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  1. #1
    Official THE Alpha and Omega
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    FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    From the article "NPD: Online Subscriptions Generate $1B"
    http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_i ... tory=18583

    In its first-ever quarterly online game subscription tracking report - covering October 2007 to March 2008, the NPD Group has gathered data claiming that online subscriptions, including MMO, casual, and console titles, represent over $1 billion annually to the U.S. gaming industry.

    The NPD Group calculated these results by taking the monthly averages it had estimated from a newly compiled gamer panel for Q4 2007 and Q1 2008, respectively $94.3 million and $80.1 million, and multiplying the average of those two by 12 to get the the annualized equivalent.

    Said NPD spokeswoman Anita Frazier: "Now that NPD can estimate the value of the subscription market, it's clear that there is a sizable chunk of revenue being generated by PC gaming beyond what is reflected in retail sales."

    The online subscriptions tracking report went on to show claims that 11 million North American gamers hold monthly subscriptions to online games. According to the report, revenues from console subscriptions rose 9% on an average monthly basis since Q4 2007 to Q1 2008.

    The NPD Group also listed its own estimates of the top 5 rankings for MMOs and gaming subscription (largely casual) websites during the Q4 2007 to Q1 2008 period.

    MMO/PC Game Subscribers:

    1. World of Warcraft
    2. RuneScape
    3. Lord of the Rings Online
    4. Final Fantasy XI
    5. City of Heroes

    Gaming Website Subscribers:

    1. Pogo.com
    2. Realarcade.com
    3. Bigfishgames.com
    4. Gametap.com
    5. Disney.com

    Said Frazier: "By contrasting the demographics of MMO players against those of gaming website players, the broad appeal of PC gaming is clearly evident. While the majority of gaming website players are females over the age of 35, MMOG players are largely males under the age of 35. The variety of content available to play games on the PC clearly can draw a diverse audience."
    Notably, it is the oldest paid subscription based MMO on the top 5 list. I am unsure if this is just counting American subscribers or worldwide subscribers since NPD supposedly only counts American data, but FFXI is ranked so high that I don't know if American subscribers alone can count for that.

    Thoughts?

  2. #2
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    Don't let RuneScape fool you, RuneScape accounts are free... that's the only reason it's as high as it is.

    I have one, but I haven't played that in years.
    I only even played it for a day because I thought it sucked, but I just checked and the account is still active.

  3. #3
    Official THE Alpha and Omega
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    Quote Originally Posted by Charismatic
    Don't let RuneScape fool you, RuneScape accounts are free... that's the only reason it's as high as it is.

    I have one, but I haven't played that in years.
    I only even played it for a day because I thought it sucked, but I just checked and the account is still active.
    That's why I said oldest paid subscription MMO. Runescape is older.

  4. #4
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    Well, I used you... but that message was more for the people who will undoubtedly read this thread and not actually you.

    I realized you meant that.

  5. #5
    Ashira
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    like wtf where is guild wars




    haha

    >.>

  6. #6
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    Before WoW hit, FFXI was the most popular MMO of them all with 500,000 subscribers. That number hasn't changed at all since then, so this isn't particularly surprising other than the fact it's not third (is LotRO really that good?). The HUEG LIEK XBOX numbars that WoW has are extremely, extremely unusual for this genre.

  7. #7
    Official THE Alpha and Omega
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    Quote Originally Posted by Toksyuryel
    Before WoW hit, FFXI was the most popular MMO of them all with 500,000 subscribers. That number hasn't changed at all since then, so this isn't particularly surprising other than the fact it's not third (is LotRO really that good?). The HUEG LIEK XBOX numbars that WoW has are extremely, extremely unusual for this genre.
    LotR:O is supposed to be really good. It's casual as hell and has the LotR license used well.

  8. #8
    Absolute Messenger of Promathia
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    Quote Originally Posted by Toksyuryel
    Before WoW hit, FFXI was the most popular MMO of them all with 500,000 subscribers. That number hasn't changed at all since then, so this isn't particularly surprising other than the fact it's not third (is LotRO really that good?). The HUEG LIEK XBOX numbars that WoW has are extremely, extremely unusual for this genre.
    Its over advertised and hyped. Like G-4 cant stop dick riding it. The Commercials... my God, William Effing Shatner (Regardless of this, he's still awsome) Mr. T!

    The reason its getting alot of attention i assume is the Media Attention, negative, or positive as it may be, its just extremely advertised as the "Best" MMO out there.

