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May 28, 2013

How much does WG earn from various servers?

SS: this was submitted by Vilgundr (NA), it's a rather interesting insight. Of course, this info is a bit older (few days back at least), but still, interesting.


Just figured you may find this useful as theres been many comments about which server makes Wargaming the most money etc.

I found Wargamings annual Financial Statements for 2012 which are listed on the Cryprus stock exchange here: http://oam.cse.com.cy/Announcement/announcementvariation/4692

Now not sure how the other servers are or how much they know about this but in the financial statements it shows a breakdown of revenue by region. I'll include my posts on the NA forum which got moved to offtopic which breaks it down a little.

The 2012 reported revenue for Wargaming was broken down in the following way in their Annual
Report. (Was in Euros, changed it to U.S funds and made it simple to read)

Overall Revenue 281 million,  Broken down into..


168.9 million -  Russian Server
  70.0 million - European server
  39.7 million - U.S Server
    2.4 million - Sea Server

Now compare that to active players closer to the time of the report (Pulled Dec 01, 2012)


3,034,756 - Russian Server
   845,528 - European server
   195,340 - U.S Server
     62,225 - Sea Server


That means that that for the average active player they made roughly the following per month..
  $4.64 - Russian Server
  $6.90 - European server
$16.94 - U.S Server
  $3.21 - Sea Server

So it supports them saying American's spend more, which it clearly shows per active user, just the American server has 1/15th of the active users they have on the Russian server. The bulk of the revenue is still the Russian servers due to the extremely high active user count.
Note:

As for the numbers the revenue numbers are directly from the report itself.

For the active users I just pulled the active users for the week of Dec 1, 2012. WoT-News gives that info by week and I picked a week near the end of the period just to see. So they are not exact by any means, so instead of $16 for the American server it could be $15 or whatever, the percent difference between the 3 areas should be pretty much the same however.

72 comments:

  1. would there be any way to extrapolate this safely to what it could be now? as after all wg claims to grow fairly fast. Not asking for actual figures here, just wondering if there is a way to come up with a good educated gues

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For next revenue report, you'll have to wait till the end of 2013. Then again, I am not so sure they'll be pushing their revenues thru a Cypriot firm anymore...

      Delete
    2. yeah ofc, but i meant the folowing: One could pull out the number of active players once again, and multiply them to the same numbers (asuming the average user still spends the same) and thus get to updated info. Also i wonder how much of profit there remains after all expenses. Altough it is not clear if expenses raised as much as income. Furtermore, i might be missing a lot here (i am not educated in finance or statistics at all) thats why i am wondering if anyone could have a go at this.

      Delete
    3. forgot to add: i think the only info hinting towards there real profit was that in some intervieuw (think viktor) said that RU was just enough to pay for all expenses while the rest of the servers was pure profit. Ofc that statement can be very outdated.

      Delete
  2. Nice info! and not very surprising at all. In soviet russia money buys you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sooo 5 percent of the playerbase accounts for 15 percent of their revenue interesting...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Might explain OP US tanks like T29.

      Delete
    2. T6: KV1s who in compare to other heavys on T6 is real OP. Possibility to 1Hit T5-Meds.

      T7: T29 is hulldown without arty perfect, open field a easy and huge and lame target. IS can handle every situation. I feel T29 fits best for my style, but OP.. No.

      T8: T32 is bad, lack of accuracy on a average gun, hulldown good but hulldown without accurate firepower is not a long stand. Here is also the IS-3 better in every way and the most casual tank to play.

      T9: Have no Hvy here, because T8 Hvy brings not much fun for me (KV4, IS3, Tiger2, T32 in garage and unhappy ;) )

      Delete
    3. rene i think your stats are around 48%

      Delete
  4. o.e ouch only 2.4M for SEA... that doesn't bode well... I hope even tho SEA is filled with tards, that it doesn't get closed so soon...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. we got that chinese tree just because of them and look how they repay them. Nice move wg.

      Delete
    2. SEA is not china
      and WG is not running WoT there

      Delete
    3. @ Finear, they ARE running WoT in China:

      http://wot.kongzhong.com/

      Look before you post please...

      Delete
    4. they cant
      if you want to publish game in china you need local distributor like kongzhong you linked...
      they are partners
      WG is not running WoT in china

      EoT

      Delete
    5. Yeah, and I know the kongzhong well. If you have VIP on your account, you wont be banned. Also, they are still selling the
      IMBA Type-59 while we removed it due to balance.
      SerB:"MUHAHAHAHA!Balance"
      btw, the player in china server sucks. Once I went there, and they just said F**k you to meh. I didnt do anything and one of the teammates TK me <_>
      Also, they have a in-game browser and its all about premiums account and vehicles, theres even a news bar at the top of the screen!! And it blocks the score!!!

