Wow! Look at those numbers!

I bashed this out for Muse Culture last week but it wasn't used. So I may as well give it a home here:

World of Warcraft: It has been nearly a decade and still the king of MMORPGS rumbles on, unhindered. Sure it may have faced a recent drop of numbers, sure it may have been challenged by some potential contenders and sure the approach of Elder Scrolls Online casts an ominous shadow on the horizon but World of Warcraft’s popularity shows no sign of waning.

So much so, Blizzard have released an infograph depicting some fascinating facts and figures related to World of Warcraft. Among the surprises are:
o    There have been more than 100 million accounts created since World of Warcraft touched down onto an unsuspecting world. This is a figure larger than the population of several world nations.
o    There are 500 million player characters inhabiting Azeroth. This makes for an average of five player characters per account.
o    The total of players hail from 244 countries and territories of the world. This includes Antarctica.
o    Of all the player characters, the Alliance represents 52% whilst the Horde is made up of 47%
o    And the remaining 1% you may ask? Well they represent the Pandarens. Meaning there are that many players who haven’t chosen which faction to join
o    Speaking of the Pandarens, they represent 11 million of the Azeroth population
o    There have been a total of 9 million guilds created
o    There are 2.8 million trades being conducted at the Auction House daily

Some impressive numbers to be sure but such numbers are to be taken lightly: World of Warcraft is approaching its tenth anniversary and still boasts seven million active players.

For a complete look at the infograph please go here

Speaking as a Wow Player, I find these figures incredible. Whilst I may be annoyed at the numbers of the Alliance outnumbering those of the Horde (“Gol’Kosh!”), I do find a sense of pride contributing to something that has been going for nearly a decade. Indeed, there are few games that can boast years of continuous operation let alone ten – and from a sixth generation game no less! Even if World of Warcraft’s peak of subscriber numbers may never again be matched and I myself may have had times where I’ve been disillusioned by it, it is indeed reassuring to know that I played a role in building up these numbers.

So here’s to ten years.

Lok’tar Ogar!