How Many People Are Playing World Of Warcraft

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A veteran in online gaming, World of Warcraft was beginning released in 2004 on PC. A platform the game stayed faithful to, fifty-fifty later on 17 years of service. World of Warcraft is an MMORPG (massively-multiplayer online part-playing game) ready in an open world where the players tin can decide to campaign solo or with other comrades.

Globe of Warcraft is part of the Warcraft universe created by Blizzard and therefore, will invite the role player to explore the lands of Azeroth. The story is accessible fifty-fifty to the crowds of first-timers in the Warcraft universe. Every bit Thrall's Horde starts to expand, the races part of the Alliance renews their loyalty. After the mysterious disappearance of Stormwind's King, Bolvar Fordragon replaced the Regent on the throne. Unfortunately, the man ends up under the influence of the black dragon Onyxia, bearded equally a woman. The heroes of the Alliance and the Horde will have to non merely expose Onyxia, but also fight Ragnaros, the ancient Elemental Lord, and his nefarious plans.

World of Warcraft has seen the release of eight different expansions throughout the years, all bringing their share of changes to the gameplay and cadre mechanics and a new story. Like any good MMORPG out there, the player controls an avatar that allows them to partake in the usual RPG-like activities: exploring, fighting, completing quests, and interacting with other players and NPCs. Servers are referred to as 'realms' and come with two modes: "Normal" lets you play normally and "RP" is targeted at people who just want to have fun function-playing as their character. The game also allows PvP, but the decision is up to the thespian, as the option to conciliate this mode exists. It is possible to have a graphic symbol in each realm or to movement an existing grapheme to another realm, in exchange for a certain fee. Leveling up improves your grapheme'due south stats and skills, only you lot can also choose up to ii different professions and, of course, bring together a guild.

Now, let's swoop into the nigh significant World of Warcraft statistics and facts. Plus, if y'all like learning new things about the world of gaming, check out our commodity nearly video games industry statistics!

World of Warcraft user stats

Back so, when players would say that they were really into "that MMORPG", there was a expert chance that they were referring to either Dofus or World of Warcraft. It was all the rage, and fifty-fifty people who only had a slight interest in video games felt the demand to try it. Globe of Warcraft brought a new sense of community to gaming and the near-perfect fantasy globe Blizzard was offering to explore but added to the adventure.

1. World of Warcraft has more male person players (58.53%) than female players (36.31%).

(Source: SAS Global Forum)

Females rather play a female character (93.12%), whereasmales play male characters to a bottom extent (65.73%).
The boilerplate age of a World of Warcraft player is31.ninety years old. Participants were aged 18 to xc.
50-57 yr olds spend a bigger chunk of fourth dimension playing Globe of Warcraft (70.39%) than other groups. This age group as well has thehighest number of max-level Brotherhood characters (four.39%).
People over 58 spend the smallest amount of gaming fourth dimension playing World of Warcraft (62.97%) and they also have thesmallest amount of max-level Brotherhood characters (2.65%).

The aim of that study was to see how players would carry in World of Warcraft. Not only did it establish that the player base in the game is more mature, but also that men were pretty open to using a female character to stand for them. This is not a new miracle, and it even has a name: K.I.RL. or Guy In Existent Life. In fact, throughout the years, several complaints take arisen from the customs near men going for sexier characters. Fooling people during roleplay, fooling other men into sending gifts, and killing the diversity in races since most will go for the curviest ladies. But all in all, people tend to stick to their real gender, even if we can meet that female characters are quite popular. By the mode, in some other study conducted in 2005, the ratio of males to females was 84% to 16% and the boilerplate player's age was 28!

2. The number of subscribers reached its elevation in October 2010, when Globe of Warcraft boasted 12 million subscribers.

(Source: Techland Time)

Past August 2011, the figure was lower, reachingeleven 1000000 subscribers. And by November of the same year, it was down to ten one thousand thousand.
Past March 2005, the game was available in Republic of korea, North America, and Europe andhad i.v million subscribers. Later on Communist china joined in June, World of Warcraft hit 2 1000000 subscribers and then 3.five meg in July. At the end of 2005, World of Warcraft had reached5 million subscribers!
By May 2013, the game recorded 8 million subscribers,with a loss of fourteen% of its players over the three months preceding the release of this information. In 2015, the title was drastically down to5.five 1000000 subscribers.
In 2021, it was estimated that the number of subscribers could be effectually4.74 one thousand thousand. Afterwards reaching v one thousand thousand subscribers, Blizzard decided to stop sharing the figure each year.

