Sqrl said:
The thing is WoW numbers, like all MMOs, are horribly inflated. They love to count canceled accounts, banned accounts, inactive accounts, mule accounts, etc... Its technically true that they've had that many subscriptions but its not true that that many people actively play the game which is the number that produces revenue for them, not their LTD accounts. This used to piss me off as an EQ player too, UO, EQ, EQ2, WoW, etc.. they all do it. You won't see numbers go down until its obvious that they can't be going up because they pad it the best they can. And just to state this, I'm not trying to take anything from WoW, it is tremendously successful and probably will be for quite some time. |
This does happen a lot, but the Wow numbers are actually current subscribers:
World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees’ territories are defined along the same rules.
