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
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chaud} _{View original post}

Published on 2012-08-02 08:39 PM

1212 Comments

1206 Comments

Pancaspe - 2012-08-03

Originally Posted by Kaeleena

World of Warcraft design philosophy completely changed after Activision merged with Vivendi. People who can't see effect that that merger has had on Blizzard are blind.

Activision has nothing to do with Blizzard.
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Cows For Life - 2012-08-03

Originally Posted by Pancaspe

Activision has nothing to do with Blizzard.

Yup and subs will reach 15 million once MoP comes out and Chris Metzen will find a cure for cancer. Keep em coming Pancaspe.
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Asatru - 2012-08-03

Originally Posted by papaz

I love how people thought "WoW subs are stabilizing" last conference call. HAHA

People didn't think WoW subs were stabilizing. Boub's "careful" choice of wording said so.
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Mothhive - 2012-08-03

Originally Posted by Immitis

thats not true subs continually rose in wotlk and reached its highest at the launch of cata with almost or right around 13 million subs. the first patch of cata is around the time subs started to drop

Source? I'm pretty sure Sockhead is correct that it peaked during WOTLK and then started to decline at the end of the expansion, mostly due to lack of new content.
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Venziir - 2012-08-03

Originally Posted by ScottsdaleHokie

Reading comprehension isn't your strong suit huh?

'Bout as strong as your self-contradiction.
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jeremynative - 2012-08-03

its gonna be a way higher loss once gw2 comes out
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otro - 2012-08-03

Duh, D3 was out.....

Originally Posted by jeremynative

its gonna be a way higher loss once gw2 comes out

and no, for a month maybe.
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General_Typhus - 2012-08-03

http://www.forbes.com/sites/afonteve...achilles-heel/
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Attsey - 2012-08-03

Originally Posted by Venziir

'Bout as strong as your self-contradiction.

That would be a great answer if he actually contradicted himself.
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Powell - 2012-08-03

Originally Posted by jeremynative

its gonna be a way higher loss once gw2 comes out

I doubt that, GW2 hasn't got the content and endgame. The dynamic events and world questing is great and such, but since it doesn't cost any monthly fee, i see many people, including myself continuing to use pay the monthly fee for this.
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hasselol - 2012-08-03

Originally Posted by Mothhive

Source? I'm pretty sure Sockhead is correct that it peaked during WOTLK and then started to decline at the end of the expansion, mostly due to lack of new content.

Actually, the subscription peaked at right above 12m and started to decline pretty much the second WOTLK launched, and dropped by around 500k subscribers. When Patch 3.3.0 launched (Icecrown Citadel patch/Tier 10/Season 8) It started to rise again to around 12m and turned around and started dropping again the second Cataclysm Launched.

Source: users(dot)telenet(dot)be/mmodata/Charts/Subs-1(dot)png
mmodata(dot)blogspot(dot)no/

(Not able to post links, replace (dot) with .)
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cateran - 2012-08-03

Originally Posted by Powell

I doubt that, GW2 hasn't got the content and endgame.

Ahem wait, what?
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McNeil - 2012-08-03

Originally Posted by otro

Duh, D3 was out.....

and no, for a month maybe.

Wait now I'm confused...

So you say that WoW lost subs to Diablo 3, while Guild Wars 2 won't be a competor at all??
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General_Typhus - 2012-08-03

Originally Posted by hasselol

Actually, the subscription peaked at right above 12m and started to decline pretty much the second WOTLK launched, and dropped by around 500k subscribers. When Patch 3.3.0 launched (Icecrown Citadel patch/Tier 10/Season 8) It started to rise again to around 12m and turned around and started dropping again the second Cataclysm Launched.

Source: users(dot)telenet(dot)be/mmodata/Charts/Subs-1(dot)png
mmodata(dot)blogspot(dot)no/

(Not able to post links, replace (dot) with .)
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Vengfulr3ap3r - 2012-08-03

Originally Posted by cateran

Ahem wait, what?

That's what I was thinking as well. I mean considering end game for gw2 starts practically the moment you finish the tutorial... the ENTIRE GAME is endgame.

Originally Posted by McNeil

Wait now I'm confused...

So you say that WoW lost subs to Diablo 3, while Guild Wars 2 won't be a competor at all??

Yeahh... That confused me too. Specially since both are b2p games, if one has an effect the other will as well.
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Nyzzeh - 2012-08-03

I don't understand how they still have 9 millions.
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Vengfulr3ap3r - 2012-08-03

Originally Posted by Nyzzeh

I don't understand how they still have 9 millions.

I think it's something along the lines of the way people in the east pay for the game. I don't think they do a time card the way we do, I think its more along the lines of pay by the hour type thing. so if they have a sub with just one penny left on the card it still count's as a sub. (at least that's what i remember. if im wrong i'm wrong. Just reiterating what i've heard)
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sTyLnK - 2012-08-03

Why are so many of you so surprised and shocked? There's a lot of reasons why. It's that lull between expansions, D3 and people are just bored of the game. You see the list of reasons why from Blizzard. It's not a cause for alarm. Blizzard dropped the ball on Cata, they basically admitted it, but they've worked their tails off on Mists. Trust me, it's like night and day when you compare it to Cata. So I hope it does well. But of course, a lot of people like to use this article as troll bait. Common sense is the numbers will jump come Mists. Guaranteed. I'm predicting at least a few million again. As for GW2, I hope it does well. Competition is good for business.
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Vengfulr3ap3r - 2012-08-03

Originally Posted by sTyLnK

Why are so many of you so surprised and shocked? There's a lot of reasons why. It's that lull between expansions, D3 and people are just bored of the game. You see the list of reasons why from Blizzard. It's not a cause for alarm. Blizzard dropped the ball on Cata, they basically admitted it, but they've worked their tails off on Mists. Trust me, it's like night and day when you compare it to Cata. So I hope it does well. But of course, a lot of people like to use this article as troll bait. Common sense is the numbers will jump come Mists. Guaranteed. I'm predicting at least a few million again. As for GW2, I hope it does well. Competition is good for business.

Indeed. Competition is good for business, I honestly do think it will do well though. I don't know why exactly It's just a feeling I have. Either it'll flop hardcore or it'll succeed. I think the latter. The issue though with mists is the fact it's going to be the same repetitive thing that people are already tired of. They're tired of the gear treadmill, waiting 5+ month's between releases. The constant buffing and nerfing of classes where it's not really needed to begin with while an OP class like frost mages get left alone. It doesn't matter how hard they've worked to make mists good, if they don't change the way they treat the game in general when it comes to buffs, nerfs, not releasing content fast enough, and telling us "we'd love to do that.. but we do't have the resources because we was too busy making a new pretty mount for 2 month's worth of subscription!" it's still going to cause people to leave after they've leved up there first toon.

I mean d3 made people leave, gw2 will make people leave, and for those that d3 was a disappointment too they'll probably leave when torchlight 2 comes out (from my understand TL2 is made by the same people who made d2) Do I think it'll kill wow? No, wow's doing that slowly on it's own. I do think those game releases will have a big impact on wow's subscription numbers. Not to mention how many people will go play swtor now that it's going free to play.
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