I may bash World of Warcraft constantly for wasting much of its unprecedented potential, but the game is still one of the best MMORPGs on the market right now. This was demonstrated today when Blizzard announced the number of active subscriptions for the game has surpassed 9 million users internationally; a truely extraordinary milestone. More importantly they defined exactly what they mean when they quote these figures, deflecting a lot of theories claiming the old number of 8 million was inflated and misleading.

Their exact definition of a subscriber only includes "Individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet game room players who have accessed the game in the last month are also counted as subscribers". They very clearly state "The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards"

The bottom line is that when they say 9 million subscribers it actually really means they are getting 15 bucks a month from 9,000,000 individuals. That adds up to $135  million a month!