Numbers support players returning to World of Warcraft

by Krystalle Voecks Nov 22nd 2008 at 6:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Expansions, News items

With the recent launch of World of Warcraft's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, industry watchers have been poring over the numbers, trying to see what can be gleaned from the data. With 2.8 million copies sold in the first 24 hours, Blizzard's 800-pound-gorilla continues to break records. Following the flood of numbers, our friends over at GamerDNA have just come out with their own Wrath reports, based on their member data from anywhere between a few days to a few months before Wrath's launch.

As expected, there was an increase in the number of returning players, out to experience all that Wrath has to offer. We admit we're curious about potential skewing of the numbers, though. On the surface, it would be largely what one would expect - Wrath launches, the numbers went up. However, we'd note that they started running a World of Warcraft-themed contest for Razer gear on the 12th, and a SwagDog guild promotion on the 19th that may account for at least a small portion of the metric increase; how much of a difference remains to be seen. Also noted is the number of WoW pages created on their service after the launch of Warhammer Online, which is by itself, a fairly interesting point.

Overall, if you're a numbers fan, they've certainly served up some interesting observations based on their member statistics. Definitely worth checking out if you're curious about how things are trending for Blizzard's MMO behemoth.

Tags: gamer-dna, market-statistics, market-trends, player-created-pages, returning-players, statistics, trending, warhammer-online, world-of-warcraft, wotlk, wow, wrath-of-the-lich-king

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

UltimateQ said on 6:11PM 11-22-2008

I'm happy that I am not one of the returning players.

george said on 6:25PM 11-22-2008

I might be one of those returning... :'(

I tried AOC which utterly failed... I then tried WAR which got old in a month because they have terrible endgame content (scenarios and keep seiging gets old after a few hundred times...)

So yea... I might be returning, I don't want to... but what other choice do I have, its the best MMO out right now... :'(

colin said on 6:30PM 11-22-2008

best mmorpg out there? You tried 2 other mmo's there are a lot more then 2 alternatives... >_>

Ingrod said on 1:48AM 11-23-2008

Ok, BG and raids, a much more best end game content (after a few hundred of times) xD

John said on 7:07PM 11-22-2008

We're glad you're not returning also.... trust me...there are more than enough players...its a blast...and I bet Warhammer wished it had half the players...so sad!!

LOL

UltimateQ said on 9:35AM 11-23-2008

That was a bit rude? I don't play Warhammer, AoC or any MMO for that matter. They are all equally time wasting. Although I can't resist STO and a couple of others. So I check back here often to see if there are any updates.

Uldon said on 9:16PM 11-22-2008

Hmm...wonder where the data is for LOTRO. Since the release of Moria, there have been some small waits to get on the servers they are all so full of people coming to play.

Jack said on 1:05AM 11-23-2008

WoW is a great game believe it or not there are not much games that can keep me playing it for longer them 1 year.... Yeah I got WoW lots of times. Burn out many times bad guild, friends quitting and so on... But like Warcraft is one of the only mmo's that I was able to can stand pass the level cap into the endgame....

I try Age of Conan, Warhammer online, Guild Wars, Lotr online and so many more all did get my hopes up but burn be out at the end.... for many reasons... All of the above are good/ok games but for some reason it does not feel like WoW.

tooZexy said on 11:05PM 2-09-2010

I was thinking about coming back but I just can't justify paying $15/month again for the same old thing i did for 3 years straight from launch. Besides, for what I pay for WOW for 14 months of play, I can play another MMO for the next 3-4+ years. I won't mention the MMO here because I'll prob just get labeled as a fanboi of that MMO.

All those people that say it's boring are correct. It's some new graphics, addition of some more inconsistant plot, but at the end of the day it's still the same thing it was from the start. The only exception I see is that they(Blizzard) are trying to steer you more towards PVP by forcing you to partake of thier "glorious" pvp system to get the better gear. Blizzard's motto is basically "Casual Players Need Not Apply".

Some will point to the Raids for gear. Yup, that would be wonderful,.....IF you could actually get into a good guild that is progressing. Most are not except for the old school guilds which there are very very few of.

Hot$auce_Magik said on 8:45AM 11-24-2008

I bought Wrath after not playing WoW for at least 7 months. I am most certainly a casual player. Never done the arena and never raided. I am finding it quite delightful.

Each expansion improves on the last. The quests in wrath are quite varied and all are fairly interesting. They don't send you all over the world to complete. Sure the graphics haven't really improved, but who cares? Graphics don't make a game fun.

I'll stick with it for a few months, quit for a while, and probably jump back in a few months later. I like WoW.

Tasogare said on 2:09PM 11-24-2008

Well it's pretty obvious that tooZexy has never even played the game, or at least hasn't in a very very long time. He's got a pretty inaccurate view of what is actually going on. And positioning incorrect "facts" and opinions as truth pretty much solidifies his post as being worthless.

Vlatch said on 5:29PM 11-24-2008

@tooZexy: Not sure which game you played, but the game is long-removed from that.

WoW is absolutely not for everyone, but I'm still having a great time and I've been in WoW now since November of 2004. 4 years, and it's been great nearly every step of the way. I've played numerous other MMOs along the way, but WoW has a staying power that most do not.