Mop - 2.7 million sold in first week

[Conscious]

And how does this equate to the expansion selling like shit? It doesn't. 2.7 million is still a great number. If you consider 2.7 in a week selling like shit how do you feel about Guild Wars 2 that took a month to hit 2 million, or SWTOR that never even reached 2 million? What's worse than selling like shit?

I don't give a flying fuck about those titles. Sorry.

I compare WoW, to WoW. I don't stack it up against other titles to find justification for it's numbers. Rather I hold it accountable for itself.

[xanzul]

They actuallly are very disappointing. They make MoP the least succesful expansion to date. And thus undeniable proove that the game is, currently at least, stuck in a natural state of decline... maybe they can change that with delivering great new content patches during MoP itself.

You heard it here first folks. Gaining 1 million subscriptions is a decline!

[KCguy]

Sorry guys, as much as i like WoW, i have to say i agree with Conscious on this one.

Don't get me wrong, selling 2,7 million in a week and subs up to 10m is good indeed, but it still shows something and you can deny it as much as you wan't, but people have started to lose interest in the game, either it be because of them playing the game for so long or losing faith in Blizzard. The only thing that these sales show are recovery. Also, because they do not show day 1 sales we can assume the sales weren't near the sales Blizzard expected, instead they give us 1 week sales, which kinda tells us something and to those who said "WoW is dead," no, it's not, but neither is it fully revived and more like people from this forum thought.

WoW is 8 years old. You can't stay at the top forever. The way I look at it, they dropped the ball big time with Cata and it drove a lot of people away. And with Mists seeming very kiddie, it drove even more people off. The sad part is that Mists is an incredible expansion so far, so I hope people do come back. If not, hey Blizzard learned a very tough lesson with Cata.

[Dhrizzle]

@Conscious

Thanks for posting the thingy about denial, it helped me see where you're coming from.

WoW is going to die some day, I think most people have known that from before the game launched which is why MoP selling less than Cata hasn't come as such as a surprise. You however seem to be in denial of this. When I look at MoP sales I think it's awesome that an expansion for such an old game is getting so many sales. For you it is a clear sign of WoW's age and therefore believe something must have gone wrong.

[KrazyK923]

People got fucked the wrong way with Cataclysm, and are being a little reluctant to bend over in fear of another wrong way fucking with Pandaria, so they are taking it a bit slow.

Its kind of a shame, MoP is phenomenal. Even people I know who only used to play for the community are now saying they are playing for more than that.

And with Mists seeming very kiddie, it drove even more people off.

Man, I haven't seen this argument in a while. Talk to anyone actually playing it, I'm not sure where you're getting the "kiddy" from.

[Dasffion]

Great post DisposableHero, lots of good facts in there.

[Aberration]

Funny thing with this, if these figured were for any other game, people would see it as a huge success. But because its wow and wow has its collection of doomsayers, of course it must be a flop.

What this guy said. A success is a success, and this is a success.

[Conscious]

What you can't seem to understand is this: TBC sold 2.4 in one day riding on the success of classic WoW, with no decline before-hand. Wrath sold 2.8 in one day riding on the success of TBC with no decline before-hand. Cata sold 3.3 in one day riding on the success of Wrath with a few 100k in decline before-hand, plus the massive hype over the "harder content" and more TBC-like feel. MoP sold 2.7 in a week following the shitfest that was Cata with massive decline (25% of starting numbers) before-hand, plus the negative "hype" of LOLKungfu Panda and pokeymans and people feeling emasculated because WoW isn't filled with super manly stuff like demons and skeletons and dragons.

People got fucked the wrong way with Cataclysm, and are being a little reluctant to bend over in fear of another wrong way fucking with Pandaria, so they are taking it a bit slow.

Okay then, so it sold like shit.

Why are we arguing in circles?

I don't really think anything at this point, but I do "wish" we had the first day numbers to look at. Not that I am convinced they matter right now, due to the circumstances(people sitting on the fence etc.).

If anything, I find the current data unreadable. I really can't see where it is heading, but I do think there is a lot of scepsism in the community, that has to be turned into trust. Something which isn't done over night, or in this case the 24 first hours of this release.

That's just my thoughts around it.

