Diablo 3 - Activision Blizzard Q4 Conference Call - Diablo III Planned for Q2 2012

WoW stabilizes over 10M subscribers, down 100k in Q4 2011
Activision Blizzard latest earning call revealed that World of Warcraft lost 100,000 subscribers last quarter, following the loss of 800k subscribers announced last quarter and 300k loss from the quarter before that. The game lost 1.8M Subscribers over the year but the number seems to stabilize over 10M and it wouldn't be surprising to see it go back up with the release of Mists of Pandaria this year.

World of Warcraft now has 10.2M active subscribers.


  • World of Warcraft lost 100,000 subscribers, down to 10.2 million. This was a total lost of 1.8 million for the year.
  • Diablo III should launch in Q2
  • More than one million Annual Passes have been sold in the West.
  • Blizzard is happy with how the subscription numbers held up during the most competitive quarter ever.
  • When asked about churn since the competitor's launch, "December was a good month for us."
  • There are ~50 million active Battle.net, Call of Duty multiplayer, Call of Duty Elite, and Skylanders WebWorld users.

This article was originally published in forum thread: WoW stabilizes over 10M subscribers, down 100k in Q4 2011 started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 579 Comments
  1. Artravus's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nerraw View Post
    Guess not as many left for SWTOR as was advertised.
    I'm subbed to both. People seem to believe that MMOs cannot coexist. It's not true. I admit, I wouldn't be subbed to WoW if it weren't for my guild, and I'm sure many other people feel the same. But it's all the same to Blizzard isn't it?
  1. Awe's Avatar
    I wouldnt be so sure about it stabilizing. Rememeber that those data are from end of 2011. Annual pass kicks in, 4.3 with last raid from current expansion, christmas time. Also not enough time for all people who decided to switch to SWTOR and their WoW subs to run out (SWTOR started mid-december). Not that I think SWTOR can threaten WoW, it came out to be rather dissapointing, but it is still some marginal factor.

    From my own personal experience I can tell that many people are quitting right now and this trend will likely continue intil MoP. My guild died in January, a friendly big guild of mine also reduced their activity by quite a lot in recent weeks. People are bored with DS which is rather dissapointing raid tbh.

    So be prepared for big subs hit in 1st quarter of 2012.The biggest question right now is how MoP will be able to lure people back in. There is lots of hate towards Pandas but it is still a new expansion after all.

    PS. And yes - Diablo III inc.
  1. Prancing Minstrel's Avatar
    http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...2#post15410112

    Oh yes, on the money!
  1. mmocb8d63ae199's Avatar
    MoPs lost subs numbers will be at least times 10
  1. Auguine's Avatar
    Wow could lose 8 million subs next quarter and still be the biggest/most played pay to play mmo out there. Just want to throw that out there <.<
  1. mmoce758d016cd's Avatar
    10 milion... Are you kidding me? imo this game lost at least the 40% of his population
  1. Whitepepper's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by bigjohnburger View Post
    The only reason these numbers are so low is because they tricked the dumb player base of wow into buying that year round plan which includes diablo 111. I love watching how stupid most people are on the forums .

    In other words, wow would probably be down another million subscribers.
    So very classic seeing you call other people dumb when you spelled Diablo III (Diablo Three) as Diablo 111 (Diablo One One One).
  1. Auguine's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Maldriel View Post
    MoPs lost subs numbers will be at least times 10

    I think MoP will multiply subs by 10. Thats right, 100 million people playing it!
  1. zito's Avatar
    Annual pass saved their bootys for another year.
  1. Prancing Minstrel's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lorgok View Post
    10 milion... Are you kidding me? imo this game lost at least the 40% of his population
    Asia is probably keeping the numbers up, if you're playing on an EU or US realm there may well have been a much higher drop, hopefully they'll give figures on that.
  1. Alopex Major's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Awe View Post
    From my own personal experience I can tell that many people are quitting right now and this trend will likely continue intil MoP. My guild died in January, a friendly big guild of mine also reduced their activity by quite a lot in recent weeks. People are bored with DS which is rather dissapointing raid tbh.
    Yeah, I mean this only my own anecdotal experience, but my guild's raid team was cut in half with SWTOR and activity is way down. I really doubt they're going to be back before MoP.
  1. Shoukyaku's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by DoogH View Post
    Like I said, when Blizzard made the hard content mandatory to progress... All my friends quit and the game lost millions of players. When they stopped making hard content mandatory, they stabilized.In Mists of Pandaria, I like how the hard dungeons are for fun and not mandatory to progress. I think this is a great improvement upon their Cata philosophy.
    Um what are you talking about man? Blizz has been actively losing subs this entire expansion now that they cater to the casual playerbase more than ever. During Burning Crusade when this wasnt their philosophy subscriptipns started climbing at an all time high. L2 stop pulling false information out of your arse.
  1. Ghul's Avatar
    why is the annual pass an argument for low losses? shouldnt only people who wanted to play wow for a year anyways have bought one?
    and why is nobody counting sw:tor as a "hardship" in staying hihg on the sub-count? only losing 100k subs while a hugely hyped game like sw:tor released in the meantime is very huge and im expecting a rise in the next quartals conference call!
  1. mmoc3ecdd17087's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by bigjohnburger View Post
    The only reason these numbers are so low is because they tricked the dumb player base of wow into buying that year round plan which includes diablo 111. I love watching how stupid most people are on the forums .

    In other words, wow would probably be down another million subscribers.
    Yeah, someone enjoys a game that you don't like anymore. He must be so dumb. I remember seeing that kind of attitude in kindergarten, no wonder you don't like WoW, it's rated 12+ after all. No worries, you'll understand that people have different opinions when you grow up.
  1. mmoc08bbbf072a's Avatar
    losing 100k not only mean losing 1.5 million dollars / month. It means losing also profit from paid char transfers, pet store and unsubscribed players dont easily recruit a friend to the game.
  1. Windry's Avatar
    The q4 reports aren't an actual indication of current WoW subscriptions, nor will they reflect the bulk of the people who've left WoW for SWTOR.

    Remember q4 reports close on Dec 31st. SWTOR came out on Dec 20th, and a lot of people who left for SWTOR had an active subscription in WoW till let's say Jan 5th for example. These people are still counted on their reports as an active subscription.

    By the same note, SWTOR's 1.7 million "active subscriptions" is also not a true indicator.

    The Q1 reports will be a better indicator.
  1. Krolikn's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lorgok View Post
    10 milion... Are you kidding me? imo this game lost at least the 40% of his population
    I'll take their word over yours
  1. Ghul's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shoukyaku View Post
    Um what are you talking about man? Blizz has been actively losing subs this entire expansion now that they cater to the casual playerbase more than ever. During Burning Crusade when this wasnt their philosophy subscriptipns started climbing at an all time high. L2 stop pulling false information out of your arse.
    subs started stabilizing when LFR came out, dont splurt nonsense yourself dude ~~

    and what does actively losing subs even mean? is it possible to lose subs passively?!
  1. Exeris's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pellaeon View Post
    So blizzard lost 1.8 million bad players that didnt like the changes and couldnt handle them in cata? Good!
    Sure about that, can't say it's feels like that when playing the game.
  1. Moinaldo's Avatar
    10.2M > 1.7M. Enough said.

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