It pains me to report that World of Warcraft has sucked the souls from yet another million players since their January report of 8 million total subscribers. It’ll probably get worse before it gets better, we may even have to call upon the dark beast known as SOE (or EA - your choice) to take down this monster but by god it must be done for the good of all MMO’s!

IRVINE, Calif. – July 24, 2007 – Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that World of Warcraft®, its award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), has reached a new milestone, with a player base now totaling more than 9 million subscribers worldwide. The company is currently working with its partner for World of Warcraft in China, The9, to prepare the game’s first expansion, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade™, for launch in mainland China and anticipates an influx of new and returning subscribers in conjunction with that event.

“We’re thrilled that gamers around the world have continued to embrace World of Warcraft so enthusiastically,” said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment®. “We’ve worked hard to provide a compelling experience for our players, and we plan to continue updating the game with exciting new content for them to enjoy for many years to come.”

Since debuting in North America on November 23, 2004, World of Warcraft has become the most popular MMORPG around the world. It was the bestselling PC game of 2005 and 2006* and has remained at or near the top of the weekly PC-game sales charts for much of 2007 as well. Blizzard’s Burning Crusade expansion released to critical acclaim in several regions earlier this year and shattered PC-game sales records in North America and Europe, with nearly 2.4 million copies sold in its first 24 hours of release and approximately 3.5 million in its first month. World of Warcraft is available in seven different languages and, in addition to North America and Europe, is played in mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

So much for anecdotal evidence of friends cancelling their subscriptions, guild activity being at an all time low, and WoW census data showing a small decline in active players. Blizzard still seems to be gaining new customers at a record rate despite the lack of any new content. Perhaps there is some merit to the claims of online gaming addiction?!

With the pent up demand in China due to Blizzard’s partner The9 holding back the release of the Burning Crusade in favor of its game SUN we could very well see that figure surpass 10 million subscribers upon its launch in China.

Source: Blizzard.com