World of Warcraft reaches 8 million subscriptions

The lady that rings up your cheetos and beer at the supermarket is a druid. Half of your office spends their nights pillaging villages and your father-in-law is some kind of weird Warlock. Chances are most of the people you come in contact with during your daily routine are questing it up at night in Blizzard’s insanely popular MMORPG, “World of Warcraft” which just received its 8 millionth subscription.

"We're ecstatic that the World of Warcraft community has continued to grow steadily since we launched the game," said Blizzard president and cofounder Mike Morhaime, presumably while being fed grapes and fanned with palm fronds atop a gigantic pile of cash. "This milestone wouldn't have been possible for us to achieve without the incredible support of our players."

Let’s  do some math and put this into perspective shall we? Scientists estimate that the world’s population is somewhere between six and seven billion people, 8 million playing Warcraft equals to 0.1 percent of the population, and while that number may seem small, if you look at it another way – the fact that it is just under four times the population of Kansas, things start to get a little clearer.

So just who is inhabiting Azeroth?  The largest majority of players come from China, which makes up for a whopping 3.5 million players, with North America and Europe trailing with 2 million and 1.5 million players respectively.

As impressive as they are, these numbers are expected to be dwarfed this week, as Blizzard releases “World of Warcraft: the Burning Crusade,” the MMORPG’s first true expansion pack. The new pack will add tons of new content to the already sprawling game, including new talents, abilities, quests and an entire continent to explore.