Blizzard: WoW userbase to grow once more

Blizzard believes World of Warcraft will see a significant rise in subscriptions this year, dismissing claims that the MMO has reached its peak.

The company announced back in 2008 that World of Warcraft had hit 11.5 million subscriptions, but the game hasn’t seemed to pass any new milestones since then.

A Blizzard exec claims this is all set to change when the newest expansion, Cataclysm, is launched later this year, according to VG247.

Whenever we launch an expansion we usually see some win-back from players who have set WoW aside temporarily,” said Blizzard’s EVP of product development Frank Pearce.

Hopefully we will get some people back from Cataclysm as well. I don’t think 11.5 million is a peak, necessarily, but there are certain things that we need to do and need to do well in order to see it go further.”

Pearce also said the game’s subscription base would be further boosted by the upcoming launch of Wrath of the Lich King in China.