World of Warcraft subscriber base tops 6 million worldwide

World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment has announced that the subscriber base for its exceptionally popular massively multiplayer online game has now exceeded 6 million worldwide.

At the start of the year, Blizzard announced a worldwide subscriber base of 5.5 million, surpassing a significant milestone by reaching in excess of 1 million users in Europe, which was four times higher than previous estimates of the size of the entire European MMORPG market.

The game is operated in Europe by what is currently Blizzard's second largest office in the world, which was established in 2003 and currently houses over 450 staff and 22 different nationalities. World of Warcraft is currently available in English, French and German, the EU servers only accessible by customers using a European credit card.

Currently available in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Europe, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, Blizzard's success is only going to increase as the company announces a new localised version for Spanish speakers in Europe.

Blizzard will ensure that, in addition to localising both the game and the accompanying website, a dedicated team of Spanish speaking support and community staff will be available at all hours in the European office.

Blizzard president and cofounder, Mike Morhaime, commented: "We look forward to offering Spanish-speaking players in Europe a version of World of Warcraft tailored specifically for them. The enthusiasm for the game here has been overwhelming, and we're pleased that this new localised version will make World of Warcraft accessible to an even wider audience."

The game has proven consistently popular since its initial launch, and has generated substantial income for Vivendi Universal Games, pushing the division back into profitability and contributing significantly to the year-end success of parent company Vivendi Universal.