      Delete
  5. Keep in mind this breakdown doesn't (well, I think it doesn't) include revenues from Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean licensing. Well, I think it doesn't at least, if however the licensing revenues counted as American income, it would explain the ridiculous gap between the servers...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Could you ad prices of gold (lets say 2500g), then we would actually see how much thinds players buy monthly.

      Delete
    2. Wiki is your friend:
      http://wiki.worldoftanks.eu/Gold_Economy#Buying_Gold

      Delete
  6. As we all knew, just I didn't expect the NA market to be that much more "spendy" than the Euros. It has to kill WG that they can't break into the NA market like they did in RU. If they did, they'd be making an absolute killing that would compete easily with Blizzard Entertainment's WoW even.

    But, they can't and won't break into it because:
    - They treat the NA players like trash
    - They refuse to balance their game
    - The game engine is so poorly optimized
    - The game looks like it's 10 years old already, meaning, incredibly dated.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ok so you say that it looks as old as WOW? And for the company treating it's customer as trash have a quick look at this blog and see how their European employees are treating us EU-players. Then again it is probably very hard for WG to adopt to being a global company.

      Delete
    2. I think it's some what connected anyway. It's not like Americans are richer then Europeans or anything. But I think that WoT isn't very popular among younger people in the US. Thus leading to a older average age of players and on average more money to spend. If the game got more popular in the US so would it most likely be because it gets more trendy among the younger players and that would in return reduce the average amount of money spent.

      Delete
    3. wow looks good because of it graphic style even if quality is not that great(low poly count and avarage textures)
      and it works on everything

      wot looks lke crap because of awful engine and is prime example of bad optimization

      Delete
    4. And yet the number of player on during primetime increases steadily every month .
      Lol i guess the number of whiners also must increase as a result .

      Delete
    5. With people like SerB in charge it'll always be their way or the highway. It's the cultural differences I suppose. WG is learning tho...slowly.(French light tanks sale special on July 4th weekend anyone? The aftermath shitstorm on the forum was EPIC)

      Delete
    6. They are russians. They will never evolve into proper humans. Don't expect too much from them.

      Delete
    7. Maybe proper humans will eventually evolve into Russians then?

      Delete
    8. I pity the guy who thinks some other nation's people is infra-human for any reason. I really pity him.

      Delete
    9. - They treat the NA players like trash

      No they don't, you're clearly exaggerating.

      - They refuse to balance their game

      They balance their game constantly.

      - The game engine is so poorly optimized

      The game engine has excellent reg and works well on my computer that was average 5 years ago.

      - The game looks like it's 10 years old already, meaning, incredibly dated.

      No it doesn't, you're exaggerating again. The game is growing in player size all the time which points to game being highly playable and not dated. If you're talking about graphics not being BF3-like, then go and read previous answers by devs.



      You're either a troll or a person who sucks at the game so much that he has to bash the game instead of trying to improve.

      Delete
    10. 2not SerB: dont waste your time on imbeciles

      Delete
  7. And yet the number of player on during primetime increases steadily every month .
    Lol i guess the number of whiners also must increase as a result .

    ReplyDelete
  8. 3,034,756 - Russian Server
    845,528 - European server
    195,340 - U.S Server
    62,225 - Sea Server

    This is as good a time to make this point as any...

    For all the talk about whether RU players are better than EU players etc. Look at the player numbers. You have almost 4x more players to pick from in the RU server. You will have FAR more unicums in RU than anywhere (should be same % for good/avg/poor) but for #s RU will beat them. You also have a much larger capacity to find the very best. Meanwhile those top gamers are playing some other game in EU and NA.

    Starcraft in Korea is a great example of this. They have the same % of baddies as anywhere else but since there are so many good players it makes it look like they are ALL better

