Are there more people who stopped playing or people who are playing?

[Mushkins]

Please correct me if I'm wrong. I've read somewhere that over 100 million wow accounts have been created since 2004. Obviously, not all of them are active today. Some were banned, some people stopped paying cause of... reasons. A lot of them stopped because they didn't like where the game was heading. Of course Classic Servers are not for those who enjoy the current game, it's for those who have stopped playing retail wow.
Are there more people who stopped playing or people who are playing?

[Vineri]

More who stopped than are currently playing (quote from ~ 2011'ish) - blue.

The population was really good then, so equal was the number then who no longer play.

There are more people that played World of Warcraft, but no longer play World of Warcraft, than the number of people that currently play World of Warcraft.

Sep 3, 2011

src:
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/3123242622

[Mushkins]

More who stopped than are currently playing (quote from ~ 2011'ish) - blue.

There are more people that played World of Warcraft, but no longer play World of Warcraft, than the number of people that currently play World of Warcraft.

Sep 3, 2011

src:
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/3123242622

And it's at the peak of its popularity.

[Nevcairiel]

Any game thats 13 years old will have more people that once played the game then people currently playing it. Also, your poll seems entirely unrelated to the question in the OP.

[Mushkins]

Any game thats 13 years old will have more people that once played the game then people currently playing it. Also, your poll seems entirely unrelated to the question in the OP.

I wanted to kill two birds with one stone.

[owbu]

Didnt they say in wrath, that most players stop before reaching lvl 10 or something? So depending on how you define a player, this qustion might not be very hard to answer. There is tens of millions of "players", who played for a tiny bit and moved on.

[Deleted]

It was said years ago that there are 100.000.000 created accounts. If the game has 5.000.000 active subs now (i don't know if they still provide that data) then obviously the potential is endless! That to answer to the threads tittle. The poll itself is about a different topic with obvious answer being the "other" option, since people from all the 3 categories given, will be playing classic!

[HuxNeva]

Where is the option for 'all of the above'?

[Alienshroom]

I think the biggest bulk will be returning players from BC-WotLK who are hyped because vanilla servers are offering a new WoW experience for them that is actually WoW and not this post WotLK BS. Vanilla players will certainly return but genuine vanilla players who did the end game content at the time are an older crowd now. To what level they will return with force remains to be seen but I think many of them are on private servers which is why the private servers had been able to successfully create such a passionate community.

[Blackmist]

Most people didn't stop playing because it changed. They stopped because they'd played it and got bored of it.

It's not going to jump back up to 10 million players because of Vanilla servers coming back.

[Calculons]

I stop playing retail in 2015. Since i've been playing in the private servers not because they were free it's because i did not like what retail have become. Im happy im coming back home again

[Aggrophobic]

Please correct me if I'm wrong. I've read somewhere that over 100 million wow accounts have been created since 2004. Obviously, not all of them are active today. Some were banned, some people stopped paying cause of... reasons. A lot of them stopped because they didn't like where the game was heading. Of course Classic Servers are not for those who enjoy the current game, it's for those who have stopped playing retail wow.
Are there more people who stopped playing or people who are playing?

There are more that stopped playing, of course.
Most of them will never come back, however. Vanilla or not.

The classic servers are a feature that will cater to a small amount of new and returning players at best. At worst and most likely it will be the same people that already pay for the current version and all Blizzard will manage to do with the classic servers is compete with themselves while paying more as they now have two versions to take care of.

It's a bad idea but I'm guessing falling sub numbers are forcing them to take drastic actions and just hope for the best.

[Nheme]

I'm one of them that will be returning all though I won't be able to be as active as I was then.

The reason I stopped was because I got to the point where I ran around on an island looting epics from chests. Epics should be something you work hard for. I remember inspecting people in Orgrimmar where greens, blues and maybe a couple of epics was a common occurense. Now everyone gets an legendary.

At the mids of WotKL it annoyed me when they started with dailies quests for rep without a possibillity for grinding it. I enjoy grinding and I could only play in the weekends so it took me months getting my upgraded fishinpole just because I wasnt able to do the dailies during the rest of the week.

[moremana]

I don't think for a second believe that Classic will make a lot of old players return.

it made me. and Im fin old