WoW Up to 7.8 Million Subscribers

[Varabently]

Wow, so if the sub numbers go up Blizz is faking them? Damned if you do, damned if you don't I guess. The Internet is such a cess pool.

[Undahill]

First of all, this is Q4. So of course Christmas sales in general are going to spark people dropping 15 bucks a month on something. Secondly Blizzard was offering WoW for 5 bucks for how long in Q4? Awhile.

[Cyann]

Pretty sure you are in the extreme minority for quitting because of a deviation from the Warcraft story.

I imagine the slight spike in subs had a bit to do with MOP going on sale for $9.99. I resubbed for the first time since Wrath just to screw around because it was so cheap. Would still be unsubbed it it were $30 or $40.

Not just for deviating from the story, because as I mentioned, they've done that already, but deviating so far from the story to a place with no history at all. MoP quickly lead to the feeling of, "What am I doing here?" When you ask that, and there is a weak direction for end game, why play? You don't think people want to play to fight the last encounter? When there is no end goal in site (Level 60, Onyxia, Ilidan, Lich King, Death wing) it makes the repeated content feel all the more pointless.

I don't think I'm as small a minority as you think. WOTLK was when WoW peaked because there was so much story and lore behind it. There was absolutely no lore for MoP before going there.

[SodiumChloride]

OMG! It's like 2007 all over again. At least for the last 3 months.

[VredesbyrdGC]

You can count me + 3 mates as 4 of that 200k who have returned.

People really do underestimate the power that a new, promising expansion can bring. Looking forward to WoD.

[Tyrgannus]

Well, according to this, that drop that some WLK critics claimed to have happened after ICC didn't exist. Subs didn't drop until Cataclysm.

[thebelltolleth]

And that says something. Yes, the age of the game a factor. However, Cata a HUGE factor.

[Souflikar]

Wow, so if the sub numbers go up Blizz is faking them? Damned if you do, damned if you don't I guess. The Internet is such a cess pool.

Cess pool? Agreed. Even the doubters are smart enough to realize that fudging the numbers is HIGHLY illegal. If not, read a book once in a while for God's sake.
For reasons I don't understand, some people feel good inside when subs are down. When Blizz has good news, the same people are in denial.

[Faroth]

They're floating right around pre-BC levels right now.

To be honest, 7-8 million would be a good place to maintain. Settle into that, lovingly craft a game more focused on those players. I kind of feel like 12 million suffered a bit from having too many players with too many different tastes and trying to design/cater to them all simultaneously.

Grats to Blizz and WoW on holding steady!

Yes the sub numbers drop between expansion. Yes they go back up around Blizzcon and around Xmas break. The people grasping at straws are the fanboys. You guys act like 200k means 2 million. Yes, WOW IS dying. It peaked in BC with 12m. It has yet to reach that mark, and more and more games are chiseling at it's sub numbers. Just accept it for what it is and move on when the time comes.

Yes, WOW IS dying.

Technically WoW started dying the day it launched, as do all games. :3

[Souflikar]

They're floating right around pre-BC levels right now.

To be honest, 7-8 million would be a good place to maintain. Settle into that, lovingly craft a game more focused on those players. I kind of feel like 12 million suffered a bit from having too many players with too many different tastes and trying to design/cater to them all simultaneously.

Grats to Blizz and WoW on holding steady!





Technically WoW started dying the day it launched, as do all games. :3

.....7.8 million is a large amount of straws to grasp.

[Onionbagels]

/clears throat

SEE YOU AT LAUNCH.

[Eyedol]

It's not lying per se. They can spin numbers any way they want. Like how they include China in their subscription count when there are no subscriptions in China. They include time cards, and there has been great debate on the grey area of including them since even a buck left on the card counts. Who is going to check them on this? Is there a sub police?

Sure, it's realistic to think that with the last tier, you'd see a spike. That right now is when the free fall is happening. That the next two quarter reports are going to be pretty bad. I still don't trust them. Considering the number manipulation going on in the info graphic. The stuff they flat out lie to us about (Pandas are just for toys not an expansion!). Yeah, I don't buy it. I don't think they have anywhere close to 7.8.

People fail to understand that although Blizzard or any other publicly traded company cannot lie about their financial data they *can* manipulate their non-financial data such as sub numbers to show whatever the hell they want. Financial data is what investors care about, thats why theres so many laws and regulatory bodies overseeing its reporting, requiring it to be audited, etc. But non-financial data? No. Now of course they can't flat out lie, but they can twist and bend the truth however they please. And Activision-Blizzard are masters of this. Frankly, I do not believe any non-financial data they provide. Blizzard have stated they include game cards with even $1 left on them as a sub. So any old card with $1 on it lying about in some guys drawer (or in landfill) is a sub. Pretty poor form to include rubbish like that (pun intended).

