Mop - 2.7 million sold in first week

[xanzul]

2.7 millions of any games is not a small feat. MoP is NOT by any consideration a flop, it is a financial success undeniably. To the 2.7 millions copy, you have to add at very least, 2.7 millions of month of sub, because you need to register at least a month to be able to play MoP.

However

This is less a success that wolk and cataclysm were and relatively speaking, i would say less a success than TBC was. Why do i say that.

Well TBC sold 2.4 millions in 24 hours and 3.51 millions in a month (i don't have the number for the first week). But TBC was release when wow had 5 millions players, cataclysm had 9 millions.

So for me relatively speaking, MoP is the least succesful WoW extension to date, but, time will tell the rest.

Mop is the least successful expansion despite bringing 1 million players back after losing 3 million. Yeah ok.

[Conscious]

What I don't get, Conscious, is why you are comparing it to an expansion who held the record of the fastest selling PC game of all time in a single day until Diablo 3. All the other expansions raised the bar for this record, too, but these numbers are crap simply because it did not break any sale records? Which was also kind of expected? I mean, I can agree with you once a month has passed and the sales are not nearly on par with the other expansions when comparing the sales over a month, but now? Not really.

My major point has been throughout this entire thread, that Mists got 2.7 in a week. The rest of the expansions got that or almost that, in a day.

I just fail to see how people can think that the sales are somehow just as, good? I guess? Because it directly implies that it's first 24hr sales were an entirely different number, which we can only guess at, and they've been construed (obviously on purpose) as being great.

I'm still more concerned with subscribers, but I just can't take anyone seriously who thinks that these sales were great. I just can't.

[Matchu]

Dude, It's a net loss still? I don't get why suddenly it's not. When did we break even, and why didn't anyone tell me?

So Cataclysm was a "net gain" over launch? Well I guess you could say that. Each individual word is fine, but the overall idea seems off. There's a large number of events and reasons between launch and Cataclysm that led to it peaking so high. You can ignore how it did so well if you just want a "her der big number over TBC" kind of 'debate' I guess. It just doesn't seem a great approach to analysis.

[Duridi]

The reason it's such a minimal gain, is that it's set against the backdrop of almost three million subscribers lost.

I can guarantee you it would be hailed as quite the opposite if we were still sitting pretty, and hadn't lost all of those folks.

Oh, that I can agree on. That's basicly the example I am using regarding the quartery reports. How 800k is a large number if it's a loss, but 900k being a low number if we are talking about gains.

Change the backstory and the numbers get a new meaning to people.

In fact, I find the 900k to be a healthy gain because of the backstory. I was expecting a gain, but at a lower rate due to the heavy decline and "open hate" for Cataclysm within the community. Now I am curious as to what happens next.

[Gray_Matter]

These figures are not good. If I used VGChartz sales ratios to guestimate the sales after a week of Cata we would have approximately 4.04 million sales. An using a similar system would put the first day sales of MoP at around 2.2 million. My guestimate is that MoP will sell about 3.1 million copies in the first month of sales.

My guess is that they used the 1 week figures because there is no direct comparison for any previous expansion and they were probably also waiting for the number of subscribers to top 10 million. While they say the figures are pre China launch, it's likely that a lot of people in China bought new game time in preparation of the MoP release so this number would factor a lot of the China "subs" as well.

From the sounds of it, MoP is quite a good release but my gut tells me that the fallout from Cata, the gap with no new content before mists and their subscription model is really hurting them. MoP sales over the next couple of months will give us a good idea of the number of people paying the monthly subs as opposed to paying for time. There will obviously be a number of people who sub and don't upgrade to mists but those could be easy to factor in.

Those of you shouting from the roof tops about how MoP out sold some new games. A game with 4.5 million odd subscribers that are paying a monthly $15 to play the game should be able to sell more than 2+ million expansions to those clients.

[Conscious]

He's like Gollum in the way he evidently hates WoW but can't seem to stay away from it.

I'm actually playing it. Right now. Go figure.

