New statistics from Nielsen have revealed that The World of Warcraft (WoW), a 'Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game' (MMORPG), still dominates the landscape of MMO titles with a staggering 9.3 million global subscribers!

MMO's are typically made up of massive persistent worlds where thousands of people interact with one another and the environment around them. The average WoW player reportedly spends a whopping 17 hours per week logged into the game, 12 hours more than those that play various 'The Sims' titles.

It’s hard to come by recent statistics for other games, although during June 2006 the top 5 by market share looked a bit like this:

• WoW (52.9%)


• Lineage (12%)


• Lineage II (10.4%)


• Runescape (6.3%)


• Final Fantasy XI (4%)

It’s probably also worth mentioning EVE-Online because while it may not have the biggest subscriber base, it is home to one of the single most active servers in the world right now, with up to 40,000+ players active at peak times.