Interesting article about MapleStory's 2008 revenue.

Now, we all know that the only way Nexon can make money off of MapleStory is through NX, iTCG, and other small goodies. Since it's a F2P game, one wouldn't expect it to generate as much money as one of the other popular P2P MMO's like World of Warcraft.

I was browsing through Google for a few minutes and I came across this interesting article.

 The Top 10 Money-Making MMOs of 2008

Wagner James Au
Sunday, February 1, 2009
9:00 AM PT

Game industry analyst DFC Intelligence will publish a comprehensive study of massively multiplayer online worlds next month, and was nice enough to give us an advance peek at their list of MMOs and MMORPGs that earned the most revenue in 2008.

The numbers are primarily estimates based on publicly available reports, DFC’s David Cole told me, and are decidedly on the “very conservative” side. The wide revenue spreads reflect the fact that 2008 earnings are still being counted, though more exact numbers are promised in the firm’s Feb. 16 report. “We indicate ranges because these numbers are estimates for 2008 based on where we think these products will end up,” said Cole. However, when the final numbers are reported, the rankings below should remain the same, though “maybe a slot here or there” will change.

While no one will be shocked by World of Warcraft’s heavy earnings, Cole believes the Asian MMOs, which are developed at far lower budgets, have a higher profit margin. “Profit margin on Asian games is incredibly high,” he told me. That’s true even though most of the Asian MMOs charge the equivalent of 5-6 cents an hour with usage cards, Cole noted, a model that has yet to be widely adopted by Western developers.

Speaking of which, it’s notable that the bottom of the top 10 is where the big budget MMORPGs in the World of Warcraft vein — LOTRO, Conan, and Warhammer — reside. (All below the no-frills Runescape, which we wrote about last July.)

1. World of Warcraft, launched 2004
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG; client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Monthly subscription, retails sales, prepaid cards (in Asia)
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $500 million-plus

2. Fantasy Westward Journey, launched 2004
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG, client install with 2.5D graphics
Revenue sources: Prepaid cards
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

3. Maple Story, launched 2003
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG for kids, client install with 2D graphics
Revenue sources: Microtransactions, prepaid cards, international licensing
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

4. Shanda (company, includes Legend of Mir and World of Legend series), launched 2003
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG, client install with 2.5 graphics
Revenue sources: Prepaid cards, virtual item sales, freemium subscriptions
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

5. Lineage I and Lineage II , launched 1998 and 2003
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG, client install with 2.5 graphics (Lineage) and 3D graphics (Lineage II)
Revenue sources: Subscription, prepaid cards
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

6. Runescape
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG for kids, web-based with 2.5D graphics
Revenue sources: Premium subscription, prepaid cards, real-world advertising
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

7. Club Penguin, launched 2006
Genre/Platform: Virtual world for kids, web-based 2.5D graphics
Revenue sources: Premium subscriptions, prepaid game cards
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

8. Lord of the Ring Online
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

9. Warhammer Online
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

10. Age of Conan
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

The most popular MMO among this 10, in terms of active players? That requires more speculation, but it’s almost certainly not World of Warcraft. Cole points out that Fantasy Westward Journey registered an astounding 2-3 million concurrent players last August. Though Warcraft now boasts some 11 million+ subscribers, “You’re lucky to get 5-10 percent [of them] playing at the same time,” he said. Maple Story developer Minho Kim told me last December that his MMO has 87+ million registrations, but wouldn’t specify how many of them were monthly active users. DFC’s Joost van Dreunen estimates it to be 15-20 percent of that figure — i.e., 13-17.4 million regular Maple Story players.

Conan and Warhammer were released in 2008, but otherwise, Cole says the rest of the list is fairly similar to that of 2007. That will probably remain true this year, though watch for hotly anticipated MMOs like Free Realms and Lego Universe to make a concerted effort to crack the top 10.

Source: http://gigaom.com/2009/02/01/top-10-mone...mmos-2008/

Though the ranges are pretty huge, to me, it's sparked an interest on what the DFC report is going to be this month.

87+ million registrations? What is that, accounts? Characters?

I wouldn't even say 15-20% of characters are 'monthly active users', though. If, say, 80% of players have quit, and the other 20% have 4 characters each (only 1 of which can be on at a time), then that's about 12%. Maybe even less, you have to consider all the people who sign up only to train to level 12 and quit.

Edit: lol at Club Penguin. My 8 year old sister plays that. It seems extremely pointless. XD

wtp @ club penguin?

I used to play it some minutes.. but then it was so pointless I quitted..

I'm amazed Club Penguin can make money. Props.

i love how everyone is fixated on club penguin rather than nexon....

I can't believe RUNESCAPE made it top 10..

I can't believe RUNESCAPE made it top 10..

why? it's got TONS AND TONS of players on at ALL TIMES!

did you see the amount of "worlds" it has?

there are a lot of kids out there who aren't allowed to "install games" on their computer, therefore runescape is the best option they have... no install req'd

OR they can go play club penguin...

WTP?!? SO HIGH?!? <<< *hops onto the amazed-by-club-penguin-bandwagon*

"Asian MMORPG for kids"

PAHAHAHAHA. It DEFINITELY attracts more kids than adults.

/sarcasm.

and WoW got 500mil+? Holy....

my nephew plays on club penguin sometimes. :f6:

Oh, for the account things, don't forget about Mules. I doubt there's many active people who don't have at least two accounts.
I've personally made 3-5. :/

How the pineappling pineapple did Club Penguin get 50-150M? I mean that game is just sh...

i wonder if that's for all of the versions of WoW and MS... doubt it's just north american versions.

Maple Story developer Minho Kim told me last December that his MMO has 87+ million registrations, but wouldn’t specify how many of them were monthly active users.

LOL, figures. Maple is a graveyard.

Global definitely doesn't have 87+ million accounts. If global actually did get 150+ million a year, then I'm sure they could afford 24/7 GM presence, better testers, someone to check to see if the GMT times are correct on their announcements, and a janitor to dust off Scania's servers once in a while.

I'm pretty sure the report for Maplestory includes all versions, including Korea and China (the biggest versions).

I wonder about this article too, is this only for North America, worldwide, or Korea, or what? If it is Korea, not surprised regarding MS because that's where MS originated, and they get more contents before any other versions, period.

If these people are proper economists, then it would be good to remember that this is revenue they're talking about, not profit, which is technically defined as revenue - expenses.

Kind of interesting how only MapleStory is doing the international liscensing dealio. I know what it is, but I'm sorta wondering how exactly it works and what makes it better than say having one company running a monopoly on several regional versions.

I wonder about this article too, is this only for North America, worldwide, or Korea, or what? If it is Korea, not surprised regarding MS because that's where MS originated, and they get more contents before any other versions, period.

GigaOM is a network journalist organization, and since they mentioned international licensing for MapleStory, I'd think this article is for worldwide.

I think for Maplestory, it's worldwide from all versions.. I really doubt it could generate $150-$500 million revenue from gMS/North America alone.

I think for Maplestory, it's worldwide from all versions.. I really doubt it could generate $150-$500 million revenue from gMS/North America alone.

Probably this. So, divide the average of 150-500 by 9 (i think there's 9 versions, might be wrong) and that's probably what you get for each company.

I'd be willing to bet that nexon america makes a lot more than any other company though.

I'm pretty sure the report for Maplestory includes all versions, including Korea and China (the biggest versions).

Really?
I'm pretty clueless about KMS's population, but I would assume that since Korea's smaller than North America...

i love how everyone is fixated on club penguin rather than nexon....

There's noone stating Nexon there Remember, there are other companies that work with MapleStory as well.