Aion reports nearly 1 million copies sold in North America and Europe
by Rubi Bayer 
Nov 9th 2009 at 6:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, News items
Aion hit the ground running earlier this year, easily breaking the 400,000 mark for pre-orders, and they're continuing the trend. The first month post launch was occasionally rocky, but the good seems to easily outweigh the bad in the eyes of fans: NCsoft announced today that they have sold nearly one million copies of Aion: The Tower of Eternity in North America and Europe.
North America accounted for over 500,000 of those copies, and European sales stand at around 470,000, allowing Aion to make up an extremely respectable 52 percent of NCsoft's total sales last quarter.
Aion has their player base to thank for the sales, but their timing certainly didn't hurt. They enjoyed a launch time relatively free of competition -- the MMO market wasn't exactly glutted with new high-fantasy PvPvE titles in 2009.
Aion officially launched September 22nd in North America, and September 25th in Europe.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Scarr said on 6:10PM 11-09-2009
I will never participate in the release of an MMO again. The next AAA title will have to settle with 999,999 copies sold in the first month. ;)
Reply
Holgar said on 6:16PM 11-09-2009
Impressive, most impressive. *Looks and WAR and AoC's boom and bust* K lets look at subcription numbers in another 2-3 months and then get excited.
Reply
Dustystrike said on 6:46PM 11-09-2009
Impressive indeed, now its just a matter of NCsoft either listening to there player base and making changes while making the game huge or them ignoring the game entirely and failing like Aoc or WAR.
Reply
Ronix said on 6:42PM 11-09-2009
Numbers don't mean jack anymore. Initial stats are just from MMO hoppers trying to find there next addiction.
Reply
ErmanSup said on 6:56PM 11-09-2009
Million is a huge numer for any game to sell. So I would imagine this being a success even if they can't manage to retain but a fraction of those players.
And honestly I don't see how they could, mindless grinding isn't hip anymore. Nevermind that the games whole economy is practically designed for gold farming and RMT. Almost everything that you can possibly think of has a hefty gold sink attached to it in Aion. Bots abound.
Terrible, terrible game.
Ronix said on 7:06PM 11-09-2009
I really don't think a million for an MMO is huge anymore.
Reply
Dirame said on 7:36PM 11-09-2009
Duuuuuude, Eve still wants to hit 600k talk less of 1mill. 1mil is A LOT don't get it twisted.
Jason said on 7:43PM 11-09-2009
1 million sold is alot for any PC game even an MMO. Don't let WoW numbers make this accomplishment seem less than it is. 1 million sold isn't alot for a good console game but console gaming has a much larger audience IMO. Everyone might have a PC but not everyone uses it to play games.
I will be much more impressed if they have 1 million subs in 6 months or 1 year or 2 years. If the game can grow and attract new players, that is more impressive than launch hype sales.
All that said, I was one of the 500k that bought it in the U.S. but I didn't play passed the free month so we'll see how the numbers look in a few months.
Ronix said on 7:47PM 11-09-2009
Thanks for bringing WoW into the equation when I didn't even regard it. Why would you assume Jason I was refering and basing my statements on that game? Shows how much WoW has brainwashed minds I guess.
Jason said on 10:56PM 11-09-2009
Ok what other traditional MMO has more than 1 million active subscribers in the U.S.? You said it isn't a big deal but I can think of none besides WoW. That's why I brought it up. If an MMO has over 250k active subs it is considered a success. I'm not sure where you are getting 1 million as the new standard of success.
Ronix said on 7:39PM 11-09-2009
It's nothing impressive, I hear it all the time that an MMO has scored 1 million, subs, boxes, or registered users.
It just a "Big Deal", you know?
Reply
Dirame said on 7:39PM 11-09-2009
Yep, NCsoft should be glad this one hit it big. Now we're just waiting for that other game ....
Reply
Jess said on 7:40PM 11-09-2009
Aion is ok. It would be wtfamazing if it was westernized way, way, way, way more.
I was one of the one million. With that being said my account expires on the 29th Nov. and I won't renew because it's just in time for Siege of Mirkwood :)
Reply
Nadril said on 7:41PM 11-09-2009
Retanation numbers will be the real thing to watch out for.
Reply
rulez said on 8:25PM 11-09-2009
I pre-ordered to get a beta key. But the beta was enough for me and I never opened the box.
Reply
twist said on 8:35PM 11-09-2009
shrug, the numbers after the first month will drop like a stone.
Reply
Stupid said on 8:50PM 11-09-2009
Why is it that we must compare Aion to WoW and WAR, to the exclusion of all other MMO products? Are we going to say that LotR:O, EVE, EverQuest, Lineage, City of Heroes/Villains, and even Second Life, are dismal failures because they don't have 1M subscribers? Last I heard, all of those games are profitable and keeping designers and publishers employed. Some of them even have enough left over "profit" to pump out an expansion occasionally.
For any MMO that isn't called "World of Warcraft" (or WAR) a subscriber base of 100K is a resounding and overwhelming success, and justification for the publisher to start using $100 bills at their local tittie-bar. (If you've ever been to a CCP party, you know of what I speak.)
NCsoft sold a million copies. If they retain 25% (that's one-in-four, for you non-mathematicians) for six months, they'll still have an incredibly successful product.
Reply
Jay said on 10:20PM 11-09-2009
hate to tell you this but there are over 20,000,000 "subscribers" to SecondLife with about 1.6 million who play the game regularly.
Yep, SL is way more popular than Aion. I guess people just want to play dress up dolls. Aion with it's character customisation and SL with it's. Maybe more games need to think of that one?
pogger said on 9:21PM 11-09-2009
Numbers of pre-orders and copies sold during the 1st month only justify their marketing campaign.
Reply
Flolah said on 10:36AM 11-10-2009
Truth.