MMORPG News - Dirty Sexy Money

RPS have an article on the top grossing MMOs when looking at entire player spending. It's all here.

What’s interesting is that it isn’t ordered by subscriber/user numbers, but by player spending. It is, in hindsight, a sensible and obvious way to look at the market, but it changes what we thought we knew quite a bit. Games that we often consider to be dwindinling (e.g. Conan, City of Heroes, Everquest II…) are, when squinted at like this, actually doing pretty well by dint of their fairly highly monthly subscription fees. £9/$9 times a couple of hundred thousand is, after all, pretty good money, so long as the server and staffing costs don’t eat it it all. Here’s the run-down, pop-pickers:
1) World of Warcraft
2) Club Penguin
3) RuneScape
4) Eve Online
5) Final Fantasy XI
6) The Lord of the Rings Online
7) Dofus
8) Age of Conan
9) City of Heroes
10) EverQuest II

More information.

It's FF11 that really surprised me!

FF 11 is still huge in Japan. WTF is Club Penguin?

Originally Posted by Reyla
FF 11 is still huge in Japan. WTF is Club Penguin?

It is a wonderful kids' MMO where you have … um … penguins! My son had a year subscription after enjoying it for a while in free mode - which constantly tells you how much more fun you'd be having for $60 a year …

No guild wars?

Originally Posted by kalniel
No guild wars?

Guild Wars doesn't have 'subscribers'

Originally Posted by txa1265
Guild Wars doesn't have 'subscribers'

I thought the point of the article was that it didn't look at subscribing, but instead player spending.

Originally Posted by kalniel
I thought the point of the article was that it didn't look at subscribing, but instead player spending.

Exactly … subscribing means providing a continuous cash flow … for Guild Wars, I just reinstall and hop on whenever I want - haven't paid a $ since initial retail.

Originally Posted by txa1265
Exactly … subscribing means providing a continuous cash flow … for Guild Wars, I just reinstall and hop on whenever I want - haven't paid a $ since initial retail.

But presumably you don't represent everyone who plays GW. GW's model includes microtransations as well as expansion purchases, so it's valid to question how it does compared to traditional subscription models.

But then wouldn't every game with for-charge DLC (such as one I played recently Burnout Paradise) also qualify? Subscriptions are pretty clear.

Originally Posted by txa1265
But then wouldn't every game with for-charge DLC (such as one I played recently Burnout Paradise) also qualify? Subscriptions are pretty clear.

If they classed themselves as MMORPGs then yes. BP doesn't class itself as that so I doubt that would be included.

KO, first remove all retail box sales … becuase it is *subscriptions* … how would GW rank? Like I said, nowhere - because that is the business model they specifically chose.

Originally Posted by txa1265
KO, first remove all retail box sales

? Why? They've included them for WoW I'm sure.