WoW tops 9.3 million subscribers

World of Warcraft continues strong growth; powers Vivendi earnings in third quarter.

Vivendi's third quarter earnings came out on November 14th with the company reporting "continued momentum" thanks to Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, the game's first expansion which released in January and more recently China late in the third quarter, as well as subscriber revenues. Revenues for the company increased by 50% over last year to-date, with third quarter earnings increasing by 19% over the same period in 2006, at 216 million euros ($315.2 million).

Further powering the gaming juggernaut's sales in the quarter was the successful release of Massive Entertainment's "World in Conflict" - an online action-strategy game designed for competitive play.

Most importantly, though, is that Blizzard's stalwart MMO continues to thrive in a market currently dominated by console shooters. World of Warcraft has shrugged off the release of such hits as BioShock, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, and Valve's Orange Box to continued growth - reaching a staggering 9.3 million subscribers - an increase of 1 million since December of last year and 300,000 since July's announcement of 9 million subscribers.