MMO-Champion - WoW Loses 1.1 Million Subscibers, Down to 9.1 Million

WoW Loses 1.1 Million Subscribers, Down to 9.1 Million

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WoW Loses 1.1M Subscribers, Down to 9.1M
Activision Blizzard latest earning call revealed that World of Warcraft lost another 1,100,000 subscribers last quarter, bringing us down to 9.1 million players. Some things they made note of on the call are below.

Notes
  • 16.9 million Battle.net users logged in last month, up from 10 million just 3 months ago.
  • 10 million D3 copies sold, with 1.2 million of those from the Annual Pass. It was the best-selling PC game for the first six months of 2012.
  • Most of the WoW Subscription losses were from the East.
  • Losses are from people playing Diablo 3 and leaving for other things to do until the new expansion.
  • Mists of Pandaria will utilize TV and online ads leading up to the launch.
  • The China launch Mists of Pandaria will launch as soon as possible, not likely in Q3.
  • 4.7 million people watched the event at MLG for Heart of the Swarm.

Slides


Previous Subscription Losses
  • Q1 2011 - 600,000 subscribers lost
  • Q2 2011 - 300,000 subscribers lost
  • Q3 2011 - 800,000 subscribers lost
  • Q4 2011 - 100,000 subscribers lost.
  • Q1 2012 - 0 subscribers lost.
  • Q2 2012 - 1,100,000 subscribers lost.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
At June 30, 2012, the worldwide subscriber base for World of Warcraft was 9.1 million, compared to a subscriber base of 10.2 million at March 31, 2012, and 11.1 million at June 30, 2011, with a greater loss of subscribers in the East than in the West for both the 3-month and 12-month periods (in which the “East” includes China, Taiwan, and Korea, and the “West” includes the regions of North America and Europe).

Contributing factors to the lower subscribers were likely the launch of Diablo III in the quarter, which provided consumers with an alternative gaming experience to World of Warcraft (although Diablo III has not yet launched in China), as well as the lack of new content patches in all geographies resulting in less overall game play. Looking forward, Blizzard Entertainment expects to release World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria™ on September 25, 2012, which will deliver new game content in all regions that is expected to further appeal to the gaming community (with availability in mainland China to be announced at a later date).
This article was originally published in forum thread: WoW Loses 1.1 Million Subscibers, Down to 9.1 Million started by chaud View original post
Published on 2012-08-02 08:39 PM
1212 Comments
Comments 1206 Comments
  1. scvd's Avatar
    9.1 million, probably 6 million in Asia without Subs and a lower cost overall.
    Wheyyy, keep that number out and proud.
  1. klaps_05's Avatar
    nothing unexpected, better wait for the next quarter report after MOP hits. end of expansion, hence the numbers are expected to be lower.
  1. enchanted's Avatar
    Yeah, all my friends quit... They wont come back till MoP so expected that to see coming since its the end of the xpac
  1. kosmosu's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Karei View Post
    More expected due to lackluster content than lack of content.
    ICC kept us busy for over a year and didn't see such a huge drop in numbers
    this is likely it. LFR is also a likely contributor. As much as I love LFR it would not surprise me that it burned people out much much faster.
  1. Mystile's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by lokithor View Post
    Damn. That was a hell of a lot more than I figured. I have a feeling it's going to be really bad when The AP wears off.
    Annual Pass ends ~1 month after MoP comes out, there will not be much, if any, drop in subs at that time. At least for the people who got the pass right away.
  1. Sarac's Avatar
    I'd say that's pretty normal considering people left every end of expension. I only just came back myself to prepare for MoP.
  1. Flimsy's Avatar
    Shit storm from WoW haters incoming!
  1. Sills's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Frozenbeef View Post
    ouch...prob expected due to no content in like 7 months
    Exactly. Theres no way this couldve been a surprise to them. No new content plus summer time = lost subs. WoW will zip back above 10 million once Mists comes out. Its a little bit steeper than I thought but not unexpected. Im sure its dropped below 9 million since Q3 began.
  1. Xelk's Avatar
    It'll be way up in a month or two anyway, depending on when the pre expansion patch comes out.
  1. Japskidin's Avatar
    :O I was expecting like 400k but wow was i wrong
  1. Dundebuns's Avatar
    Will bump up for MoP, but I suppose it will drop again when annual passes run out, if they haven't already?
  1. Wapetufo's Avatar
    Lack of content, the content we got sucked (DS), and LFR made us get fed up with it quicker. 1 million subs deservingly lost imo, albeit they will likely be back in September.
  1. pepe2c's Avatar
    OMG and the annual pass is still not over, let me get some snacks for when that happen xD
  1. Mascotte's Avatar
    No new content in over half a year with DS being a rather disappointing instance to begin with.
    Expected 1.5 actually.
  1. lu's Avatar
    summer + d3 + boring ds = fail
  1. Locruid's Avatar
    I agree. I have really logged in for the last 1-2 weeks. Just catching up on Movies and other games cause MOP is right around the corner. I havent cancelled my Sub, but not everyone is like me

    Sides, I'm not gonna be worried about Wow for a long long time. DAOC is celebrating thier 10 yrs this month and they've had 3,000 subs for the last 3 yrs LOL.
  1. Nerraw's Avatar
    Does anyone have a list of how the subscriber numbers went up/down near the end of Wrath?
  1. makak's Avatar
    inb4 "wow is ending lets go free to play" threads
  1. mcbubble's Avatar
    Ouch, losing 11 million a month due to lack of content...I wonder how their management makes these kind of decisions.
  1. ripcurlksm's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Xelk View Post
    It'll be way up in a month or two anyway, depending on when the pre expansion patch comes out.
    From what I've read, there wont be any raid content in the pre-expansion patch. Just the talent system and battle for Theramore.
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