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, you just need to play both servers in all tiers to see the HUGE difference in skill in random battles. Average player in RU is way better, best player in RU is better than EU best (which is proven by international tournaments).
      Ofc, it's not like Russians are "genetically" better at gaming. there are more realistic reasons:
      1) the game is older in RU, more experience
      2) lots of effort from Russian educational video producers, those ppl have hundreds of thousands subscribers on Youtube, dozens of millions views.
      In Europe, you only have Quickybaby and Jingles, both guys are not so good as a players compared to RU video ppl.
      _This part accounts for like 50% of the difference in game knowledge._
      3) One language instead of several languages
      4) Mentality, subpar players are openly hated in randoms, if your WR is below 55%, get ready to be ridiculed all the time, and if you're below 50%...Moderators aren't as active in Ru, so you can call ppl names and avoid being chat banned. (and reporting others for insults is frowned upon)
      5) 60% WR or better is a requirement for comfortable gameplay when it comes to social part of the game. Want to join a decent clan? Get 60 or get lost. Want to platoon with decent players? Same. Want to play a company battle in decent company? Don't even bother with 52%.
      Thus, at least some players care about their performance.
      (btw, company battles are big deal in RU, there are like 15-20 60+ WR companies online in every bracket in RU primetime, now compare that to EU where 60WR+ non-clan companies do not exist)
      BTW, personally I would welcome every effort from WG to educate EU players and give them some incentive to improve. Being a part of superior tank nation is all warm and fuzzy, but most of the times I would prefer better teammates in EU over that superiority complex:)

      Delete
  9. The EU numbers could be brokenup more and I think it would be intresting.

    I got some Norwegian clan memebers that speens way more then others.
    They free exp all the new tanks and have them 10-20min after a patch is released.
    They always got premium.

    The Swedish clan members mostly got premium (a few exceptions) and some free exp new tanks that sems to be good. 2-3 free exp every tanks.

    But from what I can hear the eastern EU countrys got got competitions that they use to earn gold. There are several competitions that give a few k gold each week to good players.
    So I guess they spend less money on the game.
    For us in the nordic countrys there are only the competitions for the whole EU and ESL that we can compete in. :/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I disagree, such distinctions would only serve forum whiners and others who like to point out that some nations are worse (poorer) than others.

      Delete
    2. Yes, its true. Its fairly easy to farm gold from ESL if you live in eastern/central Europe.

      Delete
  10. This info shows U.S. players only or all America?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All on the US Server, so Canadians and Mexicans too.

      Delete
    2. Everyone on the NA Server.

      Delete
  11. One thing that they forgot to mention, SEA server end their beta status at Mei. So SEA income only for 8 month, if we multiply it, SEA revenue/player slightly bigger than Rus server

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mei?

      http://myanimelist.net/character/41402/Mei_Misaki

      Sorry, couldn't stop myself :D

      orzel286_eu

      Delete
  12. I'd suggest that the US server rates are much higher...because only about 25% of the US server is "premium" accounts...though that doesn't exactly equate to a real higher US paying rate as many players play standard accounts yet purchase Premium tanks. Personally, I have 62 tanks in my garage, 21 of those are premium tanks (only 1 is a "free tank", the T1e6). Additionally, I have been a premium player since October 2011...so...

    While the US is one of the smaller servers, per capita, we're more than paying our freight on this game.

    redwing6
    CO, The Blues & Royals (TBR on NAm server)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Holy Cow...

      ... 3 mio russian accounts? Russia has ~140 mio citizens; one in 50 folks. Its an EPEDEMIC! ;)

      well, ok, calculation ofc is trivialized, as many other nations from belarus to eu certainly play on the RU servers, anyhow, quite impressive.

      p.s.
      @frank davis: would also have donated to you; but after your, sorry, infantile slur towards gay & queer people recently i guess i wont.

      Delete
    2. I think you forgot Ukraine and its small population of ~45 000 000.

      Delete
    3. WoT is becoming national sport in RU. It is played by whole families, military etc. Tanks were always a big deal in ex-SU cultural space, so game about tanks is 10/10.

      Delete
  13. Don't forget the NA if broken down would show off the US alone being higher since the dirty poor Canadians and Mexican leeches are dragging it down most likely.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Would amerifats spend more money in WoT if WG would introduce in-game burgers?

      Delete
    2. Only if the bread bun of the burger was sweetened using high fructose corn syrup, because any other alternative is a threat to American freedom, and anyone who supports unsweetened bread is a Nazi Muslim communist, and an enemy of American freedom.

      Amerifats would spend more money if you could play as Israeli merchant tanks, because jewelry merchant is Amerifat's greatest ally.

      Delete
    3. America ! Fk Yeah ! *Team America* all the way !

      Delete
    4. Dirty poor Canadians?

      Delete
  14. SEA server started mid-2012

    FY12 total revenue should be annualised

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Plus many of the current SEA players are transfers. I know that my own purchases will show as split between NA and SEA. Mostly NA as I bought a large quantity in a single purchase before I moved.