Well if we ever get our hands on the monthy sales, we should be able to figure it out.

And how does this equate to the expansion selling like shit? It doesn't. 2.7 million is still a great number. If you consider 2.7 in a week selling like shit how do you feel about Guild Wars 2 that took a month to hit 2 million, or SWTOR that never even reached 2 million? What's worse than selling like shit?

I don't give a flying fuck about those titles. Sorry.

I compare WoW, to WoW. I don't stack it up against other titles to find justification for it's numbers. Rather I hold it accountable for itself.

[xanzul]

Blizzard has nothing to do with Asia. The only target audience they have is NetEase who brings in a neglectable amount of revenue. Asia is nothing but a publicity stunt so Blizzard can boast about x million subscribers while they only have 3-4 million which are relevant.

Fuck, I see the thread is already infested with the cult that feels the need to come depict the sales numbers as more positive than they really are. Why do you people need to ruin your own game by pulling wool over your and other people's eyes?

The game sold less copies in it's first week than TBC did. Fact. The game sold much less copies than WotLK and Cata did in their first week. Fact.

Hopefully Blizzard can turn these numbers around by convincing it's playerbase during the content of MoP. (Just like they convinced their playerbase to stop bothering with Blizzard during Cataclysm).

I love how bs like this doesn't get infractions yet anyone pointing out the idiocy in debating facts gets infracted and banned.

[Dasffion]

I don't give a flying fuck about those titles. Sorry.

I compare WoW, to WoW. I don't stack it up against other titles to find justification for it's numbers. Rather I hold it accountable for itself.

So you don't have any answer on how it not selling as much as other expansions (which DisposableHero just proved isn't really true) isn't still good sales?

[KrazyK923]

People got fucked the wrong way with Cataclysm, and are being a little reluctant to bend over in fear of another wrong way fucking with Pandaria, so they are taking it a bit slow.

Its kind of a shame, MoP is phenomenal. Even people I know who only used to play for the community are now saying they are playing for more than that.

Rather I hold it accountable for itself.

Except for Swtor.

[SamR]

Conscious always shows up in sub number threads to crap on WoW and spread doom and gloom. The weird thing is I think I saw in another thread that he bought MoP. Go figure.

[xanzul]

Blizzard doesn't run their own servers in the United States, they lease them from a company and they are run via remote commands. You will not find some massive underground server base in Blizzard HQ.

While Blizzard may not own the data centers their servers are housed in, they most certainly do own their own servers and maintain their own servers. Get a clue.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I don't give a flying fuck about those titles. Sorry.

I compare WoW, to WoW. I don't stack it up against other titles to find justification for it's numbers. Rather I hold it accountable for itself.

If you are unwilling to acknowledge other games or Cata because they defeat your spin, then you've already lost.

[xanzul]

The fact is that they sold almost 3 million copies of a "dying trash game". Period. Haters gonna` hate. Im moving on to the class forums now to discuss PvP. Good day haters, Im glad you all finally got to taste your own feet. Hope you packed salt.

Infracted. Don't help keep arguments going by provoking them

Maybe people wouldn't "provoke" arguments if the mods infracted those creating the arguments rather than banning those who dare to stand up to the nonsense.

[Freese]

If you express the sales figures for each expansion as a percentage of the total subscriber base at the time, you find the following:

Burning Crusade - 2.4 million first day sales, 8.3 million subscribers, 28.9% first day adoption
Wrath of the Lich King - 2.8 million first day sales, 11 million subscribers, 25.4% first day adoption
Cataclysm - 3.3 million first day sales, 12 million subscribers, 27.5% first day adoption
Mists of Pandaria - 2.7 million first week sales (since we don't have first day sales numbers to look at), 9.1 million subscribers, 29.7% first week adoption

If we make the logical assumption that most of the first week MoP adopters are also first day adopters, and consider that this does not include the launch in China, I think it is safe to say that MoP had the exact same 25-28% of the subscriber base as first day adopters that every previous expansion has had, and the figures are neither disappointing nor inspiring but basically what should have been expected.

