WoW stabilizes over 10M subscribers, down 100k in Q4 2011

Normally Christmas is the time they have an increase in subs, but it looks like the increase during the holidays wasn't enough to offset the lost from the previous months. Now that the holidays are over Q1 will more than likely have an increase in lost subs.

With bugs all over the place in this latest patch (items/trinkets being overpowered and so on, the famous few hours where Paladins pulled off 200k dps), bias in bans for exploits (Paragon, etcetera being banned in using their DS exploitation whilst smaller guilds were left untouched), a LFR loot system that was released broken amidst everything else, and content that was, as always, vastly over-hyped as the real thing was as ever, a big let down. It doesn't surprise me that another 100k subscriptions have gone down the drain; sloppy workmanship from the people we pay £15/month or whatever your respective currency is, and that's pretty much all their is to it.

If people are quitting right now, they are still being counted in Q1 numbers. These numbers would include anyone who has an account active at any point during Q1. This is the same thing TOR does with "active subscriptions". Nobody really says how the numbers are compiled, TOR counted all the free 30 day trials as active subscriptions because the credit cards are on file for renewal on Dec 31, 2011. You don't really get a good grip of the actual numbers for a quarter or so later than what you'd expect for these reasons.

To everyone calling people haters for pointing out retention factors and possible future detractors for the next quarters stop. There are a handful of people on these forums that are actually looking at the numbers from a logical view. If you have 4 straight quarters of losess, 3 being major the last being minor. It is more reckless for Boub to come to the conclusion that things have stabilized off of one quarter of not-as-bad-as-the-last-3 numbers than it is to assume things are going to continue to get worse in a year with NO CONTENT PLANNED, and mop not even in beta. So stop with the name calling. Myself I have the year pass. Why? Beta access will determine for me if MoP is going to be worth another giant money sink + sub fees. That and I get Diablo 3. Otherwise while I have some friends that will probably always play, server pops have fallen off hard since 4.3. I would put my money on most of the haters at this point for another bad year than I would on stabilization. Though I'm sure we will all be having this convo again next Q call.

Originally Posted by BleedingHollowVeteran

Good news, everyone! I think we have finally perfected a way to keep all of you in Azeroth!

Haha good one m8 =D

Still all this talk about number of subscribers ... what use is big playerbase when WoW content updates are lagging behind updates of MMOs with 500k subscribers. Only ppl for whom the 10 mill matter are shareholders. If WoW had one mill subscribers Blizz would be able to do the same service as they are doing now ...

Global press event on 3/19... arrrgh that feels so far away! Perhaps the beta will begin just afterwards though.

Seems like SWTOR the wow killer actually helped wow stabilize subscriber numbers rofl.

That's quite a loss so far. I remember it was up on 16 million. Im really jumping up and down for Diablo 3 though, and no doubt many others are :>

Ah well i love wow didnt lose to much.. at the same time Elite 1.5 million paying members.. makes me sick..

Originally Posted by Floppi14

Seems like SWTOR the wow killer actually helped wow stabilize subscriber numbers rofl.

True bro

SWTOR will tank and WoW will lose another giant chunk of subs in Q1. As time marches on, people will realize that modern MMO design just does not need or justify a 15 dollar monthly fee any more, they're no longer massive or meaningfully open world, really.

People screaming that "only" a lose of 100k subs is somehow "good", do you realise that WoW never lost effective subs before Cataclysm launched? Prepare for the onslaught on Q1 of 2012, lol.

Originally Posted by UcanDoSht

People screaming that "only" a lose of 100k subs is somehow "good", do you realise that WoW never lost effective subs before Cataclysm launched? Prepare for the onslaught on Q1 of 2012, lol.

I agree here... since Q1 won't have any new content in WoW and Dragon Soul is already fizzing out. Expect a huge hit...

Kinda funny they would try to spin it as "stabilizes" but whatever, I guess it makes it sound better.For those of you who just assumes people who leave SWTOR will go back to WoW, that's pretty narrow-minded thinking.People left WoW because they got bored with it. Then people left SWTOR because of the same reason. I've quit both, and don't plan on going back to either.It kinda sucks, I wish I had a MMO I liked, but these days people are past that "I *must* have an active MMO going on" phase...perhaps people are just MMO'ed out. The grind. The nerfs. The dull endgame. The annoying community...these things simply seem to repeat themselves.But 100k is a lot of people and a lot of money being lost by Blizzard. They're still bleeding, and don't seem to be on any path to fix it unfortunately.

Only 100K? Thats still quite some loss for them, but I'm somewhat suprised it ain't more. I guess the annual pass really saved their asses out there, but in the next quarters they'll be more unlucky if they won't give anything else. We still have DS for about 6 months or more, and tons of other great games have to come out. So I'll expect a greater lose in Q1 2012 for sure.

Annual Pass + Diablo Free saved Blizzard, AUHSuasUAHS, no matter how bad things going, they will never admit that the game is no longer the same and need a lot of work to return to its days of glory...

Originally Posted by MikeyDD

Kinda funny they would try to spin it as "stabilizes" but whatever, I guess it makes it sound better.For those of you who just assumes people who leave SWTOR will go back to WoW, that's pretty narrow-minded thinking.People left WoW because they got bored with it. Then people left SWTOR because of the same reason. I've quit both, and don't plan on going back to either.It kinda sucks, I wish I had a MMO I liked, but these days people are past that "I *must* have an active MMO going on" phase...perhaps people are just MMO'ed out. The grind. The nerfs. The dull endgame. The annoying community...these things simply seem to repeat themselves.But 100k is a lot of people and a lot of money being lost by Blizzard. They're still bleeding, and don't seem to be on any path to fix it unfortunately.

Don't accuse Blizz of spinning something and then spin it hard in the opposite direction, that's just being a hypocrite. :P Stabilize is a good word for it; if the subscriptions fell by 100k and then just stopped falling and held steady there, and they have indication to believe that they will remain steady there, then 'stabilize' is the correct word. After all, the use of the word tells investors something important: that 'this is the number we expect to keep.'

Originally Posted by Black_One

nuff said ... I'd like to see what's going to soften THAT blow xD

I will, seriosuly I will

Nevertheless, it is now apparent that it was not the "hardcore" majority that left that had inflicted sub-losses, but rather players that were rather frustrated with Cataclysm's launch content

Might only be 100k sub lost which seems small, but to the investors the -$400 million in profit lost is huge.