How Many People Play World of Warcraft?
It’s been well over a decade since the release of World of Warcraft, and we still see players active in the game. When it comes to surviving the test of time for games, WoW is probably one of the longest surviving games of this era. So exactly how many players have embarked on their own journey in the World of Warcraft?
Since its release in 2004, there have been about 117,577,054 players who have at least tried the game once. WoW also has over a million players who log in to go on an adventure daily. However, on the downside, the game tends to have a monthly player drop that reaches millions at a time, but many core gamers stay loyal to the title.
For a game that’s been around for a long time, it’s surprising that they still have loyal players willing to keep the game alive. You can easily tell that World of Warcraft is not like those games that become a hit during their release then die before they hit their 10th year in the industry. This game is here to stay, and here are the numbers to prove how strong it is.
How Many People Play World of Warcraft?
According to MMO Populations‘ last recorded data, the game currently has 117,557,054 registered players. On the usual, World of Warcraft tends to have over 1 million active players per day. In addition, there are about 6 million active players per month. While it may not be as popular as other games these days, the number proves that there is an interest in the game.
It also seems that new players are also added year after year due to all the latest updates Blizzard continues to bring to the game. There were about 20 million registered players in 2017. The player count then doubled by the end of 2018, bringing our player count to over 48 million. By 2019, World of Warcraft had 67 million subscribers and then surpassed the 100 million mark in November of 2020
What’s the Maximum Number of Players per Day?
According to MMO Populations, the game has reached over 1.12 million players per day. However, recent data from Active Player states that it hasn’t reached over a million in the last year. Below is a table revealing the peak players in a day the 12 months.
Month | Average Monthly Players | Peak Players In a Day |
---|---|---|
Last 30 Days | 5,650,447 | 508,540 |
February 2022 | 5,847,701 | 526,293 |
January 2022 | 5,985,001 | 538,650 |
December 2021 | 5,801,114 | 522,100 |
November 2021 | 6,095,556 | 548,600 |
October 2021 | 5,965,501 | 536,895 |
September 2021 | 6,599,650 | 593,969 |
August 2021 | 6,705,016 | 603,451 |
July 2021 | 6,955,014 | 627,617 |
June 2021 | 6,520,014 | 596,617 |
May 2021 | 6,301,145 | 606,554 |
April 2021 | 5,955,014 | 615,529 |
World of Warcraft Player Count by Country
World of Warcraft is enjoyed by millions of players across the globe. The top five countries that actively have players daily are the United States, which has 22.54% of the active players, Russia with 9.58%, Germany with 8.81%, France with 5.55%, and the United Kingdom with 4.94% of the active players. Meanwhile, the other countries take up the remaining percentage.
World of Warcraft Player Count by Device
Currently, the game can only be played on Windows and Mac devices. It is highly unlikely the game will come to console. If you want to start playing World of Warcraft and feel your computer cannot handle it, you can check the system requirements at Battle.net. Blizzard also offers new players a free trial up to level 20 if you want to dip your feet into the game without committing to a paid subscription.
While there isn’t news for World of Warcraft to come out on consoles, there have been reports of the game coming to mobile. The franchise’s General Manager John Hight said that they are currently in the process of creating a Warcraft game designed for the mobile. However, the developers did not share an exact date this game would be released.
How Many People Have Left World of Warcraft?
Currently, I cannot tell how many players have permanently left the game. Dexerto reports that the game lost around 5 million monthly users by the end of the 4th quarter of 2021. This happened briefly after Blizzard released the Shadowlands expansion of the game. After releasing the expansion in the first quarter of the same year, there was a spike of interest, causing the game’s monthly average active user to rise 145 million.
However, the expansion couldn’t live up to the hype as players quickly grew inactive with the game. I’m hoping with the new release of the mobile version, the game will hype up again.
Month | Average Monthly Players | Monthly Gain/Loss | Monthly Gain/Loss % |
---|---|---|---|
Last 30 Days | 5,650,447 | -197,254 | -0.03% |
February 2022 | 5,847,701 | -137,300 | -0.02% |
January 2022 | 5,985,001 | 183,887 | 0.03 |
December 2021 | 5,801,114 | -294,442 | -0.05% |
November 2021 | 6,095,556 | 130,055 | 0.02% |
October 2021 | 5,965,501 | -634,149 | -0.10% |
September 2021 | 6,599,650 | -105,366 | -0.02% |
August 2021 | 6,705,016 | -249,998 | -0.04% |
July 2021 | 6,955,014 | 435,000 | 0.07% |
June 2021 | 6,520,014 | 218,869 | 0.03% |
May | 6,301,145 | 346,131 | 0.06% |
April | 5,955,014 | 653,867 | 0.12% |
How Much Money has World of Warcraft Made?
