Opinion. Warlords will stem the sub loss, but it wont gain subs either.

[Chickat]

What I mean by this, is that subs will go up at the start, and fall over the expansion, but it wont fall below the low point in MoP subs.

Lets say, MoPs low point is 6m subs. Warlords will increase subs to 8m at the start, and by the very end of WoD we will still have 6m or greater subs, leading into 7.0 with near 8m subs again. Technically wow will lose subs during WoD but it wont fall below MoPs low point so it should be considered a massive success. Opinions?

If we looked at MoP like this, MoP would have neber dropped below 9m subs.

A game as old as wow shouldnt expect to gain subs anymore, but I believe WoD will get wow back on its feet. It wont make it a spring chicken again, but WoW will be healthy, and wont be sick anymore.

[Teye]

There's half a dozen threads about this topic, and this could have served as a normal post in any one of those. Pointless thread.

[Chickat]

There's half a dozen threads about this topic, and this could have served as a normal post in any one of those. Pointless thread.

There is not a single thread about sub stability in WoD on the first page.

[RoKPaNda]

Well there's a huge surprise, a game past it's peak isn't going to gain subs? Huge huge surprise.

[Deleted]

I was fearing the game would die, now I know it won't.

[bluspacecow]

Mmmmm Submarine sammichs :P

Infracted

[PrairieChicken]

I expect sub loss (not as rapid as last two expansions) because current sub level is a bloat and wow will lost subs regardless of whatever expansion they pull out. It will stabilize at some point

[KCguy]

Nothing lasts forever. It's a 10 year old game that has undergone extensive changes throughout the years. Partially to make the game feel different and refreshing, others because it was needed. Either way I believe it will sell well and gain subs. Not much, but I think it will.

[zephid]

A game as old as wow shouldnt expect to gain subs anymore, but I believe WoD will get wow back on its feet. It wont make it a spring chicken again, but WoW will be healthy, and wont be sick anymore.

The more important point is that WoW doesn't need to gain more subs. ~7 million subs are more than enough.

[Fullmetal89]

I disagree I think the subs will drop even more than MoP. The reason being that the game is old and will continue to bleed subs every expansion. MoP did a good job of slowing the amount of people unsubing but I don't think this will get better with WoD. I really doubt that Blizzard will attract old players with this expansion, most people that left WoW and haven't come back in years will most likely never come back at this point. MMO's are too time consuming and tend to reward players very little. I think this is why MOBA games are doing so well right now.

[Deleted]

I think mop lost alot of people due to... it doesnt really feel WoW like ... pandas and stuff... and that after the cataclysm expansion wich just .. was horrible... explains that alot of people just said no..

But i notice alot of my friends are actually coming back to look at WoD since they heared about it and wanna look if its really more like ... what there used to... Wow.

So i dont think we are going down i think it might even go up ... not a few milliong mayb 1 million but it wont plummit....

[Madruga]

What I think will happen...

The stabilization point for MoP is around 7.5 million subs. That is the number of subs we had for over an year now. This number will surely fall, due to the expansion lul, to, let's say, around 6.5 million.

Come WoD, we will see a huge gain of subs, like happens every expansion. This number will be higher than the stabilization point of MoP, going as far up as 8.5 million. It will certainly not pass the peak of MoP.

Then subs will stabilize at a point below MoP, around 6.5 million. Falling to a lower number at WoD's expansion lul.

Rinse and repeat. This is going to the the trend for every single expansion that comes. Rises at expansion launch, slowly declining over its course.

[Destinas]

In my experience, people left the game because of real life. My guild was one of the most active (and highest rated raiders) in Cata on my realm. Slowly over the expansion, people started focusing on real life - marriage, children, jobs, moving, college, finances, etc. I haven't met too many people who left the game because they started to hate it - but I do know people like that exist. More often than not, I've known people who play pretty much the whole expansion, then unsub until the new expansion is about to be out. Few friends have done that recently.