Later 17 years in the manufacture, World of Warcraft might have lost its steam, just certainly not its shine. The game still has millions of subscribers, players coming and going, some returning but for the expansions before leaving after a calendar month or two. Way less than before, sure, but they take actually millions of people playing regularly. And in this age of boxing royales, MOBAs, and mobile gaming, it has somehow survived through all the changes the multiplayer online scene went through. And the game has seen several updates, showing that Blizzard was still caring about bringing the best new features to their thespian base. Yet, it is worth noting that a lot of that 'lost' player base is from the Due east, and mostly from China (the biggest market a video game company would want to have). Indeed, Blizzard has failed to create content presenting an appeal to that demographic, which, with time, went back to more local games and other genres internationally. Add to that the hyper-competitivity we now encounter in multiplayer and the fact that World of Warcraft is strictly a PC game, and you tin can sympathize the ho-hum pass up of that legend.

3. MMO-Population estimates that World of Warcraft sees a little over one million daily active users.

(Source: MMO-Population)

The average number of monthly active users oscillatesbetwixt iv million-5 1000000. It reached 6 meg after the release of theShadowlands expansion in 2020, merely only for a few months.
In 2017, the game had around9-10 million monthly active users.
The highest number of players in a day isbetwixt 400,000-600,000.

In 2021 Q2, when Activision Blizzard announced that Blizzard lost 20 million monthly active users in a matter of four years, people were quite shocked. Sure, it does not get out them in a bad identify (going from 46 million to 26 million), but it is all the same quite the gap across merely four years. Now, practice not think that World of Warcraft makes up the majority of this number: for reference, Blizzard said that Hearthstone and Overwatch were their games with the highest number of monthly/daily agile users. Even the latest expansions failed to bring more people on board when information technology is usually the example. Simply with quite a number of RPG aficionados turning towards Final Fantasy XIV and Genshin Impact, information technology will be difficult for World of Warcraft to go along its role player base intact. Even big content creators moved to Square Enix's MMORPG, taking their fans with them. Fortunately, some remain loyal to Blizzard and actually play both games.

World of Warcraft cardinal stats

With such success, anybody is a bit curious about topics focused on revenues, profits, the number of downloads, and more information around the game itself.

iv. At its peak, Globe of Warcraft was making $180 one thousand thousand per month and $2.15 billion per year from subscriptions alone.

(Source: GameRevolution)

In 2016, World of Warcraft'southward lifetime revenue was estimated to beover $nine.23 billion. However, Activision Blizzard has not provided an update since then.
After beingness the first MMO to introduce virtual pets, Blizzardgenerated $1.1 1000000 from the Pandaren Monk pet on behalf of the Make-A-Wish foundation in 2010. In 2011, Blizzard continued with donations originating from the pet sales: $800,000 to the Make-A-Wish foundation and$1.1 million for Nippon after the Tohoku earthquake/tsunami natural disaster.

Blizzard has always been quite secretive with its revenue and profit. Therefore, except from computing direct how much they are making based on the number of subscribers and the price of a subscription, it is difficult to assess the proper number. Plus, subscriptions come up in different packages, and you also have to think virtually acquirement coming from the expansions and the merchandising. In 019, a vanilla version of the main game was released, Earth of Warcraft Classic, allowing players to play the "vintage" version of the title, before all the updates and expansions. Coupled with the release of the Diablo II remake, it must have brought new (or old) users. Fifty-fifty more so when we can see that Blizzard released a classic version of the first expansion. Information technology might mean that they intend to do then with the seven left. Anyway, Blizzard making information technology a betoken not to communicate their numbers at all is worrisome.

five. When it was released, World of Warcraft became the fastest-selling game on PC with 240,000 copies sold in 24 hours.

(Source: Gamedeveloper)

The first expansion,Called-for Crusade, released in 2007,sold 2.four one thousand thousand copies in 24 hours. A total of 3.5 one thousand thousand copies were sold during the first month.
Then in 2008, the second one,Wrath of the Lich King, broke that record by selling2.8 million in 24 hours.
In 2010,Calamity soldiii.three million copies in 24 hours. Afterwards a month, that number went up to 4.7 million.
The fourth expansion,Mists of Pandaria, released in 2012, sold2.7 one thousand thousand copies inside a week.
The expansionWarlords of Draenor released in 2014sold iii.3 one thousand thousand copies in 24 hours. The same number was accomplished over the same period of time pastLegion, which launched in 2016.
Battle of Azeroth, which was released in 2018, soldthree.4 million copies in 24 hours. The last expansion,Shadowlands, was released in 2020 and sold3.vii million copies in 24 hours, breaking all other records established past Globe of Warcraft.

