Irvine, California - 19 January, 2006 - Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.'s World of Warcraft®, the world's leading subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, has surpassed the one million customer milestone in Europe, more than quadrupling the previously estimated size of the entire European MMORPG market since its launch in February 2005. In addition, World of Warcraft topped the sales charts* for full-price PC games in Europe last year. Worldwide, the game has a growing audience of more than 5.5 million customers.
"It is extremely rewarding to see so many European players enjoying World of Warcraft," said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment®. "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."
Available in English, French, and German in Europe, World of Warcraft is operated by Blizzard's local European office. Established in late 2003 and already comprising more than 400 employees and 22 different nationalities, Blizzard Europe - the second-largest Blizzard office in the world - has expanded rapidly to keep pace with the growth of World of Warcraft in Europe.
World of Warcraft has steadily grown in popularity around the world since its initial launch in North America, Australia, and New Zealand last November. Following successful launches in Korea, Europe, China and Singapore, World of Warcraft launched in the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.
For more information on World of Warcraft, please visit the game's official website at
www.wow-europe.com.
World of Warcraft's Customer Definition
World of Warcraft customers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or purchased a prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the installation box bundled with one free month access. Internet Game Room players that have accessed the game over the last seven days are also counted as customers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired pre-paid cards. Customers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.
* Based on numbers from Media Control & GFK panels across Europe as well as internal studies and account data.