Wizard 101 teaches wizards how to count up to 1 million players
by Seraphina Brennan 
Feb 13th 2009 at 5:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Wizard101
Well you should, because it is! Wizard 101 is celebrating over 1 million accounts, and giving all players, old and new, 101 free crowns to use in their cash shop. While 101 isn't very much, the development team has also added some new pets and items to the store that cost less than 101 crowns specifically for this purpose -- including the limited edition Storm Beetle pet.
The 1 millionth player who signed up on February 13th has gotten a very special prize package. The development team has added a brand new statue in Wizard City Commons with an interactive plaque featuring the character's name. That player has also gotten a free one year subscription to the game; not a bad deal at all!
[via Mystic Worlds]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
UltimateQ said on 5:10PM 2-13-2009
Cool stuff. W101 is an interesting spin on the MMO genre. While the game play simplistic, it takes a good amount of planning to play your cards right.
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Punkrockdiva said on 6:29PM 2-13-2009
Somewhere, John Smedley is crying in the fetal position.
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Jack said on 6:49PM 2-13-2009
Poor Warhammer Online and Lord of the rings online out shadowed by the Harry Potter of mmos :)
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Hardy said on 7:16PM 2-13-2009
Durrrr I knows what I'm talkinz bout...
There's a lot of F2P MMOs that have over a million players, it's not uncommon.
The bigger point is how much money does each one make, which War and LotRO beat Wizard101 hands down.
All 3 are good games on their own though. It's not always a competition.
Jack said on 10:01PM 2-13-2009
I think your right :)
At the moment I think the top 5 money makers are:
1. World of Warcraft (Duh!)
2. Eve ( I not playing it but I think they got a big player base)
3. Lord of the rings online (Expend and grand userbase)
4. Warhammer Online (they lost a lot of subs and blame other games... I think designers need make there userbase want to play there games...)
5. Everquest (look like still lots of players are playing this..)
House said on 7:35PM 2-13-2009
I like Wizard 101, but it's a F2P game to with a lower-than-typical subscription cost. 1 million accounts is impressive just from the standpoint of them getting the game out there, and people hearing of it, but I doubt their revenue per user rivals that of the big subscription games.
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Ripper McGee said on 10:19PM 2-13-2009
I disagree that it's a F2P game. That being said, it's hybrid revenue model is pretty well done. Non-expiring free trial in limited zones, cash shop for casual players who want to unlock a zone at a time for a nominal fee or a subscription for those who play more often and/or lock in a family rate.
Even if only 1/4 of the accounts are paid via subscription at the family rate, that's still 250k accounts @ $6.95/month, which is over 1.7million/month in subscriptions. Not too shabby for a kids title that also appeals strongly to many of the adults who've tried it. I'd love to see some official numbers for them. Since KingsIsle Entertainment is a corporation, we probably will at some point in the near future.
My only concern for KingsIsle and Wizard101 is that they're going to have to revisit their revenue model based on both Fusion Fall's and Free Realms' very, very aggressive pricing structures.
~Ripper
Dread said on 10:45PM 2-14-2009
I'd never heard of Wizard101 until this article.....now...several hours later I'm playing it with my 9 year old daughter with the 5 year old hanging over her shoulder....looks like I won't be dinging 40 on my WH this weekend now.....
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Theadrick said on 11:58AM 2-15-2009
Love it... here's a mini-review I posted at GUForums:
This is a free to play MMO which at first glance seems to be aimed at kids... however, it has an addictive TCG style battle system and 6 or more caster classes to choose from. Amongst other nifty features there are a great variety of minigames which can be used to restore mana. These games are based upon such classics as Joust, Dig-Dug, etc and are great fun in and of themselves.
The graphics are very WoW-esque, which is a good thing in my book, espescially for something so lighthearted. Character and casting animations are awesome, and I literally lol'd the first time I saw the "leprechaun" spell cast.
I meant to just give it a quick try and then go back to WoW and finish up my Valentine's Day achievements, but Wizards sucked me in and next thing you know I had been playing for 5 hours. Check it out... lots of fun!
https://www.wizard101.com/
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