World of Warcraft devs used to joke about the MMO making $1 million per month - just months before it smashed through $15 million in monthly revenue
Nov. 30, 2024“We had a good laugh about that one, but we all kind of thought maybe it could do that for real.”
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When it comes to MMOs,World of Warcrafthas been the big name in the market for the best part of two decades. But before it became the gaming juggernaut it is today, expectations for the game were, in relative terms, pretty modest to say the least.
In an interview inRetro Gamerissue 266, formerBlizzardand WoW developer Bo Bell spoke about the expectations for the game, with some fairly low numbers on the table before the game’s later explosion in popularity. “At the time EverQuest was pulling in something like $500,000 per month,” Bo begins. “We said things like we could see WoW easily hitting that, maybe even $800k. Or how about $1,000,000? We had a good laugh about that one, but we all kind of thought maybe it could do that for real.”
Since those early days, WoW has cemented itself as the undisputed king of the MMO market and is now celebrating its 20th anniversary. And while many fans are somewhat negative about the current state of the game, the game continues to have an estimated 7 million plus subscribers. Not too shabby for a game that initially didn’t dare to dream beyond a few tens of thousands.
Check out WoW among others on our list of thebest MMORPGsto play right now.
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Alex has written all sorts of things for websites including VideoGamer, PCGamer, PCGamesN and more. He’ll play anything from Tekken to Team Fortress 2, but you’ll typically find him failing to churn through his backlog because he’s too busy playing whatever weird and wonderful indie games have just come out.
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