What word? How is this a refute to what I wrote? You're flip flopping on your arguments here. Again you're going back to if it didn't sell more then it sold like crap. 2.7 million is not selling like crap. Again it sold more in a week than GW2 sold in a month. It sold more in a week than most other MMOs have ever sold. You can say it didn't sell as much as you expected. You can say that it didn't sell as much as it should have but to say that 2.7 million copies is selling like shit just makes you look like a moron.

Because that actual first day sales were not 2.7 million. They were less than that, albeit we don't know what they were.

It took a week to reach 2.7 Million.

Again, literally every other WoW expansion had this, or near it, in 24hrs. Deliberately, misconstrued, sales numbers.

[Deleted]

Does this mean that the number of US and EU wow players is only about 2.7Million? And the rest are Chinese?

Yes, it's around 3 millions.

[Drithien]

Could someone here please explain to me the logic behind caring whether 5, 7, 10 or 12 million people play the game when it's still #1 in it's own little sub genre globally by a margin of, like, ridiculousness, where a single realm can hold one hundredth of the total amount of subscribers, where battlegrounds and instances pop up with a 1-5 minute queue and where you can now play with people from other realms and your realID friend list as well?

I really, really can't understand how having 9 or 10 or 12 million subscribers makes any difference to anyone's life in any imaginable way.

Anyone?

Ideally it would not matter to players, other than as 'chatting by the fire' kind if material. However, it does matter to investors behind the company. Unfortunately World of WarCraft's immense commercial success brought it out of the shadows of 'Just another company that is part of our group of assets that make a nice profit and function as possible points of expanding to new territories' to 'Wow! This company makes serious money!'. The merge with Activision brought them to an even more official position. Now, players' chatter may be at most annoying to deal with, but investors' chatter is not. It is a very serious matter. They are the ones that hold absolute authority over what happens to Blizzard. And they have a tendency to fall, despite all their smarts, for the idea of continuous, expotential growth. Which I will agree with Sydänyö on, is a moronic concept, guided by greed more than anything else, but that is the way things are. So when things start going slower than usual, investors start getting greedier than usual. And they start interfering with the company's products more than usual. And they are not game-designers, they don't know how to make good games, they only see numbers. That is how, for example, most Hollywood movies end up feeling so bland and soulless. They have executives all over them to protect the studios' investments. So they try to work the numbers, to bring in as many people as possible, theoretically, and manage to create an uninspiring product. The same can happen to World of WarCraft. As long as things go well, the designers are left to their creative freedom. When things start looking bad, not real bad but bad from an investor's point of view, then the creative freedom is limited, the number-crunching comes out, and, well, you end up with a Facebook-style game pretty much. A game engineered to attempt to grasp almost all potential customers, while failing to truely satisfy any of them.

So, it's good for World of WarCraft not to fall behind on the expectations of its investors so that players can enjoy the well-natured madness that will be the outcome of the designers' freedom to do as they please.

[xanzul]

Yep it also shows how sub numbers from blizz is just PR, most of them come from Korea and China.

Paying accounts are paying accounts regardless of who they are, where they live, how much they pay, why they pay or how many accounts they have.

[Conscious]

Oh, that I can agree on. That's basicly the example I am using regarding the quartery reports. How 800k is a large number if it's a loss, but 900k being a low number if we are talking about gains.

Change the backstory and the numbers get a new meaning to people.

In fact, I find the 900k to be a healthy gain because of the backstory. I was expecting a gain, but at a lower rate due to the heavy decline and "open hate" for Cataclysm within the community. Now I am curious as to what happens next.

Yep.

I am equally as curious if not somewhat afraid, as the annual pass has yet to let out. And lord knows everyone had mixed feelings on that.

[Orange Joe]

My major point has been throughout this entire thread, that Mists got 2.7 in a week. The rest of the expansions got that or almost that, in a day.

I just fail to see how people can think that the sales are somehow just as, good? I guess? Because it directly implies that it's first 24hr sales were an entirely different number, which we can only guess at, and they've been construed (obviously on purpose) as being great.

