How many people do you THINK play this game right now?

[lucred]

Assuming you are including people paying with tokens (hey, I have seen people claim that those are not subscribers so I am just covering my bases here) I would say 5-7. Around this point in WoD was when they gave their last subscription numbers as ~5.5M if I remember correctly, and I can't imagine Legion is doing much worse than WoD...
People saying 1.5-2m are the ones who have ALWAYS said crap like that... there were people during cataclysm that would claim that those would be the numbers in the next report.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

This is the worst Price is Right episode I've ever seen.

[MoanaLisa]

Now, whenever I log I think, my god how it's great. But I realized, its great because I am not raiding. I am free to do whatever I want !

Divorcing yourself from the raid/gear treadmill and just doing the stuff you want to do can make the game a lot more fun. You are much more free just to go off and do stuff you might not otherwise do.

The real secret is to do what you want and not feel like you "have" to do anything. The game doesn't do that very much. Meeting expectations is a social thing for the most part. This sort of thing is rarely discussed and even seems to be a kind of secret at this point. Do exactly what you like. The game is better. If you engage in something like raiding where it's clear there are specific expectations on the part of others, then do so and embrace it. If you can't embrace that fully and happily then find something you can.

[Deleted]

At least 12 people play this game.

Prove me wrong.

[Dystemper]

I think there's a good argument to make that the quality of an expansion matters less than people assume. Expansions appeal to different people in different ways and for different reasons. If I were a high-end raider I might be inclined to think that Warlords was a pretty decent expansion.

People come and go for their own reasons. We don't really know much about them or why. But we do know that as the game ages, some people stick no matter what while many others drop in for a bit, drop out for a while and come back when they feel like it. That's all good. But it can lead to subs going from very high to very low. It's just true that after twelve years and a universe of other choices out there that people will approach the game differently now than they did ten years ago.

Quality has something to do with it but probably not as much as people tend to think.

Saying Quality of a expansion does not have much to do with subs numbers is damn silly. It has a great deal to do with it. If there is nothing fun and engaging to do, people leave. In droves. You have a few people who play no matter whatbecause of addiction or because of habit. Those numbers are not that high. Wod was a terrible expansion and it saw the biggest loss of player in a quarter then every before.
Whil Legion has a bit more to do, the question is that content fun and engaging and will it keep people around? Professions suck once again this expansion. People are burned out on dungeons and mythics and WQ. All that leaves is Raiding and doing old content for mounts or Tmogs. The content we got was made frustrating because of the Titanforging amd Warforging. No sense of completion or progress. I still say the game is about 1.5-2.5 million active players . And I feel that it is dropping.

[iNUKE]

350 ......

[Deleted]

1-3 million is honestly a troll vote tbh

edit: same for +10 million

[truckboattruck]

or you know, they stopped and there is no point doing it again
as when it drops it is a bad thing because then people doomsay and quit because its "dying"
and when it raises people say "its just a phase it will drop again"

nice excuses....but they did it because their numbers were utter shit

[Laerrus]

4 to 5 million worldwide.

NA realms probably have around a million of those

[A Chozo]

Three.
Maybe four.

[Deathquoi]

if the sub numbers were high they would report that to the shareholders in some way to keep them happy and the stock price high. Right now they can only say "high hours played means we have a bunch of no-lifers hooked like bored old people in a casino"

- - - Updated - - -



what is sad is that you are so attached to WoW that you think saying the sub numbers on a video game is low means that you are being defeated with it.

Yeah, the only thing worse than being so attached to a game you want it to succeed is being so attached to a game you troll forums about it because you want to see it fail

[greysaber]

under 5 million. There's more people in the private server scene, than on retail.

[AzureinJA]

Private servers are not as popular as you think.

Absoluley, and WoW is still very popular with the silent casuals who dont post in forums.

[Leih]

There's actually only 7 real players. Everyone else is a bot cleverly designed by Blizzard's AI team in order to make the game look busier.

[SirCowdog]

I think you said it very well and I completely agree! Especially with bolded part. But damn, sometimes I feel alone (mentally) until someone like you speaks out.

Reason why I stopped with Mythic raiding was due to having switched so many guilds and always having a feel like sitting on a fence where at one side you have average players but rather okay people and on another having cocky, nerdragers who are good players. LFR is my thing now. Can't miss on that epic lore.

You'd be surprised how many people will do something they don't actually enjoy just because other people are doing it. This applies pretty much everywhere in life, but especially so in a social game like WoW. Pack mentality, Confirmation bias, etc. I could cite exact examples of this, but I don't want to hyjack the thread.

So, to keep things on topic, if I had to guess I'd say that Legion is probably sitting just under the 5m mark. I'm basing this off Blizzard's statements that it's doing slightly better than WoD, and the overall trend of subscribers reported since WotLK. Legion MIGHT have increased subs significantly, but I'm going to cynically suggest that if that were the case, Blizzard would somehow find a way to wave that fact in everyone's faces like they did with Overwatch's concurrent player numbers.

I would also suggest that Legion's more steady stream of content releases has likely done a much better job of retaining players. Keeping people from getting bored and having a reality check in regards to why they're still playing the game. That might not have increased subs, but it probably went a long way to stop the bleeding. Add to that the buildup towards finally having some story resolution with the Burning Legion(and the return of fan-favorite Illidan), and I suspect WoW is doing alright in terms of subs.

The real question is, how are they going to follow up with next expansion? There's not much left for them to pull out of their collective asses on the same level as bringing back Illidan and giving players Demon Hunters(the class people have asked for since vanilla). However good WoW is doing right now, I think we'll see a HEAVY decline after the final patch of Legion.

[Deleted]

2,854,326,325 no more no less.

John stopped playing a week ago, your data is outdated.

[DarkAmbient]

Based on the armory achievement info posted on this site, it's 3-4 million.

Yep. 4 million at most, probably less.

[Sansnom]

Right now with the launch of a new raid, probably 5mil(subs). In 5-6 weeks It will probably drop ~3.5.

I'd be more interested in player activity tbh.

I doubt it is the new raid, more it is the new patch. Not that many people raids so I don`t think that is the draw.

I think it would be around 5M because of the grind for flying. I think people would want that enough to slowly grind for it.

[Demithio]

I'd say realistically 1-3 million actual people playing the game at a moderate rate.