Why did MoP sell so little compared to previous expansions?

[Florena]

While I loved MoP, the reveal trailer was god awful and may have hurt sales to some degree.

[Lochton]

Always had the theory that it had something to do with people's unreasonable argument of, "oh, it is panduhland", "oh, it is a childrens game" etc etc, without even having tried it. Then again, if people don't wish to, then they won't.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

panda hate

This, there was so much bitching about Pandaren pre-release. Then you had the trolls saying "hurrdurr kungfu panda" all over the forums, official and otherwise. Meanwhile anyone who actually played the expansion knew that there were many serious themes and stories being told, while the marketing completely failed to convey any of that. If you looked at just the marketing for MoP, then looked at Dread Wastes, you probably wouldn't think that the Dread Wastes was part of MoP.

So yeah, attitude and marketing are primarily responsible for MoP having relatively weak launch sales. The entire last tier of Cata really didn't help either.

[A Dark Knight]

Cataclysm - 3.3M First Day, 4.7M First Month
Mists of Pandaria - 2.7M First Week

do you people read

[Eurhetemec]

A lot of people I knew just weren't interested in MoP, and there were two main reasons:

1) It didn't seem to signal a break with the various terrible design decisions in Cataclysm (too many to list here).

2) The lore and setting seemed deeply un-Warcraft-ish. I mean, this applies totally to casual players as much as or more than hardcore ones. I know tons of casual people who were excited by WoD or Legion adverts/info/concepts, but MoP just sent people packing - Pandamen and faux-Asia? With the bonus of both the Horde and Alliance leaders being lame jerks?

2. There was not one memorable raid in the first tier of MoP. Like, even Highmaul felt much more like a raid than the first tier of MoP (I don't even remember the names of those raids).

Well said. I re-ran a bunch of them recently and good god they're dull! Visually dull, dull bosses, dull concepts - awful.

[Kazgrel]

Malygos phase 3.

Interesting. So where do I get a red drake mount like that one (that can attack, heal and shield itself) for use in other raids and the open world?

[caervek]

Cataclysm - 3.3M First Day, 4.7M First Month
Mists of Pandaria - 2.7M First Week

do you people read

Yup, but it would appear you don't.

Even after being on sale for a full week MoP hadn't sold as many copies as the other expans had in just one day, the fact they had sold even more by the end of the month isn't particularly relevant.

[Jhowzera]

Pandaria is the most beautiful continent thou.

[Vargur]

So with the new sale figures, I noticed that 3 expansions after WotLK sold just as much during tis first day... with the one exception of MoP, which did far worse. 3.3M first day versus 2.7M first WEEK:



What could have halted this expansion from doing as good as the others? Is it just the pandaren theme which people may find ''childish'', or is there more to it? Maybe patch 4.3 performed so bad that people massively lost interest, but then I could say the same thing for patch 6.2, but apparently Legion still managed to perform just as good for its first day.

Simply because of this.

[ryanmahaffe]

Pandaz r gay and for fagg kidz


pretty much

[Dsc]

Thankfully I like most of this new one.

Pandaland was a blatant attempt at tapping into the Asian market. It wasn't wow, it was an Acti-Blizz business decision. After cat flopped, driving away what was left of the peak subs left from TBC/vanilla who played into. Wrath to kill Arthas... They had to do "something". I got some top kills and unsubbed for 3years skipping it. I kinda wish that I hadn't... It was a pretty xpack with alot of content. But it tasted like the pile of shit it was.

2factors. Cat sucked. Asian market pandering.

[Thelxi]

Thematically it was a bit weird. Especially the way they marketed it. It was just weird. Turned out ok though, but many people never found that out I suppose.

[Vargur]

Thematically it was a bit weird. Especially the way they marketed it. It was just weird. Turned out ok though, but many people never found that out I suppose.

The raids were good, that's what you mean by turned out good?

[Thelxi]

The raids were good, that's what you mean by turned out good?

Thematically it turned out ok too. I was one of the panda haters, but the expansion itself was actually very beautiful and fit pretty smoothly within the game itself.

[TheVaryag]

So with the new sale figures, I noticed that 3 expansions after WotLK sold just as much during tis first day... with the one exception of MoP, which did far worse. 3.3M first day versus 2.7M first WEEK:



What could have halted this expansion from doing as good as the others? Is it just the pandaren theme which people may find ''childish'', or is there more to it? Maybe patch 4.3 performed so bad that people massively lost interest, but then I could say the same thing for patch 6.2, but apparently Legion still managed to perform just as good for its first day.

Pandas, simple answer.

Also @ShiyoKozuki, agreed... completely. I just wish things went a bit differently after Wrath...

[orgonutil]

worst wow theme ever. Somethings was good, MOP wasnot bad in all aspects, but the theme wasnot popular

[Valdhammer]

Pandas + Asian theme + People already annoyed because of Cata

[tonysniper]

I missed the xpac because I started in WoD, but while leveling one of my characters I played throughout MoP quests and it looks gorgeous and has a very interesting story. Its a shame that the marketing wasnt well thought, this and the fact that it came right after cata (which seems to be real bad judging by the quests and the raids).

[Deleted]

Pandas and shitty theme. That's the only right answer. The rest are details.

[Katchii]

People disliked Cataclysm and gave up on WoW, and then found out about Pandas and hated it even more without even playing it and therefore didn't buy it.

Still can't wrap my head around people hating Pandaren SO much that they can't/ won't play but yet are totally fine with fireball throwing space goats, werewolves, shape shifting trolls, line dancing cows, mad scientist gnomes/ goblins, magic vampires (Blood Elves) and 10,000+ year old purple elves...