2.7 Million copies of MoP sold, WoW passes 10M Subscribers

[RoKPaNda]

Okay let me try this again since people don't seem to get it. Not that it makes any difference because posts with actual information seem to be overlooked.

Look at the numbers from previous expansions. Look at the first day numbers, and then look at the first month numbers. See how the difference isn't all that huge? Most people who buy the game in the first month buy it on release day. That's what you can get from that. WoW now has fewer subscribers than it did at it's peak. MOP can be the best game in the universe and it's not going to, on release anyway, make ALL of the people who left come back or bring in enough new people (Because lets face it, WoW as a game is hard to get into even with the first two expansions bundled with Vanilla) to close the gap between the end of Cata subscriber number and the peak number. Thinking otherwise is illogical and it's just dreaming. Thinking that MoP selling fewer copies than previous expansions means that the game is boned? That's also just dreaming. Comparatively the numbers are impressive. WoW has aged well, that can't really be disputed, not even by me on my most bitter of days.

If WoW was a dying game it speaks volumes about the rest of the genre because it just blew away it's most powerful competition. MoP is a success, there is no other way to look at it unless you judge "Success" to be regardless of subscribers it must sell at least as well as WLK. In reality though it doesn't have to break records to be a success, I'm sure Blizzard is happy. I know corporate is happy. I'm very cynical, and MOP managed to get better first week sales than I thought it would. It has impressed me.

Now we need to see the numbers for the first month, which we can be pretty sure will be a bit lower than previous expansions, though most of us were sure of that before the expansion even released. Then we'll need to see the quarterly report and then the next quarterly report after that to see if Blizzard has the subscriber leak patched or not. Speculation on this subject at this point is really counter productive - Just look what happened with SWTOR. BioWare/EA posted very strong release numbers, didn't say anything about a major population drop off (Although all of us playing noticed it whether we wanted to admit it or not.) and then when they did release those numbers woops there went the vast majority of their subscribers despite speculation that the game was extremely strong.

[Deleted]

Look at the numbers from previous expansions. Look at the first day numbers, and then look at the first month numbers. See how the difference isn't all that huge? Most people who buy the game in the first month buy it on release day.

Except people this time, after Cata, are waiting to see if MoP is good or not. It's pretty much all over the forums that talking about WoW.

The thing is that MoP is getting good word from those that are already playing it.

[Deleted]

Oh god its far worse than I expected. How on earth can blizzard survive off $60,000,000 a month. You have convinced me Anthony of the UK, WoW is officially dead.

He merely pointed out that you dont know what your talking about.

[NotFunny008]

I probably don't understand, so this might be a stupid question, but how can they have 2,7 million copies sold when they have 10 million subscribers? 7,3 million subscribers don't have MoP yet?

Because people can still play panda without the expansion. They just cannot play the monk class that is all.

[Deleted]

Cata was 3.3 milion in a day...

Let's ignore the fact that WoW at that time had like 3 million subscribers more than it had before MoP went live.

9m/12m subs = 75/100

2.7m/3.3m copies sold = ~82/100

Other way: 2.7/9 = 30% whereas 3.3/12 = 27.5%. But I guess that wasn't really necessary.

So a gain in my book.

[Tazila]

So... 2.7 sold since release..

How many were sold day one?

[resto4life]

Another thing people seem to be ignoring is what 1st day sales mean....high first day sales show how much the game was anticipated, how much interest it built to the point that people would counting down the days to spend their money on that....and we all know MOP didnt raise enough interest or expectations....so just do the math...how many sales could u have on first day if your game has been nothing bashed and ridiculized in the months prior release? not so many...duh! How good should a game be to improve those numbers within a week to the point of outselling some of his biggest competitors in that timeframe?

Seriously, its just like a movie...premiere wont define how good the movie is, just how anticipated it was...

[Gaman]

I see alot of stockmarket geniouses here, you must make millions at wall street? Am i right?

[valcrist]

I see this as a huge success considering the competition out there I am impressed it sold that many I was for sure thinking with BL2 and gW2 was going to hurt numbers but damn 2.7 million sold and gained some user base back I totally see this as blizzard did it right and pulled off a true expansion worth checking out.. It's the best xpac blizz has done IMO its what wow needed esp after cata and if they continue this path they started I see it only getting better all around. I love mop and a lot of my friends came back and enjoy it too.

[Konig]

He merely pointed out that you dont know what your talking about.

I knew exactly what I was talking about. I was merely trying to point out the demise of WoW through strictly factual information.

[Vook]

Pfft, so much for "Ohh, MoP sales bad!" threads. :P

[Jalek]

Can't get out of my Annual Pass for another few days, not going to get MOP. Enjoying SWTOR a lot more and the new Operation is loads better than anything WoW has done recently.

[Suikoden]

Not too entirely unexpected. Eat it MoP sales whiners.

[Deleted]

The fucking Annual Pass is what let a lot of people use to be still a "subscriber", but when it expires, and that are ppl, who didn`t bought MoP, because of the "Pandas and Chinese Stuff", Blizz is losing another XXXXXXXX players.

[Buck-Shot]

Another thing people seem to be ignoring is what 1st day sales mean....high first day sales show how much the game was anticipated, how much interest it built to the point that people would counting down the days to spend their money on that....and we all know MOP didnt raise enough interest or expectations....so just do the math...how many sales could u have on first day if your game has been nothing bashed and ridiculized in the months prior release? not so many...duh! How good should a game be to improve those numbers within a week to the point of outselling some of his biggest competitors in that timeframe?

Seriously, its just like a movie...premiere wont define how good the movie is, just how anticipated it was...

Well well said, good break down.. I and others knew Mists was going to sold more in 24hr than past expansion just by the ridicule it got. This xpac will get praise and as such most who were holding out will feel more tempted to buy..

[runeb1980@hotmail.com]

So Blizzard is bragging about 10 million "subscriptions" and 2.7M sold total in one week.

But Cataclysm sold 3.3M in one day, 4.7M in one month and just under 5M total.

This tells us three things:

1. Most of the "subscribers" (e.g. 10 million) are not subscribers - they are chinese F2P. Between 6-7 million - exactly as previously estimated.
2. Most people actually subscribing buy the game in the first month.
3. Even with a large influx of returning players, this is the poorest selling WoW expack yet.

This in no way disproves what "naysayers" have been saying. It confirms it. This is nothing to be happy about. The only positive note is that the game is still performing as well as it is, given the lack of content updates, and this catastrophic expack. They should have saved the name Cataclysm for MOP...

[pvrwizard]

How are people praising this? Can anyone justify not being worried that not even a third of the Subscribers have bought the MoP? That's really bad news, not good news.

if you look at the numbers its a third of the subscribers for each expansion so far....

[k1037]

2.7m first-week sales means MoP likely sold fewer copies the first day than TBC, and is on track for the fewest first month sales of any expansion to date.

WoW obviously isn't "dead" and won't be for a very long time, but there is no way to spin this as anything but rapid decline.

[Seolla]

Wait til the first Annual Pass wave is over (which I believe is coming up in a month or so), the sub will drop back below 10mil again. A lot of people right now are "forced" to subscribe even tho they are no longer playing WoW

[Zdrasti]

Well looks like the speculation from the retail sales numbers turned out to be quite accurate.