[Issalice]

Great to hear! I suppose people are coming back to tie up any loose ends before WoD, and the new PvP season is starting up shortly. Very good news all around

[sil3ntearth]

I'm one of those 200k. The Blizzcon WoD announcement convinced me to give MoP a fair chance while waiting.

Same here. I really like it myself. First subscribed in December 2004 and recently took a 3 year break. Now that I'm just looking at it as something fun to do in my down time I'm enjoying it a lot more. I'm still not crazy about the MoP lore, but the WoD lore definitely has my interest.

[Simca]

Technically WoW started dying the day it launched, as do all games. :3

It's funny how people never figure this out while chanting it.

"THE SKY IS BLUE! THE SKY IS BLUE! THE SKY IS BLUE!" makes about as much sense.

[Siddown]

Every other xpac has held my attention throughout the entire expansion even terrible cata. But MOP's alt unfriendliness still makes me not want to play my alts and finish leveling the last 4 85's I have.

I'm afraid I don't really understand.

With Hierlooms it's trivial to level your alts to 85. Once in MOP, leveling there is pretty quick as well. 1 or 2 5mans (also trivial as long as your tank doesn't completely suck) and Jade Forest gets you to 87, at 87 with most classes you can swim to Timeless Isle and level to 90 in about 5 hours of killing spotted swarmers and also get epics for when you ding 90.

Or you can hit Timless Isle with your main and get plenty of BoA epics for your alts if you want to level them just via questing/dungeons. Getting a new alt to a very high iLevel item level is ridiculously easy. MOP even put in ways for you to level your professions while in Pandaland, even if they weren't high enough so you don't have to run around Outland mining ore, etc.

MOP has been about as Alt Friendly as you can get.

[Deleted]

They went from 9.6 million subs in the beginning of 2013 to 7.8 million subs in the beginning of 2014. Please, someone explain to me how anyone could be stupid enough to consider this a rise in subs? Yes, it rose from last quarter, but that is only a spin PR people use to fool the sheople into thinking things are okay. Internally Blizzard is worried. They lost 1.8 million paying customers in only a year. Things are not good, things are not looking up, things are bad. Anyone with a brain can see this.

As incontrovertible proof that I am right you can simply look at the in game store. This is a typical panic button feature preying on the hardcore and hopelessly addicted.

Now ive read your post and while I do agree you have a valid point I do have to ask why you are so passionate about making that point? Do you go to cancer wards on the weekend and tell the people suffering through chemo that its pointless and they should just give up because although they've made a little progress in the last 3 months if they compare it to a year ago when they were healthy then really they've made no progress atall?

Sure the numbers have dropped in the past year, that's a fact that no one is disputing, but I don't see why you feel its wrong for people to take solace that for once the numbers have started to rise again. Im not flaming or being sarcastic here I am genuinely interested in why you feel the need to so passionately defend your view that the game is in worse shape then it was a year ago.

[Deleted]

I don't care what people say, as I see numbers growing again I am very happy and I love to /facepalm all the threads that were mentioning that this quarter was only going to be a downfall!

~Peace out x

[Deleted]

This is amazing. While other MMOs had to go free to play to survive, WoW suddenly gets another 200K players. A number that Vanguard would have been proud of. How many active "subs" have Rift and SWTOR by the way?
Wildstar and TESO won't be able to harm WoW. The players who already left will play just another MMO Failure and WoW-Clone.

I think HEARTHSTONE is a another reason for the increased subs. In the HS streams you could read very often "damn, that all the known WoW Heroes, I somwhow miss WoW and think about resubbing again"

[Ragedaug]

Every time the game becomes more accessible the subs go up, when it becomes less accessible the subs go down. The beginning of Cata and MoP both saw less and less players able to compete in end game progression. When Dragonsoul was released with basically a flex and normal'ish caliber mode, subs went up. The declined mid-way through DS, though that was because few were still trying to progress through DS. Unlike ICC, more players had either finished DS or given up on it. Not to mention D3 coming out free to a million WoW players.

Also, don't confuse LFR with endgame progression. It's not. It may be "raiding", but it's not progression raiding. I'm not saying folks don't like it or don't use it, but it is what it is. Something to do to pass the time or for fun when you aren't doing anything else. I would put LFR up there with Pet Battles, random BGs, collecting and doing 'chieves.

Anyway the point is to say that when Blizzard makes progression raiding more accessible to more players & guilds, the subs stabilize or increase. I'm guessing from the WoD format already announced, they have learned this lesson.