Blizzard has yet to reveal how much World of Warcraft has made over the year. However, the game has generated the company over $9.3 billion in revenue in 2017. At that time, it became the highest-grossing video game of all time.
According to an article by Profitwell, World of Warcraft is making at least $82 million due to its subscription rate of $14.99 monthly. Meanwhile, Activision Blizzard’s net revenue in Statista revealed they have generated 8.8 billion dollars for all their games under them.
Demographics of World of Warcraft
There was a study made by Nick Yee in 2005. He did an online survey to determine World of Warcraft’s Player demographics in his research. His study revealed that about 84 percent of the players are male, and 16% are female. In addition, it seems during that period, players would spend 21 to 22 hours a week playing World of Warcraft.
Meanwhile, the study also revealed that female players belong to the older group while the typical average age is 28. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been any recent study on the demographics of the World of Warcraft in recent years.
How is World of Warcraft Doing on Twitch?
For an old MMORPG, the game is surprisingly doing well on Twitch. The game is currently the 13th ranked game on the streaming giant. The game had 1.13 million peak views in August 26,2019. Meanwhile, Twitch had 25,786 channels streaming World of Warcraft-related content on November 24, 2020.
World of Warcraft in Other Media
World of Warcraft made a mark in pop culture. It was so big that artists started to satire it. An example is when the popular game was featured in an episode in South Park titled “Make Love, Not Warcraft.”
In addition, the game also inspired some board games, namely World of Warcraft: The Board Game and its expansions, World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game, and a special edition of Trivial Pursuits. In addition, the company also released Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. The game is a free-to-play digital card game based on the Warcraft universe.
The game also had a series of animated shorts called Afterlives. The short animated series served as a prelude to World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. Fans first heard of this series on August 24, 2020. Following the announcement, the first episode premiered on August 27 during Gamescom’s Opening Night. Meanwhile, the other episodes were released on September 3, September 10, and September 17 in the same year.
World of Warcraft’s Reception
During its release and initial years, the World of Warcraft has received several positive reviews from multiple publications. According to the collective reviews found in Wikipedia, the game was well praised for how World of Warcraft handles the RPG genre online.
The game also received good reviews regarding the in-game graphics and the game’s soundtrack. The table below reveals the numeric score of multiple publications that reviewed the World of Warcraft.
Publication | Score |
---|---|
Metacritic | 93/100 |
1UP.com | A |
Edge | 9/10 |
Eurogamer | 8/10 |
Game Informer | 9.5/10 |
GamePro | 4.5/10 |
GamesMaster | 93% |
GameSpot | 9.5/10 |
GameSpy | 5/5 |
IGN | 9.1/10 |
PC Gamer (UK) | 94% |
PC Zone | 95% |
Did World of Warcraft Win Awards?
Since its first year of release, the game has won several awards, such as an Editor’s Choice Award. It also won the Best Mac OS X Entertainment Product in the 2005 Apple Design Awards. In the same year, it was also recognized by Spike TV Video Game Awards. It won Best PC Games, Best Multiplayer Game, Best RPG, and the Most Addictive Game.
Some Interesting Facts about World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft had about 5.5 million lines of code. Frank Pearce explained what it took to create the multiple assets of the game in GDC Austin. According to him, the programming team is responsible for maintaining and updating all the code lines.
About 51 artists created 1.5 million assets of the game, and a few of them were dedicated to making the weapons, armor, animation, and several other props and areas. Meanwhile, 37 designers were responsible for creating classes, professions, spells, and the different NPCs found in the Warcraft universe.
The World of Warcraft hype did not exclude celebrities. Some individuals in the entertainment industry are known for playing this game, such as Curt Shilling, Vin Diesel, Mila Kunis, Yao Ming, and Felicia Day.
Meanwhile, despite offering multiple races to choose from, “humans” are still the most picked race in the game.
Despite it losing players, World of Warcraft is still going strong, and it has a big company to fund the game for years to come. I don’t think the World of Warcraft will disappear in the near future due to it making a mark in geek culture.