World of Warcraft Earns $1.041 Billion Revenue in 2013

Even though it’s on the downtrend, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft brought in $1.041 billion of revenue in 2013? This is according to a new report from SuperData Research, which ranked WoW as the top subscription-based MMO ahead of TERA and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Oddly enough, despite its North America servers being shut down, Lineage earned $253 million in revenue worldwide with TERA bringing in $236 million. Despite having to go free to play to make up for its large development budget, Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic is doing great with $165 million in worldwide revenue.

SuperData classified these “pay to play” MMOs as those “that earn revenue from subscriptions, expansion packs, and microtransactions-based virtual items and services (e.g. experience boosts, items, mounts, and server transfer fees).” That’s why free to play titles like RIFT and The Old Republic are on the list.

What are your thoughts on WoW’s success? Let us know in the comments.