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.

When you purchase the game, either via retail or digital download, you get to play it for free for 30 days. You’ll also have three guest passes which can be gifted to friends, each promising a week of playtime. After the 30 days is over, you can either opt for a Game Time card, go for a monthly subscription or use in-game gold to purchase C.R.E.D.D. (Certificate of Research, Exploration, Destruction and Development), which can then be redeemed for game time.

C.R.E.D.D. is purchased from other players and can also be purchased using real money. You can also sell C.R.E.D.D. for in-game gold if you’d like through the Commodities Exchange.

Upon purchasing WildStar through a retail outlet or digital download, players will receive 30 days free game time, plus three guest passes to give to friends for a week of galactic adventure. Players can then either opt to pay a standard monthly subscription, purchase a Game Time card, or use gold earned in-game to purchase C.R.E.D.D. from other players and avoid paying a subscription fee altogether.

Executive producer at Carbine Studios Jeremy Gaffney states that, “Gamers have strong opinions when it comes to business models and monetisation in MMO games. In combining a classic subscription model with C.R.E.D.D. we think we’ve struck a good balance. We definitely want to support players who appreciate the value of high-quality subscription-style game. Meanwhile, C.R.E.D.D. gives gamers who don’t like monthly subs the option to just play to pay and enjoy the same content.”

Feel spoiled for choice yet? WildStar will be playable at Gamescom 2013 and sees release in Spring 2014 for PC.

The game can be purchased for $40 with a monthly $15 subscription fee that is automatically renewed. The subscription can be canceled or changed at a moment’s notice.

While it’s interesting that this is the first dedicated subscription based offering from Steam, a good number of titles like EverQuest and DC Universe Online used to be hosted on Steam as subscription based titles before going free to play.

The response would be interesting given how free to play MMO titles with a one-time buy are more the rage – Guild Wars 2, for example – while games like Funcom’s The Secret World struggled endlessly. Maybe the backing of Steam will be the point in favour of such initiatives? We’ll find out soon.