Top 10 Most Popular MMORPG’s
The attention surrounding MMOs (massively multiplayer online worlds) has never been greater. But it’s not just role playing games along for the ride; non-game, avatar-driven virtual communities are just as popular, if not by more, and we’re not just talking Second Life here.
So in an effort to cut through the hype and glean some context, here are the most popular MMOs in terms of active users or subscribers, based on publicly available data. These titles may or may not be games, but the medium has expanded far beyond Tolkienesque fantasy worlds. They all are Mac-friendly/Web-based with exception of Guild Wars.
1. World of Warcraft, released 2004 – 8.5 million subscribers. While Habbo is giving Blizzard a run, the numbers generally support WoW as the biggest MMO in the world. Important qualification, though: only 4 million are based in the West and monthly subscribers, while its 4 million Chinese players only pay roughly 4 cents an hour to play it in Internet cafes.
2. Habbo Hotel, released 2000 – 7.5 million active users. The Finland-based “social game” MMO popular with teens and growing fast. Look out, Horde!
3. RuneScape, released 2001 – 5 million active users. A Java-based MMORPG operated by Jagex Ltd. with over nine million active free accounts. Boasts one million paying customers. Fancy that.
4. Club Penguin, released 2006 – 4 million active users. MMO for the kiddies developed by New Horizon Interactive. The game shares similarities with other social environments like Habbo Hotel.
5. Webkinz, released 2005 – 3.8 million active users. Here’s a novel idea: create beanie baby like stuffed animals, assign them a unique ID, then create an MMO portal in which kids can spend even more time using your product. When kids graduate from Club Penguin, they go to Webkinz (or so I’m told.)
6. Gaia Online, released 2003 – 2 million active users. Not quite an MMO, not quite a social site, but founder Derek Liu has openly stated the networks desire to focus on social gaming. Forums make up 30% of the current site activity.
7. Guild Wars, released 2005 – 2 million active users. Another MMORPG made by the popular NCsoft out of South Korea. No Mac love here, but a lot of active users.
8. Puzzle Pirates, released 2003 – 1.5 million active users. Published by Ubisoft and developed by indy king Three Rings, Puzzle Pirates merges casual games with a rising interest in pirate culture. Puffy shirt aside, it’s working like a charm.
9. Lineage I/II, released 1998 – 1 million subscribers. Published by South Koreas NCsoft, Lineage was once the most popular MMO of its day. At one point total active users peaked at 3 million. A Western release in 2002 mostly fizzled.
10. Second Life, released 2003 – 500,000 active users. No introduction needed here. Created by Linden Labs, this virtual world features a rabid fan base, inflated numbers, a high influx of corporate doppelgangers, and lots of digital genitals. First life optional.
Other popular MMOs are sure to exist, particularly new-comers and non-localized Asian games that are sure to grow. Also, this list reflects popularity alone, not necessarily revenue models, though World of Warcraft is performing well on both counts.
For all intents and purposes, the most popular MMOs represent an estimated 50-75% of the total MMO market (30-60 million active users.) Is that enough attention to justify MMO’s recent surge of attention? Maybe not all of the hype, but definitely a large portion of it. And who wouldn’t want a piece of Blizzard’s reoccurring pie or another revenue model with a similar install base?
Interestingly, however, it’s apparent that no single business model is winning out. Subscriptions work well for MMORPG games like WoW that are more akin to crack cocaine than mere entertainment. But what about other non-game MMOs? How will companies bank on consumer attention in those areas? One thing’s for certain: with all the popularity surrounding MMOs several new business models are sure to flourish in the coming years, as it’s not just about games anymore.
Original URL: http://gigaom.com/2007/06/13/top-ten-most-popular-mmos/
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I was just thinking…
how much does it cost to subscribe monthly to World of Warcraft?
4 million X ?
i heard that those 4 million chinese players you mentioned play to sell there points or whatever they use
to the westerners for actual cash… what a way to earn a living…
£8 for a month if u pay on card
£16 if u buy a 60day game card
so… £68,000,000 a month (8.5mill subscribers)
y not domo ????
interesting! the list do not mention about EverQuest and Everquest 2, why?
