10.3 million subscribers

[Gobsplosion]

The people saying "lol that loss is nothing!" seem to be just as unintelligent as those parroting "lol wow is dead!". It would be nice if people on both sides would wise up.

I would have to agree with this statement. Wow is not dying, nor is it making much growth currently and that is for one simple reason. The game is almost 7 years old, how fresh do you think they can keep it? I personally think that MoP is a phenomenal step towards tweaking the game in a newer direction that hasn't been done before in wow (speaking in terms of the asian theme) as well as all the different little things to do. Who cares if the game drops a few million subs? It is still the largest MMO ever made and to be honest I don't see it being dethroned anytime soon. I know somebody is going to quote me and give me the "LOLOLOLOL SWTOR WILL R4P3 UR FACE LOLOLOL" But honestly I don't care. I have heard the same arguement multiple times, no other MMO has ever gotten the job done and I doubt even a Star Wars game will get the job done. Maybe it will, but I am going to call this right now whether I am right or wrong.... People will get tired of voice overs in dungeons and raids very quickly and the game loses its mass appeal after you have leveled your first character, I see it more like being another KotoR than anything. Fun for awhile but nothing permanent or long term.

My definition of "next-gen MMO" is not a reskined WoW clone with voice acting, and no end game. You may make the argument that WoW didn't have end game when it was released at first, but again a next-gen MMO should be everything the current MMO is plus more. It should have end game. It should have amazing PVP. It should have something that makes it different, and VO with the standard crappy morality system used in every bioware game thusfar is not going to cut it.

[Deleted]

This is what happens when you announce the future is panda.

[Malefic]

WoW is far from dying. Any MMO not on that list has less than 1million subscribers.

[Deleted]

The bit where he said most of the drop was in Asia was interesting. I was worried the drops were in the west, but apparently not. Although it is a bit embarrassing for Blizzard that they're losing players in an EMERGING MARKET, only 3 months after releasing an entirely new expansion in China. But at least it means better news for western players.

Blizzard also better hope that MoP is popular in the west, because it seems like Asia isn't as easy to crack as they thought it'd be. Maybe creating an expansion catering to China wasn't such a great idea after all.

No it was not, for they're fighting already existing MMOs who are big already in the region and already cover some asian lore. They're just putting themselves against bigger competitors who are doing better, it's like Rift does with WoW to compare. Also, I saw many western people don't like MoP, so it might lead to a further decline in the west as well, they're like chopping the branch from under their feet.

[bigjenk]

Aion has over 9 million subscribers.

Seeing as how only a million copies sold in the west that is probably mostly sea region which is far less profitable than the west. China makes up 1/2 of the playerbase in wow but 1/6th the profits on subs alone.

[GennGreymane]

thats just a lot less baddies, spoiled brats, cry babies, etc

i hope it was mostly wow is dead ppl, honestly im bored of them.

[Lannden]

Well this was unexpected to say the least. Ehhhh whatever, I'ms still having fun these numbers have no affect on me.

[Azivalla]

Subs go up and go down. They'll go up in MoP, come back down, go up again, then down, repeating. There is no reason to freak out that the world is ending with a little drought.

[bigjenk]

WoW is far from dying. Any MMO not on that list has less than 1million subscribers.

Your list is missing a lot and all these wow graphs are failing to show a ~8 percent drop for this quarter as well.

[Sliske]

Funny, and 2 of my IRL friends just got wow again haha

[Syegfried]

Umm that video was adressing how people complain about wow and saying its dying over specific content they hate.

In this situation, we're getting wow subscriber losses. Obviously wow isn't going to die for a long time. It has freaking 10 million subscribers. That's a lot! But, it is dying slowly now.

If you think about it, everything is dying, you are dying, I am dying, the next person to post on this topic is dying, WE ALL ARE DYING. Theres a start and theres an end.

[Edge-]

I'm interested to see, after a full year of subscriber losses, if they are going to change their development cycle or business plans at all for the game. Clearly, what they are doing isn't keeping playings playing.

