Blizzard announced recently that over 8 million people across the globe subscribe to World of Warcraft: 3.5 million in China, 2 million in North America, 1.5 million in Europe. World of Warcraft's first expansion, the Burning Crusade, was released today (1/16), and is rated T for Teen. The Burning Crusade currently retails for $39.99. The original game is $19.99 and is required to play the expansion.
Source: Gamespot [ more info ]
This comic was originally slated for Friday of last week, but with the expansion hitting on the 16th, I figured I'd hold it since it was likely to be more relevant as people crush the servers to play the expansion.

Unfortunately a Photoshop error cost me the 4+ hours of work I'd spent coloring the relatively complex image. I'll begin the coloring job again as soon as I regain my composure. I'm still pretty angry. If you'd like to give coloring today's comic a go: Feel Free.

As far as the numbers go, I suspect they are a touch misleading. Ridiculously impressive to be sure, even if you didn't count the dual and triple accounts for some players, and the bucket full of accounts for each farmer out there.

The concept for the comic is based almost entirely on a previous GU strip where similar overcrowding occurred. Of course with over 8 million WoW users... the two instances don't exactly compare.

= $319,920,000 if everyone buys expansion
and
= $119,920,000 per month in subscriptions

3.5 Million in China compared to 2 million in North America?
oh and I'll color it.. tee hee.. what you mean orcs no come in pink?

If I might make a suggestion... Offer this comic up as a blank just like the Monkey. I know mine was a crap job, but it was fun to do.

Mordican, I added it in there a few minutes ago.

I forgot to add it to the front page news item though. I'll go take care of that now.

And the surprise is the servers were still up and running, in comparison to other content additions. I'm looking forward to the new content, but I'll give the hard-core folks a chance to explore the bugs before I even think about entering the portal. 8 million accounts is a huge number and considering I hit a queue every once in a while means they've really worked on their loaded servers. A nice "atta boy" to the Blizzard server folks...now just don't screw it up

I stood in line last night for an hour to get the expansion, I have an account and my husband has one. I wanted to buy and expansion for both accounts but they would only sell one copy.

So I sat playing my priest doing regular old quests while watching my husband explore the outlands. The alliance was owning on Lightning's Blade. They were camping the portal so very few horde were getting in, and still the area was crowded as ever. Monster's were spawning so fast that you could barely get out of the way.

Still they had a lot of fun, especially with the dive bombing quest.

*sigh* I want my copy now.

Great Comic Woody. I was wondering if there was gonna be a WoW comic today with the release. And your idea is far funnier then any I would have thought of. Sorry you lost your work, but keep your chin up, we all love your work here.

truth be told, except in a couple spots, on the server I play on it's actually not that crowded.

man this coloring is hard work... (even more respect for woody now)