Mists also increased subscriptions at the launch by 900,000. Looking at the gains in the first quarter for each of the other expansions, BC bumped the subscriber base by a 600,000, Wrath by 1.2 million, and Cata's launch saw a 100,000 subscriber decline over its first quarter in action. So numbers for sales so far look average and increased subscriber count is very strong, but they will need to maintain those numbers over this quarter before that can really be found in evidence.

So the numbers are decidedly average, and basically, look roughly in line with the previous expansions, with the exception of Cata's subscriber performance.

Cata breaking sales records is entirely an effect of the peak subscriber base playing in late wrath of the lich king, and them getting their usual adoption rate. MoP sales are correspondingly down because their active player base is down substantially.

Interestingly if you look back at WoW's largest subscriber gains on a quarterly basis, the sharpest gains are mid 2005, late 2006, and late 2008, each corresponding to a gain of 1.0 to 1.3 million subscribers. A 900,000 subscriber gain probably ranks in the top 5 or 6 quarterly subscription performances in the game's history, so there really is no reason for blizzard to express disappointment. The game is clearly alive and well and this is a first step in moving on from the failures of cataclysm that caused them to lose almost 3 million subscribers over the expansion.

Those calling these numbers abysmal really are looking for any excuse to say the game is failing, and people calling these numbers amazing are looking for any excuse to trumpet the game's success. The reality is the numbers are typical, but encouraging.

Great post.

Please don't post just to quote a giant post and contribute nothing

[xanzul]

Fuck off.

I'm not a hater. I enjoy the game, but the truth is that my ego doesn't depend on the sales of Blizzard or on making the sales appear better than they were. I'd enjoy the game even if there'd been only a few hundred thousand subscribers, as was the originally subscriber goal Blizzard had for the game.

These sales numbers do nothing but proove that the game is currently in a natural state of decline, and HOPEFULLY, for everyone else who enjoys the game like me they'll be able to turn this around or counter this a bit with high quality content patches during MoP.

But don't call everyone a hater who isn't pretending that this was a great success. These sales numbers, in perspective of past sales, ARE a disappointment and Blizzard themselves knows it too. Fact. End of discussion.

So I get an infraction for "flaming" and this guy doesn't when he has done nothing but flame others? Could the mods be any more biased?

---------- Post added 2012-10-04 at 10:24 AM ----------

2.7 million copies sold yet 10 mill players to the playerbase. It's funny watching people try to turn water into wine with such low numbers. 2.7 but weres the other 6.3 million? Or did all the fanboys forgot how to do math? Lets not forget the official annual report is in a couple months . A lot of sub losses can happen between now and then.

I would rather be a fanboy than someone who sticks his head in the sand and makes up bullshit just to continue mindlessly bashing a game.

---------- Post added 2012-10-04 at 10:26 AM ----------

How are those numbers fudged?

Didn't you know? Blizzard only lies when it suits those with an agenda. I love how the numbers are only accurate when it makes the game look bad.

[Duridi]

Well if we ever get our hands on the monthy sales, we should be able to figure it out.

I think the next two quartery reports, if not just the first, should be sufficient.

[Exroyal]

WoW is 8 years old. You can't stay at the top forever. The way I look at it, they dropped the ball big time with Cata and it drove a lot of people away. And with Mists seeming very kiddie, it drove even more people off. The sad part is that Mists is an incredible expansion so far, so I hope people do come back. If not, hey Blizzard learned a very tough lesson with Cata.

Yes, i agree because MoP is looking rly great (beside those ridiculous queue times i'm having) and i like the way their starting the expansion, but i hope that Catas failure taught them something so they can keep making content. I may be hated on because of this, but i personally was expecting Blizz to push out content as fast as Trion because of their resources.

For the "kiddie" part, even though MoP is nothing like a kiddie game, people won't be thinking that the game is really dark and has lot's of bloodshed in it when they walk past the box cover and see a panda smiling, as badass as he looks.

I don't think WoW will ever get back to 12m subs, i think it will top out at 10,5m subs or something and then decline because of its age.

[SamR]

Not comparing your company to the market in general is idiotic.

If your company's sales go up 15%, but all your competitors increased sales by 40%, then you failed.

If your company's sales go down 5%, but all your competitors saw 75% drops in sales, you did pretty damn well.

The people who ignore the market as a whole don't really care about the numbers, they just want to complain for the sake of complaining.