      Delete
    2. I just but it the numbers they reported on there annual report, so I would assume if you spent money on the NA server then transferred to Sea it would still count as being collected on the NA server.

      -Viglundr

      Delete
  15. On the SEA server forums, I've read somewhere which said that:

    1. Australians and New Zealanders are the biggest spenders, followed closely by people from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and then Singapore.

    2. People that spend the least money on WoT are from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and then Malaysia.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Also, forgot to mention, as of next month, the SEA server (Southeast Asia) will be renamed the ASIA server.

      They initially announced that it would be renamed the APAC server (Asia-Pacific), but for some reason they decided to change it again to ASIA server (I have no idea why).

      The idea behind the change from SEA to APAC/ASIA was that the server no longer serves only Southeast Asian countries - there are East Asian players from Japan, mainland China (those who refuse to play on Kongzhong's servers) and Mongolia, not to mention the Oceania/Pacific players from Australia and New Zealand that have nothing to do with Asia at all.

      http://worldoftanks-sea.com/news/1929-world-tanks-sea-apac/

      Delete
  16. sooo....

    RU Server = main cash cow, easier to handle (loss of a few isn't a big hit to income, but still primary focus of WG)
    US Server = secondary income area, more important to please (each person is "worth more")
    EU Server = 3rd area for extra cash, WG hardly gives a damn
    SEA Server = experimental area, for research

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Whoa, each NA player is worth more? I'd hate to be on the EU or SEA servers in that case...

      Delete
  17. No surprise that Russian tanks are so overpowered then is it when you see these figures; after all they have to keep their biggest source of income happy, even if they spend less per head than the other big two (NA/EU).

    SEA looks like a joke, they may as well just close it down and move the players to another server or something. Surely it costs more than 3mil per year to keep those servers running...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. US tanks are OP, sobiet tanks are shitty as hell

      Delete
    2. >SEA looks like a joke, they may as well just close it down and move the players to another server or something.

      Get a load of this moron. You'd really think that people from Japan and Taiwan would be willing to play with 500ms ping on the NA server? Good thing you're not head of Wargaming, because by alienating huge gaming markets in Asia, you'd be missing out on huge profits in the future.

      I know this might be a difficult concept for a moron like you to understand, but do you understand the concept of "investment"? You're supposed to put money into something, watch it grow, and then reap the benefits afterwards; you're not gonna magically have Israeli silver bullion fall from the sky or grow in your backyard trees. The SEA server hasn't even been up for that long, and the report mentioned in the original post wouldn't even cover an entire financial year when looking at SEA server figures.

      Delete
    3. lol, played the IS7 lately? It sucks. The US heavies are the go to for Clan Wars now because they are the best. Get your facts straight.

      Delete
    4. >Get a load of this moron. You'd really think that people from Japan and Taiwan would be willing to play with 500ms ping on the NA server? Good thing you're not head of Wargaming, because by alienating huge gaming markets in Asia, you'd be missing out on huge profits in the future.

      In fact Japanese and Taiwanese players on NA server are pinging around 200ms. The lagging problem is not as severe as you believe. And some of them even rather staying at NA server than transferring to SEA, due to manner and communicate problems.

      Another interesting fact is that the market of SEA server in Asia is incredibly small. In fact there are three asian nations having their own WOT servers NOT operated by Wargaming: China, South Korea, and Vietnam(!). If we also include the RU4 server (at Novosibirsk), there will be 5 servers locating in Asia. And that explains the low revenue of SEA server is indeed structual.

      Delete
  18. NA server important? those fuckheads havent even got the data/announced the winners from XP Jager event which ended almost a week ago.

    ReplyDelete
  19. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  20. So I guess that's why we're not getting servers transfers from US to EU. Because it would mean a decline in average spending power. Well, as long as you're not giving me my server transfers, I might as well not pay anything.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Interesting to see the huge differences in payments per person on the servers. Guess us Americans and Canadians are just that much more richer than you Europeans lol.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not necessary. I could afford to spend on WoT like 10 times the amount I'm spending, but how to put it nicely... I know the value of money, and from my experience with Americans - that's not often the case there.

      Delete
    2. The difference simply comes from the low number of players. WoT is still a niche game in the US, so only a few dedicated people play it. Dedicated people spend much more on their hobbies than casuals following a fad.

      Also, poland.

      Delete
  22. SEA server full of asian savers... lol

    ReplyDelete
  23. I went over this website and I think you have a lot of superb information, thanks to share! bookmarked it.

    ReplyDelete
  24. nice find here
    however, this game is so rigged it is unbelievable

    ReplyDelete

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