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"Pretty amazing news yesterday that WoW has hit over nine million subscribers (that's current, active subscribers-- we're taking it for granted that Blizzard isn't fudging the numbers) worldwide.  They put an official announcement up on their front page, and as Patrick on the WoW LJ noticed, Blizzard may be getting rich, but they've still got a good sense of humor.  Mouse over the picture on the post and you'll see what's posted above.So what's next?  As Elizabeth said yesterday, there's no question that the Burning Crusade expansion kept players playing, and even brought lots of new players back to the game.  There's also no question that this holiday season might be a tough one for keeping players hooked on a four-year-old game, as there are tons of new releases for all the platforms (Warhammer might be WoW's biggest challenger, but don't forget that Halo 3, the new Grand Theft Auto, and a ton of other games are going to vy for the same freetime that WoW takes up).  But don't worry-- Drysc has a solution, and it's that they're going to start appealing to some of Earth's other populations.  Cat subscribers for the win?"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/25/wow-subscriber-levels-over-nine-millionnnnn/>