World of Warcraft Subscriber Trends Revealed at GDC 2024

As predicted, doomsayers will now say data from Blizz is fake xD.

And, the irony, failure of SL was that subs were falling in similar way like praised Legion (and WoD/BfA too of course), they just expected something better. It is literally showed on graph.

Also, while graph is from Blizzard, numbers from Bellurar are just pure bullshit. They literally already said SL launch was biggest in 10 years (WoW original Classic too, but I don't remember anyone saying about subs there) and we know Cata launch was 12M, MoP/WoD 10M. Low point I would put the same (5M) cause it was low point of WoD and it would be hard to believe Legion was lower.

While SL story wasn't so good, story isn't reason, why players quit. Badly designed leveling with level gates, excessive anima/gift/soul grind, forced Maw 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, overtuned campaign caused that massive player loss. This xpack simply didn't have any smooth progression route. And simple fact, that xpack wasn't fixed, when it became obvious, that it was broken. ZM for example. It's terrible. That relying on temporary invisibility buff. Who was that genius, who invented it? And of course completely non-functional reward system. It isn't even random. It's some sort of broken predefined cycle, created by 1yr old kid. Some rewards may be unobtainable for MONTHS.

Originally Posted by Luthorite

What no? The afterlife is something that should never be explored in this type of game.

The setting combined with how they explained this setting was trash.

I personally loved the Blizzard take a lot.

There is several kinds of "Heaven" and even a redemption system implemented for the sinners (even tho was corrupt in a lot of cases), The "Hell" or "Limbo" (Maw) etc
I enjoyed it a lot.

Originally Posted by DemonHunter18

Probably not many.

Most of them just go to forums or check it out on private servers but I highly doubt they actual pay for it.

Well I'm glad to say I'm one of them. Played WC3 in 2008 and then I decided to check out the "world of warcraft" ad on the WC3 launcher. I honestly don't know if I'd still be playing it if it wasn't for WC3. Assuming I ever started WoW in the first place of course.

"Bellular's estimated subscriber numbers assuming the graph's y-axis begins at zero"

rofl

Even if it did begin at zero, he has absolutely no way to know scale. Truly rofl at the rationalization of numbers here.

just wanted to point out, again, for the 4th time that the graph is quite literally showing subscriber numbers, not trends. So when you see people in here claiming its a "trend" these are actual sub numbers



also just want to remind everyone that unless they have data of their own, this is the best, most current, and most accurate data regarding wow subscriptions that we have. this is the standard data set until a new and improved set is obtained.

Originally Posted by Roanda

I personally loved the Blizzard take a lot.

There is several kinds of "Heaven" and even a redemption system implemented for the sinners (even tho was corrupt in a lot of cases), The "Hell" or "Limbo" (Maw) etc
I enjoyed it a lot.

The setting was fine, the way they handled lore characters was very disheartening. Take Elune for example; the entirety of Night Elf lore built up around a goddess of unknown and enigmatic presence. The lore and mystery involving her no longer feels impactful or awe inspiring.

Originally Posted by Vonazak

It was the setting.

Their take on it was absolutely boring

If it was setting, it would fail on release. It didn't.

Imo problem is they set up mystery with Jailer and Sylvanas motives quite well, but completely butched explaining that mystery - we learned almost nothing about Jailer and Sylvanas turned out to be idiot.

There are also of course gameplay problems. First, obviously big gap between patches. Second, while SL removed a lot of grind, we were left with overcomplicated power systems - before you raid, you had to check right gear, talents, consumables, covenant, soulbind, legendary and conduits. Third, Torghast was forced on people during first half of SL.

Originally Posted by doledippers

just wanted to point out, again, for the 4th time that the graph is quite literally showing subscriber numbers, not trends. So when you see people in here claiming its a "trend" these are actual sub numbers

I just want to point out you are trying to argue with hopeless individual who put doomsayer comment 5 minutes after every.single.news and unironically listen to Asmongold.

Originally Posted by Luthorite

Exactly. It's an assumption. He literally has zero evidence to support this assumption just like Blizzard's graph isn't a true count, it's trends.

A trend and a true value are not even close to the same thing and it's borderline deceptive marketing.

All this whole thing tells us is that WoW is trending a bit more, not that subs are higher.

Originally Posted by unbound

"Bellular's estimated subscriber numbers assuming the graph's y-axis begins at zero"

rofl

Even if it did begin at zero, he has absolutely no way to know scale. Truly rofl at the rationalization of numbers here.

He said it was calculated by pixels. If you start going down from 5.8 until you reach 0, then you can count the pixels up and figure out what the numbers above 5.8 are. Did you guys even watch the damn video?

Originally Posted by ryjkur

I think Cata classic announcement had bigger impact for subscription increase than DF. Vanilla, TBC and Wotlk was just cata waiting room for many.

That's an odd take and really counter to what I've heard from a lot of people.
I'd wager it's SOD propping everything up at the moment.

Originally Posted by unbound

"Bellular's estimated subscriber numbers assuming the graph's y-axis begins at zero"

rofl

Even if it did begin at zero, he has absolutely no way to know scale. Truly rofl at the rationalization of numbers here.

He does have a way to know the scale, you would know if you watched the video, it was based on the wod numbers, as they compared wod to legion, without giving direct numbers, and through that we were able to tell.

Originally Posted by FelPlague

Are you not the guy who says if asmongold says something it must be true?
And also that FF14 had 30 million subs?
Like literally said this only like an hour ago.

lol, SE announced 2 days ago they reached 30millions registered account.. if he can't make the difference between accounts and subs..

Originally Posted by ryjkur

I think Cata classic announcement had bigger impact for subscription increase than DF. Vanilla, TBC and Wotlk was just cata waiting room for many.

I can't believe people wait for Cata it was soooo terrible. Personally I'm waiting for MoP classic to get back my good old MW Monk.

Last time we had a precise subscriber number information was in 2019 Q4 report.
Here (and it checks out with the graph, the subs did indeed more than double with classic):

Originally Posted by Dracullus

I just want to point out you are trying to argue with hopeless individual who put doomsayer comment 5 minutes after every.single.news and unironically listen to Asmongold.

i know i know, i just cant help myself sometimes

Originally Posted by Vonazak

It was the setting.

Their take on it was absolutely boring

Heh, I guess. The maps and navigation were crap, for sure, never seen so many people take lvl1 engineering just for wormhole. And the maw, yuck

As always, even if Blizzard was forced by law to release the accurate sub numbers and provide a list of all names and that data was fact checked and verified... people on this site and reddit would still say they are lying.

Can't argue with idiots and trolls, that is that; especially those who hate this game so much and still play it.

Originally Posted by RobertMugabe

Can't argue with idiots and trolls, that is that; especially those who hate this game so much and still play it.

I don't know what's worst : those who hate the game and still play it, or those who haven't played for a long time, but still complain in every thread.

Originally Posted by Xilurm

Well I'm glad to say I'm one of them. Played WC3 in 2008 and then I decided to check out the "world of warcraft" ad on the WC3 launcher. I honestly don't know if I'd still be playing it if it wasn't for WC3. Assuming I ever started WoW in the first place of course.

I'm similar in that regard. I deleted my Blizzard account. Don't want to do anything with Blizzard/Activision/Microsoft or whatever the fuck it's called these days xd

Too many retcons and inconsistencies lately with Legion, BfA, SL (biggest travesty ever written), DF.

reestablished lol
release a good expansion get more players that easy
will see what comes of it now that the ghoul is gone