WoW Down to 9.6 Million Subscribers

[Razorice]

GOOD! Wotlk and Cata badies are leaving!

I wonder when will the Vanilla, BC and MoP "baddies" leave...

[Jtbrig7390]

These threads are always interesting to read. Ive played WoW since '05 and have tried every major release and popular f2p mmo in that time. I want desperately to play something new. The fact is however it sucks to go backwards in mmo development. You immediately miss features that WoW has implemented over the years and that is IMHO the key things that brings me back. I don't want to sit in town and spam general chat in game X while the devs think about creating a LFD type system. I think that if a mmo could nail down these systems and have compelling gameplay, story, art etc then WoW would have competition. Truthfully however the only companies I see with the potential development caliber IS Blizzard, but I have high hopes for ES as well.

I have only seen a little of it but if you was interested in another MMO.

Neverwinter is releasing as a 100% free to download and play and will also have a looking for group system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0E6Yw-M1YY "TotalBiscuit playing a dungeon with a couple of the dervs from the NW team" looks really fun they even use the LFG system to inter the dungeon.

Will also have player made content like quest chains and all.

[Haruss]

Hilarious responses in the thread. As someone who never played WOW, I gotta ask:

- to fans obsessed about WOW maintaining seventeen billion subscriptions: Why? We're talking about a game that will average 10 million subs for a DECADE. Nothing ever came close and may never will. Why do you care if the game drops from 13 million to anything less? At this rate, there's 0 chance the game will ever actually die completely within your lifetime (as in down to 0 players and all serves turned off), it is just too legendary. Stop worrying about numbers, just enjoy it, you know, have fun?

- to people hating on WOW and celebrating "the failure": copy/paste - We're talking about a game that will avarage 10 million subs for a DECADE. Even if it drops to 0 subscribers on January 1 2015, it will still be legendary title and most likely a one time MMO-phenomen on such scale. Nothing you say at this point will ever make general audience think the game's a failure. Just accept it, enjoy either it (if you're a closet hater) or other games you like, you know, have fun?

[Williee]

Even if they lose a ton of subscribers, they are still the top subscribing MMO whether you are a hater or liker of blizzard games. You also have to consider that the game is bound to lose a huge amount of subscribers due to the annual pass ending for users. So I assume another drop in subscribers within the next quarter as more subscribers annual pass ends.

[quikbunny]

The 500k are the whining bitches that didn't like to work for their epics, so nobody important left basically

[Jtbrig7390]

The 500k are the whining bitches that didn't like to work for their epics, so nobody important left basically

Can you prove this cause if you got links and all to back up your claim ill be happy to read them.

But until then comments like that are pointless/useless and really show how low the WOW Community has gotten.

[Twotonsteak]

500k is more then most other P2P mmo's have in active players. Give me a break.

It's not a sign that WoW is dying. However the normal excuses, such as lack of content, can't really be used either. In fact their is plenty of content. It's really just an issue of people being bored which, really, is sad considering the rate the content is being released.

Is WoW going to die any time soon? No. Does it make you reconsider the direction? Yes.

[bbr]

From 10 -> 9.5 is simply a 5% decrease.
That's still not that shocking.

There's a difference between decline and "dying".

[lyxx]

Yet these new and better games are in a much worst state than wow and are struggling to even hold a subscription based model forcing them to go F2P.

There's nothing on the market even close to taking the number 1 spot after seeing 2 of the biggest MMO's to be released in recent times (GW2 and Star Wars TOR) make little to no impact in the genre I cant see anything in the foreseeable future making a difference to MMO's in general.

WoW will be the best and dominant MMO until Blizzard release 'project Titan' that game already has millions of subscribers before anything is even announced because it's got the Blizzard tag.

Really after D3 ? Sorry i dont have that much fate in Blizzard quality tag after that "success" - for me they lost their "mojo". Do you really think next Blizzard game - lets pretend Titan will be MMO - will be still subscription based game ? I dont think there is any chance in current market for it to happen - it's not early 2000 - there is reason why all new MMO are B2P or F2P or convert to one of those model some time after release.

[Ghul]

i myself stopped playing wow because i just dont like mmo's in general. having said that, wow still managed to get me hooked for almost 8 years(played since release) and this is a feat that no other mmo can deliver. i tried other mmo's, i seriously did - but none of em have lasted me for more than 2 months.

wow - the best MMO up to this date, and continuing until infinity.

a little rant to the haterbase: to those "what if" -sayers , dont you guys know that "what if" works both ways? geez ~~ "what if wow never drops lower than 9 million subs?" - there! i said it, you read it. now gtf out and come back when wow has actually fallen to 3million! right now its you vs 9.6 million people out there, whos gonna win, huh?

[orangelemonrain]

Really after D3 ? Sorry i dont have that much fate in Blizzard quality tag after that "success" - for me they lost their "mojo". Do you really think next Blizzard game - lets pretend Titan will be MMO - will be still subscription based game ? I dont think there is any chance in current market for it to happen - it's not early 2000 - there is reason why all new MMO are B2P or F2P or convert to one of those model some time after release.

Cant say I agree with you there, while I do feel diablo 3 was lacking I've been playing WoW since early BC and I'm really enjoying MoP and it is a major improvement from cataclysm. Just because they didn't do so well with one game shouldnt really mean the company is hopeless. If anything it will mean that the company will learn from its mistakes and will improve upon what they heave leant.

