World of Warcraft (commonly known as WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released on November 23, 2004. Its expansion, The Burning Crusade was released on January 16, 2007.
Gross revenue[]
| Year | Revenue | Ref |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | $35,000,000 | [1] |
| 2005 | $391,000,000 | |
| 2006 | $621,000,000 | [2] |
| 2007 | $1,024,000,000 | |
| 2008 | $1,152,000,000 | |
| 2009 | $1,248,000,000 | [3] |
| 2010 | $1,230,000,000 | |
| 2011 | $1,000,000,000 | [4] |
| 2012 | $986,000,000 | [5] |
| 2013 | $1,041,000,000 | [6] |
| 2014 | $728,000,000 | [7] |
| 2015 | $814,000,000 | [8] |
| 2017 | $600,000,000 | [9] |
| 2018 | $450,000,000 | |
| 2019 | $300,000,000 | [10] |
| 2020 | $400,000,000 | [11] |
| 2022 | $792,000,000 | [12] |
| Total | $12,812,000,000 |
Sales[]
World of Warcraft was the best-selling PC game of 2005 and 2006.[64] As of January 22, 2008, World of Warcraft has surpassed 10 million subscribers worldwide, with more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and about 5.5 million in Asia.[65]
The Burning Crusade[]
The Burning Crusade expansion first expansion sold through nearly 2.4 million copies worldwide in its first 24 hours and 3.5 million in its first month - more than any other PC game in history had sold within an entire first month of availability.[1]
On January 28, 2008, Blizzard announced WoW had hit 10 million online subscribers. According to Blizzard, WoW now hosts more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and approximately 5.5 million in Asia.[2]
Wrath of the Lich King[]
Wrath of the Lich King sold 2.8 million copies in it's first 24 hours of availability. This makes it the fastest selling computer game of all time, beating the record set by the previous World of Warcraft expansion The Burning Crusade, which sold 2.4 million within its first 24 hours.[3]
References[]
- ↑ Annual Report 2005. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Vivendi Universal (2006).
- ↑ 2008 Annual Report. Activision. Activision Blizzard (2009).
- ↑ 2010 Annual Report. Activision. Activision Blizzard (2011).
- ↑ Peterson, Steve (October 3, 2012). "Game Industry Legends: Rob Pardo". GamesIndustry.biz. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-10-02-game-industry-legends-rob-pardo.
- ↑ 2012 Annual Report. Activision 13–4. Activision Blizzard (2013).
- ↑ Pereira, Chris (July 18, 2014). "WoW Was the Top Subscription MMO in 2013, Star Wars: The Old Republic #4". GameSpot. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/wow-was-the-top-subscription-mmo-in-2013-star-wars/1100-6421191/.
- ↑ "Hearthstone, Dota 2 can't compete with League of Legends in terms of player spending". VentureBeat. October 23, 2014. https://venturebeat.com/2014/10/23/the-10-highest-grossing-online-pc-games-in-2014-hearthstone-dota-2-cant-compete-with-league-of-legends/.
- ↑ DiChristopher, Tom (January 26, 2016). "Digital gaming sales hit record $61B: Report". CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/26/digital-gaming-sales-hit-record-61-billion-in-2015-report.html.
- ↑ Special Report: Evolution of Mobile Esports for the Mass Market. Niko Partners. August 2019. p. 18. https://nikopartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Evolution-of-Mobile-Esports-for-the-Mass-Market.pdf#page=18.
- ↑ 2019 Year In Review: Digital Games and Interactive Media. SuperData Research. Nielsen Media Research (January 2, 2020). Archived from the original on April 9, 2020.
- ↑ Games and interactive media earnings rose 12% to $139.9B in 2020. SuperData Research. Nielsen Company (6 January 2021). Archived from the original on 6 January 2021.
- ↑ https://massivelyop.com/2023/10/10/lawful-neutral-reverse-engineering-world-of-warcrafts-subscriber-numbers/