***ToR Can Easily Surpass WoW - Simple Subscription Basics***
Ok I'm sure not all of you know my background in the MMO Genre - but I do have a nice little tidbit of info for you concerning "The Big MMO" that is out there today (since BlizzCon is looming on our doorstep).
As of 2008 Blizzard has stopped recording the numbers of EU and NA subscribers that that are receiving and losing, and have began just tallying the "Global" sales numbers. Why do you ask? For one reason - it makes the figures a little more "bloated" when you take it to a global level.
Back in 2008 (at last recording) World of Warcraft only had about 2.5M active subscribers in the NA region. For comparison SW:ToR just in the NA region currently has about 675k Pre-Orders Sold from Vendor Clients (aka Amazon, GameStop, BestBuy, etc.), those numbers do not currently include what has been ordered digitally from Origin or any other online retailer as they cannot currently be added into the mix until the point of sale takes place.
http://users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/WoW.png
WoW Subscription Chart
If you take a look at the big dip in the chart above there was a massive loss in the player base between 2009 and 2010, this was right around the time the the third expansion "Cataclysm" had launched and many of the players had left for other MMO's. Yet as the chart shows once again many of those players were not held for very long in the games they played and had all come back to their beloved World of Warcraft.
Currently in 2011 it seems that there is once again a slow decline in the amount of players who are currently active in WoW - but what do the trends show (most likely that many will come back).
But as for the case on ToR being able to take on the "Big Stage" and competing with WoW in the NA and EU markets - I do believe they will be able to with the current numbers and innovations the game has shown so far and have left in the dust (such as a very redundant leveling and grinding system many games have, and the introduction of interactive character stories that immerse you in the world). Many of these features should keep players playing for quite some time and enjoying the systems in place, unlike many other games in the past.
I know many of you probably will not read this due to its length, but I do think it may provide some valuable insight into the state of the gaming community and trends in the market base if you go and take a look around the blog.
http://mmodata.blogspot.com/
MMOData Blog
Cheers All - I hope I provided some useful info for you all ;)
***ADDED***
http://users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/PCU-1.png
Peak Current Users
World of Warcraft's Peak users Online at one time is around 2M out of the 12M Global Subscriber Base - which to me seems slightly low for a game such as WoW with 12M active Subscriptions.
But this does not take into effect multiple accounts per single user household, just the subscriptions that are active at a given time.
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