World of Warcraft sells 800,000 copies in first three months.

îIn less than three months Ö. [WoW] sold over 800,000 copies in North America. With a subscriber base of more than 750,000 players and peak concurrency of over 250,000 users, World of Warcraft is now the biggest online game in North America.î

Prediction: If Blizzard can lick the lag problems, WoW will become the first-ever, million-subscriber MMOG in North America. Thatís the magical, imaginary line at which experts agree weíll have our first-ever ìMass Market MMOGî (soon to be abbreviated to MMMMOG) in North America.

Wow. Just Wow. (Sorry, I mean WoW.)

It’s no real surprise the game is so successful. It’s an extremely accessible, motivating and, above all, fun MMOG. It recognizes that we aren’t paying $15/mo for endless drudgery or to live some ‘alternate life’. We’re paying $15/mo to be entertained, first and foremost, and WoW’s particular brand of entertainment is easy to pick up and even easier to get hooked on.

Even so, seeing numbers like this being done by a MMOG on the PC just boggles the mind. Even Everquest at the height of its popularity barely broke 600,000 subscribers.

Just amazing, and hats off to Blizzard Entertainment on a truly remarkable game.