Blizzard Entertainment announced that its World of Warcraft MMORPG has now reached a player base of more than nine million subscribers worldwide.

“We’re thrilled that gamers around the world have continued to embrace World of Warcraft so enthusiastically,” said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard. “We’ve worked hard to provide a compelling experience for our players, and we plan to continue updating the game with exciting new content for them to enjoy for many years to come.”

World of Warcraft was launched in North America in November of 2004, and became the top-selling PC game of 2005 and 2006.

Blizzard is currently preparing to launch World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade in mainland China.

The game is available in seven different languages and is played in North America, Europe, mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.