Blizzard Announces 5 Million WoW Subscribers

Vivendi-owned Blizzard Entertainment Inc. has announced that its tremendously popular PC MMO World of Warcraft has surpassed 5 million customers worldwide. The subscription-based MMORPG launched approximately one year ago in North America, Australia, and New Zealand, and has since been released in multiple countries throughout Europe and Asia. Most recently, the game was launched in the regions of Taiwan, Macau, and Hong Kong on Nov. 8, 2005. The company most recently announced a 4.5 million subscriber number on November 9, and 3.5 million subscribers back on July 21. The company has previously noted that the subscriber number includes those who have paid a subscription fee to play the game or bought the retail game box bundled with one free month access, as well as those generally Asian players who have accessed the game via a rent-to-play game room over the last seven days. "World of Warcraft's growth continues to exceed all our expectations," said Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We want to reiterate our thanks to the millions of players worldwide and to all the retailers who have enthusiastically supported the game over the past year." Morhaime continued: "Our commitment to continue growing World of Warcraft is stronger than ever, with development on future content patches and on our 2006 expansion, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, well underway. We look forward to offering even more content for current customers in the months ahead and welcoming new players into the world this holiday season."