World of Warcraft’s Growth Has Stalled, For Now

After listening in on Activision-Blizzard’s earnings call this evening, VG247 reports that World of Warcraft’s userbase is at 11.5 million subscribers – the same number quoted in a press release issued in December of 2008. But things might change with the Cataclysm expansion pack on the horizon:

Morhaime added that Blizzard was optimistic about the game’s future, especially given the release of Cataclysm later this year. He noted that the Chinese market, which makes up some 50 percent of the game’s userbase, still doesn’t have access to Wrath of the King.

Local operator NetEase is currently applying for a license to run the add-on.

The exec talked about WoW’s recent woes in China, saying that new sign-ups would be turned off for a week only. Chinese authorities forced NetEase to suspend registration earlier this week, the latest in a string of problems with the game after NetEase was found to be operating it without a license.