The top five subscription MMOs in the US
by Michael Zenke 
May 9th 2008 at 7:15PM
Filed under: Business models, MMO industry
The NPD group is well known for being the scorekeeper in this round of the console wars. Their monthly releases of sales figures for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii fill forums and blog posts with endless fodder for discussion. This week they released the results of units tracking for massively multiplayer games, and the results are a bit surprising. Here are the top five subscription-based titles in the United States:Comments from the NPD on these numbers are somewhat humorous, and reflect their contentious relationship with PC gamers. "Now that NPD can estimate the value of the subscription market, it's clear that there is a sizable chunk of revenue being generated by PC gaming beyond what is reflected in retail sales." Veteran designer Raph Koster reflects on the numbers at his personal site, noting the huge leap between the US percentage of WoW subscribers and the 136,000 users playing City of Heroes. This hit-driven curve is another challenge for the genre, and should be kept in mind as we move into the launch windows of new AAA titles.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Poxus said on 8:23PM 5-09-2008
Seeing LOTRO there doesn't surprise me. Lately I have been talking to a lot of new players to the game that are amzed at how fun it is, and most of these player are from WOW.
Reply
Snorii said on 8:34AM 5-10-2008
I'm proud of CoH making the top five. I hope that with the renewed focus, that it will creep back up toward the 200k mark. Freem!
Reply
XenophoneX said on 8:16AM 5-13-2008
Excuse me if I am being dense, but WTH is Runescape?!?!?
Reply
Brenda Holloway said on 11:58PM 5-12-2008
Pardon ME for being dense, but where are EverQuest and EverQuest 2? There is no way BOTH those games have fewer players that City of Heroes.
Runescape is a largely free-to-play 3D MMO with simple graphics but deep gameplay popular among tweens. Since it can be and likely usually is played for free, it doesn't really belong on the list with the others at all.
I'd love to see how they arrived at their numbers and why EQ didn't make the cut. Last I heard, it had similar numbers to LotRO.
Reply
stuffitmx said on 1:29AM 5-13-2008
Actually, last December, Runescape had 1,200,000 subscribers. Actual paying subscribers.
That does actually make it the second largest MMO by subscription, so no it's not a fluke.
That being said, what it the name of all things buttery and good is Runescape doing on that list?!
1) Horrific graphics
2) Awful combat
But it has to be doing something right to not only compensate, but overshadow those two things. Why has no one analyzed Runescape and the things it does right yet? It was alive and kicking before, during, and after the WoW reign, but no one even seemed to notice.
They are doing something unbelievable right, but no one has even bothered to figure it out.
Reply
Balinillo said on 5:36AM 5-13-2008
Why is Runescape such a success?
That's actually quite easy:
Everybody with a web browser can play this game,
and nobody is forced into paying anything or even entering credit card info before they try the game :)
Reply
Kem0sabe said on 6:21AM 5-13-2008
I'm surprised that LotRO isn't second, turbine keeps claiming that their game is only second to WoW in terms of subscribers.
Lately i've been thinking about returning to the game, but i just cant over the combat system and the lack of groups for the fellowship quests and the epic books.
Reply