[bigjenk]

Subs go up and go down. They'll go up in MoP, come back down, go up again, then down, repeating. There is no reason to freak out that the world is ending with a little drought.

Sigh this is funny how people think. This is pretty much a full year of rather large declines every quarter, while before this there had been only one other quarter that there was any decline at all(discounting china ban for a bit).

[antonatsis]

People must keep in mind that WoW is not the top dog in china...its like a competitor...for us 12million players are huge numbers...but for pay to win mmos that china have...12 millions are nothing.The games there have the numbers that facebook games have.Also keep in mind that its 800k people leaving and 0 coming.People tend to forget this too.

If you have a 800k people leaving where are all the new players?

Also this is not a players/gamers meeting.This is a shareholder meeting...meaning that declining numbers are bad it doesn't matter if its few or many as long as the money coming are getting less and less...those suits will be angry.Meaning more microtransaction for BLIZZ to keep positive numbers of money influx or cutting down on things to keep positive numbers.Of course with WoW you have quite some space for decline but it doesn't mean its not bad

[Deleted]

People saying WoW is dead are extremely naive.

To put it into perspective MMO's like Rift etc are circa the 1.5mill subscribers mark (I believe), and they're living happily.

The reality is, WoW could lose another 6million subscribers and still be one of the most subscribed (if not THE most) subscribed MMO in the world.

WoW, at it's peak was THAT good that it would have to lose 3-4x as much as it has in the last year before it could technically be anywhere near ' dead '.

Move the decimal place in the original topic one to the left and that would signify a dead WoW. Whilst they have more subscribers than most average countries population, they're far from dead.

yeah wow can live with 5-6 milj, but , the shareholders and activision won't be impressed with a 50% loss in income and that is what will lead to wow's downfall because they will try other ways to get more cash of the cashcow, we are allready seeing the signs of it or do you think it's coincidental we get a mini game that uses pets that just happen to be on sale in the blizz store aswell .....

[bigjenk]

Anecdotal evidence, worthless, I have friends that quit WoW that doesn't mean the game is dying.

Lots of people take a scroll or resub for a month and then lapse again with new content since cata release which doesnt help real sub numbers when they are subbed for 2.5 months a year.

[mvaliz]

I'm interested to see, after a full year of subscriber losses, if they are going to change their development cycle or business plans at all for the game. Clearly, what they are doing isn't keeping playings playing.

I have a feeling we've already seen that. 4.3 has a TON of different things that went against their original development plans (Transmog, for example, was something they didn't want to do originally).

The question is, will they react even FURTHER than they are already reacting now?

If so, then they're really stuck in Star Wars:Galaxies syndrome (Constantly radically changing the game to get subscribers back, but instead are pissing off the current set of subscribers).

[xenoz]

WoW is far from dying. Any MMO not on that list has less than 1million subscribers.

The number of current subscribers is completely irrelevant because dying means, a downward trend in subscribers.
The question is how long before Blizzard pulls the plug, or goes to a free-to-play model?

[Kakuzo]

I'm interested to see, after a full year of subscriber losses, if they are going to change their development cycle or business plans at all for the game. Clearly, what they are doing isn't keeping playings playing.

This.
WoW is loosing subcribers at a fast rate, and honestly it's not good to loose 800k people over 3 months. You can't argue with that. Just as it isn't good to loose 600k people over the 3 months before that and 1,2milion(or how many it was) the three months before THAT.
Loosing subcribers is a bad thing. They tried with trolls. Did not work. Fire. Did not work, fire spouting dragon though? I dunno might work.
Loosing subs every single month etc is NOT good, and don't try to defend that

[Gratlim]

Nice! Next report less than 10 for sure (ToR out) :s MoP is overall a let down for many old school players but I am sure the WoWkemon thing will attract new blood. And this game needs it!

Edit: thinking about it, you can't retain subscribers without free loots @85. DMF is just another grind once a month..Right now on live servers, you wont pug without 7/7 FL achiv and 370ilvl. Pity but I can understand why most just run away and last maybe max 1 month @85. LFR won't fix it as its reward are bad.