WoW is usualy 30-40$ CAD+tax for a 2 month subscription.
and yes,alot of chinese players power level characters for gold,or sell WoW gold for real cash,these are refered to as sweat shops.and one of the reasons why EQ1 & 2 wheren’t on there is probly cause its old and no many people play it now.
actually, runescape is second. it has 10 million free accounts active and 1.5 million members. altogether it has alteast 8.2 million. my friend is a J Mod
ive played mmorpgs since 95 when you could basicly do nothing at all but it was exciting back then to interact with other people in a fantasy world,diablo hit the spot with me and most other mmorpg lovers,after of course numerous plays and many years waiting for diablo3 i quit playing diablo2 expansion,i looked constantly for mmorpgs that cost nothing because ya know,what happened to once you buy it its yours? as a veteran game player i never payed for anything but the game itself,stupid to charge a monthly fee for anything,especially WoW wich is way overated…tryed runescape,to cheap,if you want a real great mmorpg that is just like runescape but WAY better or WoW but free! try mabinogi,go to nexon.net
trust me youll thank me later!
oh ya,and if im correct,mabinogi has just as many players as runescape or WoW but you never hear of it!
why isnt maple story on this list its got like 3 million players in america 4 million in europe and about 13 million in Asia
Well, because MAPLE story is a CHILD’s game -.-, i played it when i was like ummm 10 years old
(World of) Warcraft (3) RULES ! =D
runescape should be on top this list isnt updated wow has like 10 million people now and runescape hassssssss wayyyyyyyyyyyy more people
MapleStory is /not/ a childs game.
Mabinogi has 1.5Mill active users in the USA,
5Million in Asia.
WoW has 3% of Gold merchanters.
GaiaOnline has 6+M active member accounts, and an up-and-coming MMO that’s in Beta.
Get your shit straight.
Andy, might I suggest that you climb out of your own ass and take note that the statistics of the post is just shy of 2 years old? All that aside Tibia used to be a harsh, survival of the fittest MMORPG with no level cap, until they babied it with a skull system so players wouldn’t destroy each other. Sigh. Good times holding Carlin hostage..
Runescape should be #2, Habbo is going under, and WoW is simply better, I’m and avid RuneScape fan and i agree WoW is still #1..
I think this list wasn’t taking into account games with massive fan base in asian countries, i remember reading somewhere that Maple story had something of 50+ million accounts created. in china alone they had 25 million subscribers back in 2004.
maplestory has 78 million people around the world o_O and wows gay
uh, wow has over 13 million active accounts as of now so it should be top of the list. maplestory does not have 78 million active accounts, becuase if it did it would be on the damn list. (not to mention its for children). also, runescape is a terrible game. go play WoW or wait for Aion to come out. they r the only games worth playing in my opinion.
I was surprised to see that Habbo Hotel was above Runescape. Runescape is wildly popular.
your so wrong runescape has 105 million active users its the most popular mmorpg in the world and its awsome
Runescape is obviously the best game, But I hate to say that its not quite as popular as Wow… But Runescape players will get it soon enough, and we will take over the population! And statistically, Habbo hotel is actually below Guild Wars, so who ever created this did not have correct information. None of the games above have over 20million active users. Amount of accounts are completely different. Wow… some people really need to get there information correct. Message me at s1mple_Dem0n@yahoo.com.
Try to understand this… Most Top 10’s about most played MMO’s we get come from US companies payed by Blizzard that take in account only US/EU markets.
Belive me, koreans rule the MMO golbal market… how do I know this?
Because 62%+ of all internet users are in Asia.
Because asian adults tend to play games a lot more than american and european adults.
Because in Thailand and Korea and Malaysia I’ve seen TV commercials for MMORPG like “Audition Online” with tv stars and pop idols…
In Asia MMORPG is big business, in Europe and America it’s a niche segment… I’ve talked to so many people… everybody knows Lineage 2 in Asia for example… it came out in 2003… in US the WOW fanboys never hurd of Lineage 2 ad if they did they think it’s a WOW clone even dough WOW launched in 2005…. that’s how far behind and blind we are made by the false advertisment and data we recieve in NA/EU.
As an example of how fooled we are about fake market research sponsored by US companies here are some facts
- Most played game in the world is a game called Maple Story… with over 90 million accounts… but it’s free to play so ppl don’t take it in account
- Lineage 2 had in it’s peak of life, like 2 year ago, over 20 million active accounts
- Facebook is said to be the biggest social network in the world with 65 accounts… but in China there is a social network called QQ (that nobody here heard about ) that has over 200 million accounts… and it’s profit is bigger that Facebook entire turnover
Facebook got 200 millions too