I suspect subs will be higher in the beginning, then bleed out slowly over the course of the expansion. That's mostly how it goes for any expansion. I'm sure people who liked BC will come back for most of the expansion.

[Chickat]

The more important point is that WoW doesn't need to gain more subs. ~7 million subs are more than enough.

I never said it did. I just think Warlords will be the stabilization point.

- - - Updated - - -

In my experience, people left the game because of real life. My guild was one of the most active (and highest rated raiders) in Cata on my realm. Slowly over the expansion, people started focusing on real life - marriage, children, jobs, moving, college, finances, etc. I haven't met too many people who left the game because they started to hate it - but I do know people like that exist. More often than not, I've known people who play pretty much the whole expansion, then unsub until the new expansion is about to be out. Few friends have done that recently.

I suspect subs will be higher in the beginning, then bleed out slowly over the course of the expansion. That's mostly how it goes for any expansion. I'm sure people who liked BC will come back for most of the expansion.

Thats exactly what I think will happen, except I think Warlords will hold subs better than MoP did, and as a result will not lose any subs below Mops low point. If MoP ends with 6m, I dont think WoD will go down any further than 6m.

[Aleksej89]

Good thing you wrote "opinion" in the title... otherwise i would have thought that your post was a guaranteed fact xD

As long as you have friends to have fun with, it does not matter how big wow's population is.

[MasterHamster]

Will we ever realize how ridiculous it is to point at the game from seven years ago and say "Look, subs went up back then. Current game must be doing something wrong!"
The overabundance of new fresh casuals is the only reason the "glory day design for the 1%" could get away with it. Hidden behind Warcraft hype.

WoD won't gain (stable) subs. It will slow down the loss for a while since an expansion might bring back some people, and maybe some new thanks to the boost.
But the game cannot possibly start gaining new players faster than players are losing interest.

No king rules forever

[Blithe]

I think mop lost alot of people due to... it doesnt really feel WoW like ... pandas and stuff... and that after the cataclysm expansion wich just .. was horrible... explains that alot of people just said no..

But i notice alot of my friends are actually coming back to look at WoD since they heared about it and wanna look if its really more like ... what there used to... Wow.

So i dont think we are going down i think it might even go up ... not a few milliong mayb 1 million but it wont plummit....

This. I think Warlords will reach at least as high as Wrath did around 11 million.

[Fullmetal89]

This. I think Warlords will reach at least as high as Wrath did around 11 million.

Sorry but no way in hell. WoW is old, there's nothing new enough to attract a huge influx of players back to that game. This game will never reach 11 million again, no where near that. Even with 7 mil that it holds now it still does better than most other MMO's. It's not like WoW is losing the crown to another game, it's just losing to time. This game will continue to deteriorate no matter how 'savage' the next expansion is. Even with all the whining about Panda's being 'childish' MoP did a great job of stabilizing the huge sub loss created by Cataclysm.

[Deleted]

Well I can tell you it may well gain my sub, I'm seeing good things from Draenor that is catching the attention of me and my wallet.

[Blithe]

Sorry but no way in hell. WoW is old, there's nothing new enough to attract a huge influx of players back to that game. This game will never reach 11 million again, no where near that. Even with 7 mil that it holds now it still does better than most other MMO's. It's not like WoW is losing the crown to another game, it's just losing to time. This game will continue to deteriorate no matter how 'savage' the next expansion is. Even with all the whining about Panda's being 'childish' MoP did a great job of stabilizing the huge sub loss created by Cataclysm.

Cataclysm was horrible, and look at its subscription base. The amount of people that disliked Mists because it didn't feel like Warcraft at all was a large enough bunch to cause such a shortfall. Mists had its perks yes, but it's definitely the reason why the subscription-base is so low, and it will definitely rise after it's over. Maybe not to 11 million specifically, but it will be much higher than Mists had from start to finish.