    Though im sure everyone knew this

  9. #9
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    @Maxx: How much does it cost per month? Maybe I'll check it out someday.

    @Karbuncle: I can 95% guaruntee you that if the exact same game were produced by anyone other than Blizzard and with any property besides WarCraft, WoW would have flopped. Its great success is a direct result of its marketability. That said I have to concede my own point and say that the same could probably be said for FFXI, as much as I love this game.

  10. #10
    Ashira
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    LoTRO is also relatively 'new,' think it's one year anniv is upcoming. /shrug

  11. #11
    Official THE Alpha and Omega
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    Quote Originally Posted by Toksyuryel
    @Maxx: How much does it cost per month? Maybe I'll check it out someday.

    @Karbuncle: I can 95% guaruntee you that if the exact same game were produced by anyone other than Blizzard and with any property besides WarCraft, WoW would have flopped. Its great success is a direct result of its marketability. That said I have to concede my own point and say that the same could probably be said for FFXI, as much as I love this game.
    No idea, never played LOTRO, just saying what I've heard.

    And WoW is really a solid game for a lot of people.

  12. #12

    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    Quote Originally Posted by Maxxthepenguin
    Quote Originally Posted by Toksyuryel
    @Maxx: How much does it cost per month? Maybe I'll check it out someday.

    @Karbuncle: I can 95% guaruntee you that if the exact same game were produced by anyone other than Blizzard and with any property besides WarCraft, WoW would have flopped. Its great success is a direct result of its marketability. That said I have to concede my own point and say that the same could probably be said for FFXI, as much as I love this game.
    No idea, never played LOTRO, just saying what I've heard.

    And WoW is really a solid game for a lot of people.
    I didn't think FFXI would be that high in the list. I thoroughly enjoy WoW because it supports such a wide range of activities for any person. You can play solo, exp solo, farm solo, etc...

  13. #13
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    This has got to be US only, from what I remember Lineage 1 and 2 have huge fan bases and were the games to beat for a while. Isn't WoW closing in on the 12 mil active subscriptions? Thats crazy, everyone says its got a short shelve life. Yet all my friends picked it up early, and are still playing.

    For MMO data I like MMOCharts. I don't know how accurate they are, never spent time researching it, but their numbers seem to be valid from a common sense stand point.

  14. #14
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    I don't understand where they are getting the numbers for LotRO. Unless things changed since I quit, there's no way to see how many people are logged in on a server, much less find out how many there are total. I though Turbine didn't give out numbers? Oh well.

    Anyway, LotRO is OK for a while. When you hit the level cap there wasn't anything to do except go torment people in The Ettenmoors (player vs. monster player area.) Perhaps they added some end game content, which would help tremendously. The gameplay itself is decent, and they have something akin to skillchains (conjunctions.) The character models are laughable though. Hopefully they updated them, because the world itself is designed beautifully. Music is really good too.

  15. #15
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    .

  16. #16
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    Quote Originally Posted by Sess
    This has got to be US only, from what I remember Lineage 1 and 2 have huge fan bases and were the games to beat for a while. Isn't WoW closing in on the 12 mil active subscriptions? Thats crazy, everyone says its got a short shelve life. Yet all my friends picked it up early, and are still playing.

    For MMO data I like MMOCharts. I don't know how accurate they are, never spent time researching it, but their numbers seem to be valid from a common sense stand point.
    WoW is around 10m worldwide

  17. #17
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    Quote Originally Posted by Fhqwghads
    I don't understand where they are getting the numbers for LotRO. Unless things changed since I quit, there's no way to see how many people are logged in on a server, much less find out how many there are total. I though Turbine didn't give out numbers? Oh well.
    seems possible if it's only US subscribers, FFXI claims 500k subscribers worldwide, so you'd speculate maybe around 200k in the US.

    200k shouldn't be that hard to beat for LotRO which probably has 90% of their user base in the US.

  18. #18
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    .

  19. #19
    blax n gunz
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    Curious that they left out Lineage, which would bump FFXI down to 5th place. I guess Korea doesn't count but Japan does?

  20. #20
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    Re: FFXI #4 in number of subscribers for MMOs

    Quote Originally Posted by Correction
    Curious that they left out Lineage, which would bump FFXI down to 5th place. I guess Korea doesn't count but Japan does?
    Korea shouldn't account, their MMO scene is vastly different from Japan.

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