"I was a normal baby for 30 seconds, then ninjas stole my mamma" - Deadpool
"so what do we do?" "well jack, you stand there and say 'gee rocket raccoon I'm so glad you brought that Unfeasibly large cannon with you..' and i go like this BRAKKA BRAKKA BRAKKA" - Rocket Raccoon
FC: 3437-3046-3552
9.6M as of December 31, 2012. This could be down more, or up.. who knows.
Now take away the gold farmers, hackers and bots and what would the number be?
Even after all of this. This game isn't close to dead.
Last edited by McCronCronz; 2013-02-07 at 09:34 PM.
and how many were accounts in the recently banned wintrading
Let's keep in mind that WoW is over 8 years old by now, so yeah, it's hardly a surprise that its (subscriber)-peak is behind us now, keep in mind though that few games keep going for 8 years with this relative number still playing, WoW has about 75% of the playerbase at its peak now (IIRC there were 12 mil players somewhere in Wrath, not sure though), with all the MMO's that are either dead or footnotes in gaming history after a year or two, 9.6 million people after 8 years is quite an achievement still...
This was to be expected. World of Warcraft will be well above the rest for years to come, but it's past its glory days.
I think what most of the "500k? So What?" crowd is implying is this. In the grand scheme of things the loss of 500,000 subscribers will in no meaningful way impact the current game. Servers will not be merging. Subscription fees will not be decreasing (or increasing). Expansions and content will not be churned out at a greater pace, nor will micro-transactions burst into being at a greater pace than they already have been.
Subscription-based services are rarely as stable as one might dream. But we're talking of a drop from 10,000,000+ to 9,600,000. That's not even 1/10th of the subscription base. That's not even 1% of the subscription base. It's not even outside the realm of acceptable subscription losses given past quarterly earning reports and the general ebb and flow of World of Warcraft subscriptions.
Every time an expansion launches subscriptions soar. Then subscriptions dwindle down until a major content patch. Then they go back up again. Then as we wait on the next patch they taper down. So forth, so on. One day WoW will fade away into nothingness, but a 500,000 subscription loss isn't going to hasten it into an early grave.
"I was a normal baby for 30 seconds, then ninjas stole my mamma" - Deadpool
"so what do we do?" "well jack, you stand there and say 'gee rocket raccoon I'm so glad you brought that Unfeasibly large cannon with you..' and i go like this BRAKKA BRAKKA BRAKKA" - Rocket Raccoon
FC: 3437-3046-3552
The rest of the Annual Pass subs should expire by June. Expect more subs to drop off.
I hope you realize, that if that 500k is from U.S or Europe, that is a huge deal. I assume 4-7 mill players alone are from outside those 2 continents.
I expect more subscriber decrease in the coming months. 500k was just the beginning. I don't get why people still playing this old game. No matter what blizzard puts in, an old game, will always remain an old game.
Those who left are probably people that havent played prior to WotLK, because they cant handle the grind and effort which the game requires again.
Its nothing to be upset about, wotlk and cata kids...