Funnily enough, World of Warcraft has been breaking its own records year later on year. All the expansions received fantastic scores in specialized media and good reviews from players. But even that did not stop the inevitable from happening. Following the release ofWarlords of Draenor(a few months after), the number of subscribers plummeted so badly that it was so and there that Blizzard appear that they would not written report the number of subscribers. Blizzard has not appear a new expansion since 2020, and it might exist that information technology will not happen for a while since it looks similar they volition do and then 2 years before release. That would non be a adept thought, though, if Activision Blizzard really wants to retain its thespian base of operations, considering all the options players have these days.

World of Warcraft usage stats

Fourth dimension to accept a closer look at how the community consumes the game. After 17 years, and the number of subscribers continuously decreasing, information technology might be interesting to meet how World of Warcraft is doing, but on the consumers' side. Simply likewise, why non, what the players similar to utilize in terms of form and race.

six. The land with the largest player base in World of Warcraft is the United States with 22.54%.

(Source: Player Counter)

Russian federation is #two with 9.58% and is followed by Germany as #iii with 8.81%.
The balance of the Tiptop 5 is rounded off past France (5.55%) and Uk (iv.94%).
In 2018, Nordic countries came on elevation, with Sweden snatching the first spot (19.six%) and Norway post-obit closely (xviii.8%). Ranking third, nosotros detect Denmark (eighteen.4%).

Scandinavia was actually where the most fervent communities could be establish in 2018, which is something that no ane saw coming. Around this time, World of Warcraft was already in that depression period where it would rise and decline only mostly decline. That is as well why there is no People's republic of china: at this signal, the land had already turned a new folio and moved on to something else. And as said before, Blizzard did not actually create content that would speak to that side of the world (pandas practise not count). In improver, because of all the laws and restrictions coming from the Chinese authorities, players were ever behind in terms of updates and expansions. The U.s.a. got its identify equally the number one.

7. In 2019, the Hunter class was the favorite in both the European union and U.South. realms with 10.5% and xi.3% (respectively).

(Source: Statista)

It is followed by thePaladin (9.v% & 9.seven%) and the Druid (ix.9% & 9.vii%).
The Warrior has the fourth position with 9.9% and nine.v%.The Mage was the fifth well-nigh appreciated course (viii.9% & 8.eight%).
In 2020, an infographic by a Redditor, using a sample of 300,000 characters, updated the trends based on the side chosen. In the Alliance, theNight Elf was the favorite of over 35,000 players and effectually17,000 of them went for the Druid class.
The human was the 2d well-nigh chosen race with between 34,000-35,000 players and the 2nd nigh liked course was the Hunter with around 16,000 players.
In the Horde, the Claret Elf literally crushes the other classes every bit the well-nigh preferred race with 60,000 players. The favorite class is the Hunter, witha number of players around 17,000.
The Troll is the 2nd most coveted racewith between18,000-nineteen,000 players. The second most appreciated course in the Horde isthe Mage with around xvi,000 players.

Classes offering support and altitude seem to be really liked in the game, since they are pretty much at the pinnacle, whether in 2018 or 2020. The Hunter stays as an all-time favorite: not only is the class perfect for beginners, only their part is also clearly defined. A Hunter is here to provide long-ranged attacks. The class is also much loved for its survivability when soloing and the depth in skills once the player is more used to the game. Plus, it has crowd command. Fun fact: a lot of players are irritated by the loftier number of Blood Elves and Night Elves, as those are mostly called by male person players because of aesthetics and non skills or good stats. This ways that even if it is not in the infographics, nearly of them must be female.

8. World of Warcraft is ranked #18 on Twitch.

(Source: Twitch)

Over seven days: the average number of viewers is 31,732, the average number of channels streaming the game is 1,099, the boilerplate number of viewers/aqueduct is 28.ix and the number of hours watched is 5,341,516.
The highest number of concurrent viewers was1,135,186 in Baronial 2019 and the highest number of channels streaming was25,786 in November 2020.
On boilerplate, there are 40,407 viewers and ane,400 agile channels.
The game is streamed past vi% fewer channels during the weekend, and in that location are ii% fewer viewers.

