1. "World Of Warcraft" by Blizzard Entertainment (U.S.): $1 billion
2. "Fantasy Westward Journey" by NetEase (China): $400 million
3. "Perfect World" by Perfect World (China): $300 million
4. "Lineage I" and "II" by NCsoft (South Korea): $270 million
5. "Tian Long Ba Bu" by Changyou (China): $250 million
6. "Aion" by NCsoft (South Korea): $230 million
7. "MapleStory" by Nexon Corporation (South Korea): $200 million
8. "ZT Online" by Giant Interactive (China): $190 million
9. "The World Of Legend" / "Legends Of Mir" by Shanda Interactive Entertainment (China): $150 million
10. "Final Fantasy XI" by Square Enix (Japan): $117 million

Full artical here: Top 10 Moneymaking Online Games Of 2009

I don't know what surprises me more.

WoW earning 1 Billion in a year where no expansions were released.

Or Final fantasy XI earning over 100 Million last year.

WoW will be huge this year...

Go FFXI!!!

And people wonder why Square is making another online Final Fantasy.

Look at the market for China.. thats crazy..

Yeah lots of poor addicts there! And in Korea.

I am surpirsed by the success of Aion. It's new and it's made with the demanding Crisis engine. Very impressive revenue number.

I wonder why Guild Wars is not on the list (not even in the full top 15). How do they make revenue besides the retail boxed game sales?

And Eve Online is the only Western MMO on the list (besides WoW and social games like Second Life) with $50 million esitamed revenue from 300,000 subscribers.

That means that WAR online, Age of Conan and Lord of the Rings online are even smaller...

I really hope Bethesda (Zenimax Online Studios) know what they're doing by making Elder Scrolls Online.

I am discussing with myself lol. Comon people, wake up. This is interesting.

One thing mentioned in the article was that Farmville was just off the list, but it launched in June 2009. In 2010, Farmville is estimated to make $600 million.

Maybe GW sales are in decline plus GW expansions are discounted. Their model doesnt have good long term revenue.

It's a shame about WAR. I used to play it but it was a bit of a mess... I really liked the world but the gameplay wasn't fluid enough for me.

It seems like there's an MMO for everything these days... I just saw an add for a Battlestar Galactica MMO, and then there's a Star Gate MMO, DC Universe, plus Old Republic and I'm sure there are a ton of other ones. MMOs really are the future.

No wonder Blizzard fought so damn hard (and pointlessly in the end) to bring and keep WoW in China.  And to think that at one time Viviendi wanted to sell all their gaming studio's for 2 billion (at least this is what I remember, it was all or nothing)