Is WoW -really- the most popular MMORPG?

[Aoyi]

As for subscription based games, WoW is still the largest MMO out there. If you include all the F2P MMO's, I'm not sure. I don't know that any publisher really releases numbers now. You'll usually see them dodge it by stating how many unique accounts have been created, but that doesn't represent active players. Blizzard stated a while back that they had over 100 million accounts created. Did that number include those playing for free until level 20? Or was it only including those who paid for at least 1 month (not just the free month that comes with the initial game purchase)? Only Blizzard really knows.

I've created accounts for most of the F2P MMO's I've seen and even logged in for anywhere between a few minutes to a few days to explore the game. I'm still being counted as a unique account by those developers. Since those developers are counting me, its only fair if Blizzard does the same, but it still doesn't give any real idea of active players. Also, I'm technically an active subscription for WoW through Feb (WoW tokens purchased a year ago), but I'm not actively playing. There are lots of players like me who took advantage of the WoW tokens last year who might not play anymore. Those subs are still counting as well.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, unless all developers are honest about their ACTIVE player base (and use a universal definition on what can be considered active), we can't know for sure.

[Deleted]

Oh I'll agree WoW is dated by modern standards but the art style of it is so damn unique I just enjoy it so much. FFXIV does have impressive visuals but it wasn't enough to keep me entertained I guess you could say. I'm a sucker for unique cartoonish styles much like Overwatch, TF2 etc.

some fair points there, mate

[shonist]

you cant tell popularity by playerbase or active players.

You can still know more about wow than any other games but play another one maybe cuz its free or you like it more. doesnt means its more popular because you play it.

WoW is the mos popular mmo in the history. Ive heard of it even when i was really young and never played an mmo.
Almost every player i know they know or ar least heared of wow.

[Deleted]

really? i prefer them to wow, which looks quite dated now.
i have also played aion & got 2 chars to 60 out on that before the next patch came out & the visuals were really quite impressive, too.

Ive played aion at the time it was P2P...
Friggin grind all the way...literally no quests from 20 to 30 back then.. and even getting quests from 30 was a pain in the ass.
Compared to WoW all these MMORPG got these problems and then im hearing they changed aion to F2P. That shit was so expensive back then..
Retards.. all grindy games go F2P at one point. I so regret playing that game

[Pann]

I believe that Netease operates a couple of games, in Fantasy Westward series, that had (I have no idea if this still the case) much larger subscription bases than WoW.

[Grofatso]

WoW doesn't even feel like a RPG anymore. So I'd say no.

[Deleted]

I was more thinking the number of people actively playing now

No one knows. The numbers are not public. They've never been.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

If it doesn't really matter why did you make the thread?

lol - Have we ever discussed anything that really matters on MMO-C?

[ent0mbed]

Wow will be the biggest until OASIS becomes reality from Ready Player One. I Absolutely love the idea around the Oasis system in that book. I honestly think that would be the only thing bigger.

Oh boy... here we go again. Never heard this one before. Oh yeah, right, there was Aion, Age of Conan, Rift, Guild Wars 1 & 2, Everquest 2, Warhammer Online, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Star Trek Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Wildstar... all of them were slated to dethrone WoW. I guess maybe they're just slow and methodical and the death blow is just coming over a period of decades!

[kary]

Ready Player One is a book. OASIS isn't an actual game.

And WoW isn't the biggest, even now.

Then what is?

[Eleccybubb]

Ready Player One is a book. OASIS isn't an actual game.

And WoW isn't the biggest, even now.

As Kary said yeah I'm curious too. What is?

[ReleaseDay]

IIRC, TESO surpassed 2M active users.

[FelPlague]

Ready Player One is a book. OASIS isn't an actual game.

And WoW isn't the biggest, even now.

and what is the most played sub based mmo right now?
or what else is more commonly known in the mmo genre by any and everyone, even those who dont play video games?


btw saying the game is not the biggest, then not stating what the biggest it is in, responding "it needs specifics" shows your talking garbage

"hey guys i won gold in the olympics"
in what sport?
"that needs specifics"
u...uh what?

[Zandalariprelate]

If you are talking about Wow-lie MMORPGs, WOW is hand-down the biggest there is, by a large margin. We can safely assume that WoW still has somewhere in the 10M accounts (it doesn't really matter if its only 7M or if its 12M), while the biggest competitors struggle to even get one million.