Considerately, it is nifty at all. More than anything, when looking at such statistics, one has to call up that nosotros are dealing with a 17-years-old game hither. Not but is it in the top twenty of games streamed on Twitch, when the audience seems pretty steady. Millions of hours watched in just a week is far from beingness just an boilerplate game in the streaming landscape. Earth of Warcraft adapted itself to the streaming format (well, more like the player base).

World of Warcraft esports

You might have thought that it was not possible considering the game'south format, but Blizzard added an arena in one of the expansions. The Loonshit allows two teams of two, 3, or 5 players to fight each other, which is a well-controlled style to let players more into PvP to indulge in that mode, rather than go around killing innocent players. Earth of Warcraft is pretty small-scale when information technology comes to audition and prize money, but information technology is still established on the eSports scene.

9. The biggest prize pool in a tournament reached a total of $300,000.

(Source: eSports Earnings)

It was the prize money for ii tournaments: Loonshit World Championship 2019 & 2021.
The grand total of prize money awarded amounts to$6,976,337.61 from 164 tournaments.

That is where you see what was meant past "modest". The international title's prize pool does not even attain $500,000. However, the total amount shows that there are a lot of tournaments organized out in that location. That can also exist seen through the viewership during broadcasted events: they unremarkably range between 20,000-40,000 viewers. Those numbers are pretty consistent, and that means that the fanbase is pretty loyal to World of Warcraft eSports. It might non be big, but it will alive through that loyalty and steady consumption. Of note, is also the fact that most of those tournaments are held offline, with 72% of the prize money originating from those.

10. The player with the highest earnings is Swapxy with $203,474 (Frg).

(Source: eSports Earnings)

Snutz is #2 with a total of$194,241 (Canada). He is followed past Fabss with $145,387 (Italian republic).
Whaazz is #4 with $138,875 (Switzerland) while #5, Chanimal, shows a full of$133,345 (Australia).

Earth of Warcraft is certainly one of the most diverse eSports scenes. It is not often that we can see and then many nationalities, just in the top 5. The residual of the ranking is equally colorful. Of course, American players are part of it, but we also observe people from French republic, Scandinavian players and even Slovakia at the 13th spot. Europe is a large provider of professional players.

xi. The United States dominates the circuit with its $two,058,820, making it the country with the highest sum of coin awarded.

(Source: eSports Earnings)

Germany is second with$631,821 and Sweden is third with $568,831.
Canada ($494,975) andBritain ($419,013) managed to occupy the terminal 2 spots in that Height 5.

The gap betwixt the US and the rest of the ranking is exponentially huge, which means that they must be holding quite the number of offline competitions in that location. This also means that the country is the nigh active when it comes to eSports. The other countries are besides organizing offline tournaments, every bit the earnings of some players originate exclusively from those. In fact, it looks like World of Warcraft equally a sport is better appreciated offline/LAN.

To sum upward

Whatever will happen in the hereafter and how it might cease upward for World of Warcraft, no i can deny the fact that the game has entered video game history. And not for a short either equally, 17 years subsequently, it is notwithstanding, too as a game that old could exist and all the same being talked well-nigh and taken care of. Few MMO games can brag about such longevity. And we cannot throw the stone at Blizzard under the pretense that they did not take care of their game: it would have been quite the feat if the title had resisted and surpassed the likes of Final Fantasy Fourteen or Genshin Impact. Final Fantasy Xiv was released in 2010 and has but started living its best years.

However, not everything is not perfect. Players have been complaining lately, and theShadowlands was already under fire before the get-go patch was released. Add to that the fact that some games have been in the waiting lanes for now what seems to be centuries and the controversies the company has been under regarding the toxic workplace, the discrimination, and the sexual harassment, Activision Blizzard sure has a lot on their plate. In fact, those allegations fifty-fifty pushed players to boycott their games in support of the developers.

The studio appear today that they were working on a new open-earth survival game, which prompted the question: which team is on it, considering that they still have games to deliver? That and the fact that they are in the middle of a tempest with people leaving or getting fired. Right now, nosotros can only look, but Microsoft's intention to buy the visitor, the fact that they are more known for seeking IPs rather than creating them, and we already see them pushing unions abroad are not good signs.

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