MMOG ranking by popularity

Post by **Jonathan** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 9:34 pm

Limited to the subset that are available in NA, though still counting subs outside NA:

1. WoW
2. Runescape
3. Lineage
4. Lineage II
5. FFXI
6. Dofus
7. Eve Online

8. LOTR
9. Everquest II
10. Everquest

By my count that makes Eve the third real MMOG behind WoW and FFXI. Taking bets on when Eve will pass FFXI now.

Vyrosama · Post by **Vyrosama** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:17 pm

Just curious...where did you get your data?

iirc, Runescape is this crappy free java/browser mmo game that I played a while back...(I think I died several times trying to complete the tutorial...rats > me)...it might have one of those "cash shops" though (ie you pay real money to decorate your character with colorful textures/sprites). Same deal with Dofus. I wonder if it's fair to compare subscription based mmos with cash shop ones..but how runescape got to the #2 spot is kinda fishy

Post by **Jonathan** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:29 pm

mmogchart.com updated on Feb 12.

http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart1.html

I believe Runescape is incredibly popular with the "I can't drive or use credit cards yet" crowd. They have all kinds of trouble keeping it out of school libraries and computer labs.

Yes, Runescape is Java and Dofus is flash. Lineage is sprites, though Lineage II is 3D. None of them have a classic UO/Everquest style monthly subscription fee structure, though I think some have a sort of premium membership for a monthly fee and others use RMT as you said.

Hence my real three list: WoW, FFXI, Eve.

George · Post by **George** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 3:04 am

I don't think its fair to exclude MMORPGs by business model or graphics. Having never paid to play an MMORPG or played one with hardware accelerated graphics, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

Post by **Jonathan** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 5:49 pm

Mostly I'm excluding Lineage II because it is solely popular in Asia. It is possible to play as a North American player, but it's not particularly big over here.

Regarding the graphics, it's a good shortcut for the quality and amount of content in the game.

Lineage is just really old and has been losing players and consolidating servers since forever, but they had over a million subs at their peak. I imagine it will take WoW a decade to die if Blizzard keeps some servers going.

Post by **Jonathan** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 5:53 pm

George wrote:I don't think its fair to exclude MMORPGs by business model or graphics. Having never paid to play an MMORPG or played one with hardware accelerated graphics, maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

The better metric for comparing different subscription models is perhaps total uniques per month. Total revenue per month or peak current users aren't bad metrics, either. The companies use these figures internally all the time, but you don't see them announcing it, even if they're public companies.