World of Warcraft surpasses 1 million EU subscribers

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that its phenomenally successful massively multiplayer online game, World of Warcraft, has now surpassed one million subscribers in Europe, topping 5.5 million worldwide.

The game is available in English, French and German, and is operated and serviced by Blizzard's local European office, established in late 2003. The EU office, comprising some 400 employees and 22 different nationalities is now the second largest Blizzard office in the world, and continues to expand rapidly in order to keep pace with the growing popularity of the title.

Blizzard Entertainment president and co-founder, Mike Morhaime, commented: "It is extremely rewarding to see so many European players enjoying World of Warcraft. The players have supported our belief in the European MMORPG market, and we thank them for helping us make World of Warcraft one of the most popular games in the world."

More than just a significant milestone for the publisher, the figure of one million EU subscribers quadruples previous estimates of the size of the entire European MMORPG market. Additionally, Blizzard claims to have topped the sales chart for full-priced PC games in Europe last year, citing data from Media Control & GFK panels across Europe, as well as internal studies and account data.

Blizzard's figures are calculated based on individuals who have paid a subscription fee or purchased a prepaid card, as well as those who have purchased the installation box bundled with one free month access. Internet game room players having accessed the game over the last seven days are also counted as customers, though the figure does exclude all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired pre-paid cards.

World of Warcraft was initially launched in North America, Australia, and New Zealand, and has since enjoyed immediate success from launches in Korea, Europe, China and Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.