MMOG Subscription Growth Analyzed

Wtcher writes "Bruce Woodcock has cobbled together a chart recording the growth of various massive multiplayer online games in subscriber numbers, relative to each other. I just found it interesting to see a visual summary of how well each MMOG was doing compared to one another." Apart from Lineage, which is omitted because the author says "trying to compare it to other MMOGs is almost like comparing apples to oranges", it seems that Everquest is still way out there in front, but there's a number of more recently-launched titles jockeying for position in this very competitive market.

Comments

Data is nice, conclusions are better

[ObviousGuy]

The only conclusion one could come to from looking at this data is that launching a new MMOG today is an exercise in futility. The number of subscribers you can expect is drastically lowered because of the primary first mover Everquest. In short, the barrier to entry for new MMOGs is raised to the point that finding investors willing to take a gamble on your game will be near impossible.