I'm still more concerned with subscribers, but I just can't take anyone seriously who thinks that these sales were great. I just can't.

Where is anyone saying they are "just as good".


I'm not. I'm saying they are still good but lower than other expansion.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I see a pattern here... The worst the expansion is, the higher sells it has and vice versa...

Expectations.

Cata was hyped as the next-gen MMO, it was going to revamp the old world, create the best endgame yet, and merge casual and hardcore.

it was an epic flop. And the freefall began.

So in a way the lower expectations and lower sales helped BC, Wrath, and MoP. They have less hype to live up to, and thereby will pleasantly surprise more people.

The haters (and media, but I repeat myself) know this, and that's why they've come out militantly against MoP.

[Scummer]

I'm actually playing it. Right now. Go figure.

Doesn't change the analogy. Next you'll be biting the fingers off midgets .

[Conscious]

Where is anyone saying they are "just as good".


I'm not. I'm saying they are still good but lower than other expansion.

Like most of this thread has been people saying these sales numbers are good.

I don't know if they've an aversion to reality, or if they don't realize it was over the course of a week or what.

Your guess is just as good as mine.

Doesn't change the analogy. Next you'll be biting the fingers off midgets.

I do hate Dwarves and Gnomes.

[xanzul]

Wow at the people who did not know that Cata sold 3.3 in the FIRST DAY thinking that 2.7 mil in the first most frontloaded week is "good" for WoW, it is a significant step down

Let me see if I get this straight,,,Cata sold 3.3 million copies the first day with a subscriber base of 12 million and Mop sold 2.7 million (500k less than Cata) with 9 million subscriptions (3 million less than when Cata released) and not only that added another 1 million players and that is a failure? Really? Seriously? Are you stupid?

Keep it civil

[Darsithis]

Because that actual first day sales were not 2.7 million. They were less than that, albeit we don't know what they were.

It took a week to reach 2.7 Million.

Again, literally every other WoW expansion had this, or near it, in 24hrs. Deliberately, misconstrued, sales numbers.

Being slower out of the gate doesn't mean it is less popular in the long run. Way too early to tell.

[Duridi]

I'm still more concerned with subscribers, but I just can't take anyone seriously who thinks that these sales were great. I just can't.

Well... In a way more active subscribers bought this expansion early on than previous expansions have had.

We had about 3 million more players at Cataclysm launch. 3,3 million of those bought the expansion the first day.

This time around, we had about 3 million less active subscribers at launch, yet the expansion sales the first week was only 600k less than when we had 3 million more players.

[KCguy]

Good for Blizzard. Mists of Pandaria is a fantastic expansion so far and everyone who worked on it should be proud of what they put together. Of course you're going to get people being negative such as, "oh many of the subs will drop in 6 months" etc. That's people for you though. Trying to find something to be negative about no matter what. It may happen, it may not, but we don't know what's going to happen in half a year. Blizzard has been saying they want to try and get content out faster. Maybe there will be a big patch? Only time will tell. But as of the here and now, 2.7 million sold is impressive for an 8 year old game.

[xanzul]

Even less than Cata and with even easier access to the game.

Also with that sentence watch Blizzard spin the China numbers, despite no one from the US nor EU plays with them to count as a player population. It's like comparing the population of GW2, they don't play with WoW players...and neither do the Chinese.

The only people who spin Asian numbers are those who have no interest in discussion or the long term health of the game and just want to mindlessly bash it no matter how fucking idiotic it makes them look. Such as you for example. Looking forward to your usual imminent ban for posting nonsense.

[Conscious]

Let me see if I get this straight,,,Cata sold 3.3 million copies the first day with a subscriber base of 12 million and Mop sold 2.7 million (500k less than Cata) with 9 million subscriptions (3 million less than when Cata released) and not only that added another 1 million players and that is a failure? Really? Seriously? Are you stupid?

Relax with the name calling.

Mists sold 2.7 over the course of a week, the actual 24hr sales numbers are anyone's guess.

Cataclysm was responsible for adding how many subscriptions at launch again? Probably more than 900k.