General Discussion

Gamesindustry.biz has posted an interesting story that reveals that Americans have spend over one billion dollars in online game subscriptions.

The NPD Group has released data indicating that the value of US online game subscriptions exceeds USD 1 billion annually.

This finding was based on data gathered between October 2007 and March 2008. The NPD also said that 11 million people subscribe to online games each month.

"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," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

Other analysts and execs have previously suggested that data showing a decline in PC sales does not reflect a true picture of the business because it does not account for digital distribution and online subscription sales.

NPD also analysed the demographics, finding that the majority of gaming website players are females over 35 years of age, while MMO players are largely males under age 35.

Read the rest here.

Interesting is the ranking from NPD of the top MMOs for this 1st quarter of the year in terms of subscribers

1. World of Warcraft

2. RuneScape

3. Lord of the Rings Online

4. Final Fantasy XI

5. City of Heroes

Runescape has a LOT of subscribers, huh? Even more than FFXI... but it must be due to the research having been done only in the US. LotRO is really something, huh? But I'm impressed - and honored - that my dear CoH appears as the 5th! Way to go, devs!

tbh runescape is actually a alright game just the crappy graphics put people off if they didn't start with something like that. Also its really cheap compared to the other mmo's been only £3.20 if you pay with credit card.

Yeah many people see Runescape as a piece of crap game. But it just has another market in my opinion. While WoW is aiming on people who are 16 years and older, Runescape is aiming on a younger croud(10-15 years) atleast in there F2P server, when you play in there P2P server you will notice that the community goes up a couple of years(16-20years). And one of the reasons aswell why Runescape is so popular is the fact everyone can reach the game. You don't have to buy the game, you don't have to pay a monthly subscription, the only thing you need to play Runescape is a browser .

Holy shit, I haven't been saying this for like 2 years to all the naysayers using incomplete NPD data to say PC gaming is dying..... Not what was once my enemy is not my friend to use aganist naysayers

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Originally posted by rsreston
Runescape has a LOT of subscribers, huh? Even more than FFXI... but it must be due to the research having been done only in the US.

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No, I'm pretty sure total subscriptions of Runescape globally would still be higher than FFXI and LotRO.

Originally posted by Aethios

 

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Originally posted by rsreston
Runescape has a LOT of subscribers, huh? Even more than FFXI... but it must be due to the research having been done only in the US.

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No, I'm pretty sure total subscriptions of Runescape globally would still be higher than FFXI and LotRO.

If it's f2p and p2p, then they have 10million people sign on weekly I believe...how this is measured I am not sure.

Grats to City of Heroes on getting #5.

Little surprised by Runescape, if someone had asked me I wouldn't of thought it would be in the top five.  Oh well, grats to the runescapers too I guess.

To bad they didnt add in Microtransaction games as well and do it on a world wide scale. I would like to know how much is genrated by them compared to standard subs. 

People spend way over 15$ a month normaly on games like Maple Story. I bet their yearly figures are insane.