Once upon a time Phantasy Star Online was the only game I'd ever used to dabble into the MMO world. Now I've got a Phantasy Star Universe account (albeit don't use now, but still paying for it), a Tale in the Desert account, and a City of Heroes/Villains. So knowing the amount of MMOs out there and hearing about this billion dollar number, I'm not surprised.

From the article:

A new report from media research company Screen Digest suggests that the Western market for massively multiplayer online games surpassed $1 billion dollars for the first time in 2006, thanks in no small part to the continuing success of Blizzard's MMORPG powerhouse World of Warcraft as well as the introduction of more casual MMOGs.

Altogether, the subscription market accounted for 87 percent of the total massively multiplayer online market last year, and was dominated by North American subscriptions totaling $576 million compared to $299 million in Europe. In addition, other sources of revenue such as virtual item sales and in-game advertising also contributed to the market's growth over the past year.

During 2006, the report found World of Warcraft to be the most popular subscription game “by far,” with Blizzard's role-playing opus accounting for 54 percent of the annual subscription market with revenue of $471 billion. UK developer/publisher Jagex's Runescape was the game's nearest competitor.

Read the full article over at gamasutra.com