MMOG Active Subscriptions chart

[Lazybones]

http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart1.html

World of Warcraft stands out more than you might think.

[Thorin]

Wow!  It's definitely #1!  Here's another chart that shows how WoW is sorta like the Microsoft of MMOGs: http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart7.html (at least, in the sense of dominating the marketplace).

Surprising how long some of these MMOGs have been around, too.

[Lazybones]

In Chart 1 I just can't believe it's sustained steep growth.. it doesn't follow the pattern of ANY of the other products. All of the others seem to have a predictable pattern.

[Melbosa]

Its because WoW has eye crack for you.  You don't know it, but Blizzard has figured a way with lighting and refresh rates to make you addicted like hypnotism.!

[Thorin]

As big as their slope is, WoW does have a decreasing slope, just like every other successful MMOG: http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart11.html.  It's just that their slope is over a much larger number of subscribers.

I dunno that it's necessarily because of eye crack.  I think it's a combination of computer gaming becoming more mainstream, a very polished look, and the realization that gold farming can make a lot of money in developing countries.

The big thing to realize is that most WoW players were new to MMOG games.  It didn't just steal existing players from other games, it convinced millions of people that didn't play MMOGs before to start playing one now (sorta like how the Wii got lots of people trying console games).