The number of people joining the World of Warcraft still exceeds that of the deserters (or rather awakened?) abandoning Azeroth and the Outlands, it seems, as Blizzard announced today that their addictive MMORPG has just passed the 8.5 million subscribers mark. And at the same time, the recent Burning Crusade expansion has set another record for the fastest selling PC title during the first month of availability.

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade was already holding this record at the end of January, having sold nearly 2.4 million copies worldwide in its first 24 hours alone. But by now, the blues are estimating that the expantion was sold in approximately 3.5 million copies within the first month. This includes more than 1.9 million sold in regions that play on North American realms (including more than 100,000 copies in Australasia), and nearly 1.6 million in Europe. Eat that, number freaks!

Oh, and speaking of numbers, this week's *cough* "live" maintenance brought the game client up to version 2.0.10, fixing more stuff, adjusting some Arena points costs, nerfing feral druids and buffing warriors, among many others. You can read the latest patch notes here.

Also, let's not forget that the Black Temple will open its doors soon, to raids of up to 25 people. This level-70 dungeon is located in Shadowmoon Valley, and promises to be nonlinear (allowing you to choose your path through it), and to add more than a hundred new rare and epic items, including tier-6 armor sets. Eat that, epix freaks!

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)