World of Warcraft Surpasses 10 Million Subscribers This found on GameSpy
It's official: World of Warcraft now has more then 10 million Subscribers. The news came as a surprise to me -- the Burning Crusade expansion came out early in 2007, so I wasn't expecting a huge holiday bump in the user base. However, sales continue to be strong: According to NPD, World of Warcraft and its various expansions and bundles hold three of the top 5 selling PC game slots last week. That's a powerful brand!
How long can this continue? If history is any indication, good massively multiplayer games don't just disappear off of the radar. World of Warcraft has the momentum to steam along for a decade or more. If Blizzard continues to invest in the property with smart expansions and possibly a graphics overhaul a couple years down the line, the product may not even hit its peak users for a few years. And even once the user base starts to taper off, ten million people don't unsubscribe overnight. Games like Ultima Online have shown us that a strong community will continue to support a game many, many years after it's no longer state-of-the-art. I predict -- barring something catastrophic, like being banned in China -- that World of Warcraft will still have a persistent user base well past 2018.
Maybe by then I'll hit the level cap.
