Blizzard has further blurred the line between videogame and world religion as the number of concurrent World of Warcraft users has surpassed the million mark in mainland China. The9, the company who operates WoW in China on Blizzard’s behalf has reported that the number of users has skyrocketed since the release of the Burning Crusade expansion pack over there on September 6, 2007. After the launch of the expansion, many existing players returned to the game and numerous new players have also been attracted to participate in the experience.

Asia has long been a stronghold of the game, with half of it’s 10 million users worldwide coming from the far-east.

This is obviously good news for Blizzard, not only that their game is doing so well but that it has been so well received in China. It’s also good news for the industry as whole, that China is ready and willing (with its population of 1.3 billion) to receive videogames as a medium.