WoW Stable at 10.2 Million Subscribers
Activision Blizzard's press release states that World of Warcraft is still at 10.2 million subscribers as of 3/31/12. This is the same amount of subscribers from Q4 2011. A few other interesting points:

  • Battle.Net has 10 million users.
  • 1.2 million people bought the Annual Pass.
  • 2 million people played the Diablo 3 open beta.
  • Pre-orders for Diablo 3 have set a new record for Blizzard. This number includes units pre-ordered as part of the Annual Pass promotion, as well as retail and digital pre-orders.
  • Blizzard renewed their license with NetEase for the distribution of World of Warcraft in mainland China, and it will continue for an additional three years following the expiration of the current license agreement.

This article was originally published in forum thread: WoW Stable at 10.2 Million Subscribers started by chaud View original post
Comments 818 Comments
  1. Zatheyll's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rorcanna View Post
    I love you :'). And dat sig.
    I love you too random internet person!

    Quote Originally Posted by Zoneseek View Post
    This thread is entertaining. Wow fanboys are like apple fanboys are very similar in feeling some sort of pride & joy when a corporation is making millions/billions :P

    For the record im a wow player/subscriber and I have IOS devices
    I guess it's wrong to be happy a company that makes products you enjoy is making money. Even though them making money means that they can continue to support and improve their existing products, and make new products in the future.
  1. Venziir's Avatar
    So, WoW is stable, D3 is selling like mad, a f2p dota game, a new mmo and the first sc2 expansion coming up.... Seems like Blizzard better start expanding the money vault.
  1. Queen of Hamsters's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shiny212 View Post
    Wow sure isn't dead but I think that as the annual pass runs out we'll see a hefty decrease in subscriptions.
    "I hate this game, I'mma sub for 1 year to it and then leave it behind INSTANTLY as my pass time runs out >".

    You mean like that? Please...how about we assume for a second that Annual pass holders = people that WANT to play the game? Eh? Use some logic here.
  1. Twiddly's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by DreamCast View Post
    142 actually. Guess I shouldn't be so hard on others. My emotional IQ is probably under 100

    Anyone that cares to get there IQ tested and tells people at the drop of a hat are hilarious. Tell us about your high school grades while you are at it!
  1. mmoc6dec4c0ffc's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rorcanna View Post
    Collecting mounts
    Raiding old content for lols and mogging gear
    Leveling alts
    Making gold
    Playing other games when I feel like it
    Hyping over MoP

    Seriously, if you lose hope in the human race because people enjoy a game that you happen NOT to enjoy, then you are sad.
    pfft, is that logic I hear? Oh my.

    Essentially this is what I do in game at the minute, AND I LOVE IT!

    Great news btw. Nice to see them stable.
  1. McNeil's Avatar
    Only 2 Blizzard games in 2012? I trough 2012 would bring MoP, Diablo 3 and HotS... now its Diablo 3 and either MoP or HotS, most likely MoP.
  1. Zoneseek's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rorcanna View Post
    And pathetic WoW/Blizzard haters are similar to other pathetic haters that they take some sort of pride and joy out of seeing companies and games fail.
    Yeah I don't really understand why anyone cares about how many people sub to a game. To me its like caring about how many people buy an artists album, meaningless. Fun to watch the masses go at it, though.
  1. Shiny212's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Hakto View Post
    So your answer to WOW not losing subs is to ridicule the intelligence of the 10.2mill players?

    I guess it's all about perception, some people just choose to be a hater.

    What exactly have I been handed on a plate?
    The guy is out of line but things you've been handed include; levels, epic gear, achievements, epic mounts, gold, arena rating and virtually everything else there is to acquire in WoW that once required a certain display of skill to acquire.
  1. Callace's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shiny212 View Post
    Wow sure isn't dead but I think that as the annual pass runs out we'll see a hefty decrease in subscriptions.
    Not enough to diminish the game below "wildly successful".
  1. Zatheyll's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gurbz View Post
    MoP won't take that long. 5 more months would make it the longest WoW beta ever by a month or more. Heck the entire beta for Wrath was only 5 months long. We just got a patch that increased the level cap to 89. At the pace they are on, we will be able to hit 90 by the end of May at the latest. End game testing will be 2 months tops, likely less, and can continue right up until release if needed. Personally I expect a release date announcement and 5.0 PTR somewhere in the early part of June with a release around August.
    Not the mention the MoP beta is one of the most complete beta's Blizzard has ever done. (Sure there are those stand out bugs but they will be squashed in a timely fashion). I expect the MoP beta to take even less then previous beta's, meaning a summer release date, late summer at the latest. Blizzard isn't going to give us another eight months of Dragon Soul, they wouldn't dare if they want to keep even their subs up.
  1. Ephilia's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Renuald View Post
    Sort of an unfair estimate, what with the annual pass...

