World of Warcraft drops to 7.6M

[Gimlix]

This "50%" loss started in Cata not MOP. And actually from 12 to 7.6 million is 36%, not 50.

It actually was 10M to 7.6M

[BenBos]

Here's the bottom line. Ppl are applauding the fact they only lose 100k instead 1mil. That's like saying - good job - you only lost the game 5-4 as opposed to losing 12-1. It's definitely progress and better than the doom and gloom faction expected, but seriously - slowing the bleeding and stopping the bleeding are two completely different things. Blizzcon is critical for their future success, popularity and growth. And, I am 85% certain they will fuck it up beyond recognition.

It is good news because the multi million dollars of subsciption money still flows in ... massively.

And the moment Blizzard will introduce subscription combo deals with other upcoming F2P games like HS and Blizzard's Dota, you haters will have to reset your abacus once again.

Not even talking about going free to play: then you may need to acquire a new calculator... and restart from ... 20 million again...

[Deleted]

These are amazing news really, 100k is nothing.

[Arbs]

And here they come.

Don't worry they are just angry folks they will not last long.

[Urti]

Honestly, I've always thought that something between 5-7 million was prolly what should be considered WoW's "standard" population, it's "cruising altitude" if you like. Whenever it goes above that I've always expected it to eventually wind back down down to the "standard", and likewise if it drops below 5 it'll eventually come back up to "normal". I think it'll stay at or above 6 million for a long time yet especially with a new exp coming, and Hearthstone/HotS both generating indirect buzz for WoW.

[Iseeyou]

maybe another annual pass tied to some other product. it was a brilliant scheme the first time around.

I dont know if annual pass worked very well the last time i dont have any numbers

Could be a solution.

I guess they have to make the best pre-xpac patch ever.

And the best xpac at the same time.

[Arbs]

These are amazing news really, 100k is nothing.

Alot of people are saying it a rounding error, so basically WoW almost lost nothing.

[MoanaLisa]

Found my new sig.

Well, seriously. You don't have to like the game or even care about it but actively wasting any part of your life hoping for a video game to tank and writing about it repeatedly is moronic.

[Mawnix]

Well, seriously. You don't have to like the game or even care about it but actively wasting any part of your life hoping for a video game to tank and writing about it repeatedly is moronic.

Indeed. I completely agree with you.

I honestly get concerned for the people on this forum who get a sick pleasure out of seeing subs drop. It's basically like "Okay, congrats. Do you want a cookie and a raise at your job?"

I don't really care about subs; I find it hilarious though when so many people are going on and on about something terrible that's about to happen, and then it doesn't.

[PrairieChicken]

I predicted less than 300000 so I was right

[High Marshal Sigismund]

Just 100k down? Nice!

Blizzard must be doing something right.

[Deleted]

Very naive. There's no "stopping the bleeding" of a 10 year old product.

Really? Like Coca Cola or Bmws or Apple? That's pure folly on your behalf. Age has nothing to do with it.

[metatation]

Will they count me as a sub if I took the free week? Or tried it at for 1 month a few months ago? I don't know how many liked me checked it out and didn't like it and won't be back.

[Deficineiron]

I do think it is worth noting that non-gaap revenue related to wow (and cod elite, if it is still a pay-service) declined sequentially from 194m to 181m, roughly a 6.5% decline. In great part I would attribute this to carryover from loss of western subs in q2 as those subs did, on average, pay for PART of q2 and none of q3.

That said, 181m is getting wow back to late classic-level revenue.

Marketing at blizzard has had some pretty sharp gimmicks the last couple of years (instant-80, annual pass), so I do expect something quite slick and effective to be offered this year also. I honestly think the marketing folks have their act together as well as anyone at blizzard.

[Pancaspe]

The best part is the movie will bring an entire generation of new players to WOW!

The game will go on and on and on...

[Deleted]

Alot of people are saying it a rounding error, so basically WoW almost lost nothing.

Yeah, its doing great, I foresee a huge increase with new exp :>

[BenBos]

I don't think it is fair to place the blame on MOP. This has been a very strong expansion with an increase in story telling and great raiding content. The age of the game is a big factor as to why people move on.

So true. These are the main factors:

1. Subscription based MMORPG's are a dying breed.
2. Free to play MMORPG's killed the growing MMO market.
3. WoW is now a full 9 years old and the game is WAY too complicated to attract noobs in massive numbers.
4. Who wouldn't want another game to play after playing WoW for 5 years or more.

BUT ... all ex players will NEVER forget what WoW offered them for YEARS and so Blizzard puts up other games with WoW heroes.

Success assured in the coming years.

[Pigglix]

"QQ WoW is dying and will lose 500k-1M subs because of those stupids pandas and pokeman QQ, bring back the vanilla/BC shit so i can laugh loud out of the people who try to be Ret pally on raids or anything else besides lvling QQ"

The joy of reading those doomsayers.

[Deleted]

Very naive. There's no "stopping the bleeding" of a 10 year old product.

And you base that on what? World of Warcraft has teams working on the game constantly, there has never been a (money making) beast this big in the games industry, it can't be impossible to get people to stop unsubscribing... well actually I should probably hold that judgement for Blizzcon.

[Sharuko]

Just to give you an idea of how small the number is.

100,000 is 1.3% of 7.7 million