[Maniac2]

I know why I left WoW 2 months ago - its the LFR, it killed game for me, I have seen all the content in just a few hours. Why do normal raid if I already seen it? I was never interested in better loot, purple pixels never impressed me, let alone heroic raids.
My guild , once huge one with LOT of signups for raids, now they cant put up even one 10man team. Ppl just got bored of it...

[Celista]

Hilarious responses in the thread. As someone who never played WOW, I gotta ask:

- to fans obsessed about WOW maintaining seventeen billion subscriptions: Why? We're talking about a game that will average 10 million subs for a DECADE. Nothing ever came close and may never will. Why do you care if the game drops from 13 million to anything less? At this rate, there's 0 chance the game will ever actually die completely within your lifetime (as in down to 0 players and all serves turned off), it is just too legendary. Stop worrying about numbers, just enjoy it, you know, have fun?

- to people hating on WOW and celebrating "the failure": copy/paste - We're talking about a game that will avarage 10 million subs for a DECADE. Even if it drops to 0 subscribers on January 1 2015, it will still be legendary title and most likely a one time MMO-phenomen on such scale. Nothing you say at this point will ever make general audience think the game's a failure. Just accept it, enjoy either it (if you're a closet hater) or other games you like, you know, have fun?

You haven't played the game so you don't understand the frustration that comes along with major game changes, imbalances, etc. People fall in love with this game, play this game too much for their own good, then ragequit and end up hating the game because, while Blizzard has done a lot of things right, they also end up doing lots of things "wrong", and it has a drastic effect on gameplay. Haters' glee about sub numbers dropping stems from these experiences.

People obsessed with the numbers: mostly because they view the game as an investment of time, money and energy and want to make sure the game is going to keep growing and thriving for some time if they are going to keep investing time, money and energy into the game. Massive sub losses will affect gameplay, expansion + new feature output dramatically but massive sub losses are unlikely to happen anytime soon.

There are actually people in the middle of these two extremes but there just don't happen to be very many in this thread, probably because threads like this pop up every quarter and it gets old after awhile...

I know your questions were hypothetical-ish, but >.< .

[Perplexxe]

´´just´´ 9.6 million....
oh noo R.I.P WoW xD

[TheSweetness]

I dont think theres anything blizz can do at this point if subs drop after 5.2. Mop is amazing, and if subs drop during it ,then i fear its not the xpac, but rather wows age killing it. I still think it will be around for another 10 years though.

---------- Post added 2013-02-09 at 04:15 AM ----------



MoP has more content at launch then nearly all of cata not counting the 1-60 revamp. I think the speed of content is fine.

I have to agree here. MoP is actually a really good expansion. I can't really blame any one thing that caused me to cancel my sub back in November. It was a combination of things, not all of them Blizzard's fault, and mostly due to it being a game I had played for 7 going on 8 years (though I will say CRZ issues were the nail in the coffin, for me). There is not much they could add now that would hold my attention for long enough that would justify a subscription. And to me that's not really a problem that can be fixed other than with a new game, or a new iteration. WoW is no where near dead. It's dead for me, as I just lost interest in it. It will probably continue to steadily lose subs, the older it gets, and at no fault of the expansion. Just age. Then plateau off at some point. But I imagine they will have enough subs to sustain the game, for however long they want to keep it up and running.

[nekobaka]

The 500k are the whining bitches that didn't like to work for their epics, so nobody important left basically

Personally I would not call doing dailies for raid level epics being called working for your epics, more like face rolling for your epics and not having to interact with other players. Also given that the majority are supposed to come from China the thought of having to work for your epics does not really line up.

[Mear]

If they lost less people this time after a start of a expansion does that not mean a sign of a recovery? loosing fewer is still a +, another thing tho if they can keep up with the "healing" or if they will start to bleed more subs, nevertheless it still gonna take ages before they bleed out.

[Celista]

Personally I would not call doing dailies for raid level epics being called working for your epics, more like face rolling for your epics and not having to interact with other players. Also given that the majority are supposed to come from China the thought of having to work for your epics does not really line up.

In all fairness running heroics over and over again isn't exactly hard work either...

I still don't understand why Blizzard made dailies the only avenue for rep (and therefore vp spending) --it's an MMO for crying out loud, a game centered around group activity. If one activity should be "mandatory" in order to earn rep for valor items, it should be something involving group activity (scenario, dungeon or raid). You can group up for dailies I suppose, but not all dailies are more efficient when grouped up (gathering quests for example), nor do wow quests tend to encourage group play anymore.

[Polly Cronopolis]

Frankly, it doesn't matter if there are 9.6 million people still playing or only one person. The loss of numbers is irrelevant because the game sucks regardless and it's way passed it's prime. Doing the same thing for 8 years straight makes Jack a dull boy. Doesn't matter how you dress it up, a raid is a raid is a raid, a dungeon is a dungeon is a dungeon, etc. I certainly hope that anyone defending WoW is a new player otherwise I pity you for being such a boring person.

[Suikoden]

As someone who never played WOW, I gotta ask:

Well you're certainly a rarity on these forums. o_O