If you talk about other MMOs and include Browsergames and other "online" games, then WoW is probably not the biggest there is. Over 25M people own Dota2 on Steam alone, not sure how you would measure the "active" player base there. Some other browser games will certainly also have high numbers, although its often difficult to discern individual accounts when a browser game has multiple worlds/galaxies/universes.

10 accounts for climb mmr are mine, thanks for the mention

[zingar]

as others have said, when it comes to WoW-like MMOs then probably WoW is #1. if not then some others like Maplestory or Dungeon Fighter Online maybe have a higher number of active players but hard to tell
http://gallery.pub.goha.ru/gals/news...81fb7ad5be.jpg

[Mykk]

Once upon a time WoW was unquestionably the most popular MMORPG however how true is that now? What with WoW been f2p for a % and Blizzard and other competitors no longer releasing subscription numbers can people really still say without question whether or not WoW is the most popular MMORPG currently? What with no evidence to support such now. Either way it doesn't really matter if we're all still enjoying the game.

No thanks. Im done with "f2p" mmorpg crap models. They're not better. GEtting quality content will never happen and game will be turned to p2w crap. Rather pay 13 euros per month as subscriber than play f2p shit

[FelPlague]

No, it shows that the question needs specifics, which is why I said it >_>
Specifics meaning something like what you asked above when you said "sub-based". Doesn't mean I'm talking garbage, means folks can't understand simple English. I apologise for expecting a little brain power being used...

I also wasn't talking about active players, as that is unknowable now that WoW don't release their figures, like so many others.
I was talking specifically about registered accounts, a specific that sees WoW dwarfed in number by several games, most notably Dungeon Fighter Online that has more than 400 million accounts.

Claiming WoW is most "popular" means nothing when it lacks specifics, such as WTF "popular" even equates to.

ok so
what sub based mmo has more
publictiy
history
played
purchased
active

you said "wow is no longer the most popular" without telling us in what catergory, then when we asked you in what category, you said, in a category...

- - - Updated - - -

as others have said, when it comes to WoW-like MMOs then probably WoW is #1. if not then some others like Maplestory or Dungeon Fighter Online maybe have a higher number of active players but hard to tell
http://gallery.pub.goha.ru/gals/news...81fb7ad5be.jpg

i also hate how shitty this list is
"league of legends is an mmo" uhh no it isnt, its a multiplayer game, not an MMO, by that logic hearthstone, diablo, call of duty, halo, and portal are fucking MMO's

[Dracullus]

I think there are F2P MMOs that have more active players (not so sure for MMORPG), but subscription base - I don't think so. There is a reason that hyped games like ESO or SWTOR had to drop subscription model. Also WoW is really predictable - since 5 (!) expansions there are always around 10M active players on launch, regardless of last expansion support (I think that even Warlords had really high quality on first month - if you compare that for other games for that price)

[kary]

So you have an answer or nah?
The semantics are unnecessary. what is the "largest mmo" or "most popular" or "most active subs"
You can list several. List everything that's "bigger"

[FelPlague]

If you're going to tell me what I said, at least get the words right. This isn't exactly a new topic and I've had this same exact debate before. It's tedious to have on this website.

Again, you can't claim anything in terms of active players, because you literally do not know.
Played? Played what? Character, pet battles... what? If you mean number of people that have played the game, there are several games with way more than the 100+ million that WoW has.
Purchased, no idea.
History, not something I can be bothered looking into.
Publicity? Where, exactly? WoW is more popular in the West and the East.

As you said "sub-based", WoW may well be more popular. Fact is, you have no idea if that is true.

THEN LIST THEM
YOU SAY YOU KNOW GAMES THAT HAVE MORE
BUT REFUSE TO LIST THEM
LIIIIISSSSSSTTT THEEEEEMMMMM

and you keep saying "you know other games are more popular" but then when we say nah wow is more popular you say "no we dont know"


you keep saying you know tons of other games that are "more popular in every way" but refuse to list then or provide stats, saying "i dont know" for most of them

for somone who has this conversation so many times it becomes tedius, you really provide nothing in this post other then

"i said so, and since i said so, its fact"