Blizzard Entertainment announced yesterday that World of Warcraft, the subscription-based online battle so compelling to gamers all over the world that people have died of exhaustion, or of virtual weapon jealousy, has surpassed eight million users: 2 million in the US, 1.5 million in Europe, and 3.5 million in China.

In Australia, the mania is for Runescape, which holds a 7.23 percent market share of gaming site visitors. Hitwise's Sandra Hanchard writes that, in this region of the world (Asia-Pacific region), more than one in five visits in the entertainment category visits a gaming site. Well, it's closer to a quarter:

23.86 percent of visits were to online gaming sites, dwarfing multimedia sites' 12.12 percent, and movies' 5.92 percent.

"While we've seen the recent explosive growth of YouTube and video sharing," says Hanchard, "it would seem that the online Games industry is deserving of more attention by marketers and advertisers given its prominence in website visits."

Susquehanna Financial Group (SFG) agrees, and recently reported that just 16 percent of the international audience has been penetrated, in terms of online advertising. In the US and Europe, it's more like 50 percent, but the Internet is evolving rapidly as a world market, and games transcend languages and cultures.

Hitwise's Top US Game Sites, In Terms of Market Share
1. Pogo.com
2. Yahoo! Games
3. RuneScape
4. Yahoo! Games Downloads
5. MSN Games
6. Neopets.com
7. Gamefaqs.com
8. Miniclip Games
9. Addicting Games
10. Yahoo! Fantasy Sports

Top US Game Sites, In Terms of Average Session Time
1. IamGame.com
2. BrainKing.com
3. Hogwarts Live
4. Eternal Kingdoms
5. Hogwarts Extreme
6. Cyber Arcade World
7. Gothador
8. Gang-Wars
9. Game Bonus
10. The Pokemon Crater