new game ?

What kind of game ?

Into which part of the game ? Only graphics (which are indeed overall very money- and time consuming) ?

I'm wondering not about the recent sales, but about what will grow of this ...
 
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Who really cares if there are another 3 million "not real" Chinese and Korean "subs"? Even the (quite probable) number of about 5 million regular subs is several 100% more than the next contender has. It's impressive either way ;) .

Noone says their success isn't remarkable, but I still think one should be honest when it comes to subscribtion numbers. If you think about it - what are they good for if they are not exact (apart from hyping the game which then would only be a very cheap kind of advertisment)? If game companies release their subscription numbers then they should be exact enough to have an informational value... I guess.
 
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Noone says their success isn't remarkable, but I still think one should be honest when it comes to subscribtion numbers. If you think about it - what are they good for if they are not exact (apart from hyping the game which then would only be a very cheap kind of advertisment)? If game companies release their subscription numbers then they should be exact enough to have an informational value... I guess.

All true but what makes you believe that they might not be honest? Even a Chinese/Korean gamer who pays on an hourly basis has an account and effectively a "subscription" if he/she logs in on a regular basis. It's not like Blizzard are saying we have 8.5M x $13.xx (as a possible average subs price) subscribers. They are just saying "worldwide subscriber base". Nothing more, nothing less.
There is in fact even the remote possibility that they are not counting Chinese/Korean accounts. Maybe they are indeed only counting "real" subs. Who knows? They could be "lying" about the numbers to their own disadvantage.
I don't know what the truth is. Just saying that it's unfair to accuse them of not being honest unless you can prove it.
 
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I wouldn't be surprised if those numbers aren't far from the truth. I live in Thailand and the burning crusade boxes are prominently displayed in most real (read: not pirate) game stores. I have never seen a game advertised as much as here as WoW is here apart from Ragnarök (which was wildly successful here). Of course that is only anecdotal evidence but I have never seen a western MMORPG that was successful here till WoW came out.

I would never play WoW even if they paid me 15 dollars a month. I am a reformed MMORPG addict and glad to be rid of the MMORPG curse.
 
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