    Anyone else has any thoughts on this?
    They still count as paying.. and why would you pay for a year if you aren't gonna play? Free Diablo 3? Bad deal tbh..

    Also interesting:
    Strong Pipeline for 2012 and beyond:
    Blizzard Entertainment: Diablo etc... A new free to play game AND a new MMORPG
    2 unannounced games in production?
  1. Thuran's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pancaspe View Post
    We have a Hater Sighting! Bravo my good man! Hold the Tiller straight even when facing the incoming 15 mil subs of MOP!
    League of legends finds it cute that you would cheer over a mere 15 mllion subs

    Gotta say this is quite suprising considering how many subs were lost when there was content out, but i guess that a mix of annual pass lock-ins (several friends who got the annual pass have said that they wish they hadn't because they want out of the game but can't), SoR (i got tempted to get a free char, but i did not want to help blizz pretend i was an active subscriber) and MoP hype managed to stabilize it. Although I do find it curious when people cheer over the game being stale and not growing, you must be really confident.

    The next big question will be what the numbers will be for Q2, as SoR has come and gone, and the Q1 also counts accounts that were still active january 1st. I would not be suprised if we saw another "please come back to us" promotional july to try and keep Q2 numbers from dropping. And of course numbers will go up with MoP release, they always do, the question is how much they go up, and how many will drop off after the release.

    Wotlk launch reduced wow to the lowest point in it's entire history in terms of time being spent playing the game.
    Cata cost them 2 million subscribers.
    MoP has a lot to live up to if it wants to reverse the trend and the question remains whether pokemon and wotlk content will be enough for that (as heroics in mop will be same diff as wotlk according to blizz earlier this year).


    WoW survived round 1, see you in three months for round 2
  1. DreamCast's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Twiddly View Post
    Anyone that cares to get there IQ tested and tells people at the drop of a hat are hilarious. Tell us about your high school grades while you are at it!
    It's easy to be upfront about these things when you don't know who I am.
  1. Kegler's Avatar
    Cool, can't wait to get off work and go play!
  1. Shamanberry's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shiny212 View Post
    Wow sure isn't dead but I think that as the annual pass runs out we'll see a hefty decrease in subscriptions.
    I doubt it. I mean, sure, there are some people stuck with annual passes that have decided since they no longer want to play... but those that care about things like getting in beta or in-game mounts are the ones most likely to stick around.

    The influx of people coming back or starting the game for MoP will most likely be much greater than the number leaving because they're free of their contract.
  1. Callace's Avatar
    Even if the game lost half of its subs, it would still be the most successful MMO of all time...7 years after its release.
  1. Twiddly's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Shiny212 View Post
    The guy is out of line but things you've been handed include; levels, epic gear, achievements, epic mounts, gold, arena rating and virtually everything else there is to acquire in WoW that once required a certain display of skill to acquire.
    Oh, so that is why everyone that raids has heroic madness on farm, and everyone has a 2400+ arena rating (2400 is actually quite high for even the top teams this season, ratings have dropped a lot)

    You used to need skill to get gold or levels? good lord. I was not aware taking more time meant skill.
  1. Yuuki Asuna's Avatar
    I think SC2: HotS will be the one that's most likely to be released later. The Blizzard CEO just said HotS is close to beta testing so it could be the end of the year or early 2013.
  1. Zatheyll's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kerfanna View Post
    I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Skylanders bit yet. Does anyone play it? My 6 year old son is playing it right now. We just bought him a new adventure pack today. $1B IP? I assume that stands for One Billion Dollar Intellectual Property (someone can correct me if I'm wrong). I believe it. We have 22 of the Skylanders and 2 adventure packs. This game is tons of fun, but one hell of an investment with the Adventure packs being $20-$25 each and single Skylanders $8-$10 or 3 packs for $20-$25 and the game itself being $60 for the game, 3 Skylanders and the Portal of Power.
    Everyone is too shocked over the "Call of Duty: Developing the ground-breaking Black Ops II" bit to go past that.
  1. Venziir's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by McNeil View Post
    Only 2 Blizzard games in 2012? I trough 2012 would bring MoP, Diablo 3 and HotS... now its Diablo 3 and either MoP or HotS, most likely MoP.
    HoTS won't be until '13. They said in december '11 that they needed about another year for HoTS.

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