WoW Down to 9.6 Million Subscribers

500k drop is alot , especially when its in us or eu... in asia wow is alot alot alot cheaper and the majority of the playerbase is there so overall us and eu pay for the most part... not saying the game is dieing but 500k players gone is a huge huge huge loss in money... also its expected.. look how long people have beenraiding this tier, ofc all the good players have done their heroics and are now just tierd of repeating content

Originally Posted by Zergal

Ok, if you want to cling the your "its numbers" fallacy, can you explain how the game grew by 6 millions in vanilla, then by 4 millions in TBC and only to grew by 2 millions in WolTK only to stagnate there until its started degrading in Cataclysm?

If WolTK was so great, it would had grown more than during Vanilla and TBC no?

Take your logic out of these forums.

It's obviously declining, but by no means is it dying, nor is it dead. This should be fairly obvious.

Originally Posted by Aquamonkey

Even if that prepaid time is 1hr for the 3 month quarter.

Yes. Monthly subs are still counted even if their time ran out on 12am Jan. 1, 2013.

Originally Posted by SunbakedDuck

500k drop is alot , especially when its in us or eu... in asia wow is alot alot alot cheaper and the majority of the playerbase is there so overall us and eu pay for the most part... not saying the game is dieing but 500k players gone is a huge huge huge loss in money... also its expected.. look how long people have beenraiding this tier, ofc all the good players have done their heroics and are now just tierd of repeating content

Stop exaggerating. blizzard lost a couple of million players over the last few years due to many reasons, its still the strongest mmo out there.

Though I do think they should rethink the daily for rep only option.

Originally Posted by Trassk

So its lost a few subs, big freakin deal. Its still one of the biggest played MMORPG out there, and all other mmo's still can't compare to it.

Those saying the games dying from this have been saying the same thing at any chance they can, just like end of the world doomsayers.

However, I can speculate several reasons why people quit, mists making the game to grindy, people quitting because they don't feel like special snowflakes, quitting because of the theme. Its the same old stuff.

Except they were pretty much all in China.

Originally Posted by Trassk

Stop exaggerating. blizzard lost a couple of million players over the last few years due to many reasons, its still the strongest mmo out there.

Though I do think they should rethink the daily for rep only option.

They're addressing that issue in 5.2.

Originally Posted by chipwood

Doesn't make it good food... but I don't see McDonalds going out of business any time soon, either?

Nope. I would really love to know why people have so much vitriol for this game and want to see bad things happen to it? It is just a freaking game. Let it go.

Hahaha at least I know I will be reading the "wow is dead!!1111oneone!" posts for many years... lets say WoW loses 3M a year (which I highly doubt), we still got 3 years to read those posts

Originally Posted by Garian

A 500k drop in subs is huge. Especially if they are in the U.S. or Europe.

Not really when you consider that this drop is from the position at the start of MOP rather than the end of Cata. I can't remember what Cata's subs were the last time they were announced but i'm fairly sure they were lower than 9.6 million.

Loads of old players come back to try a new expansion for a month or 2 and then stop playing again.... This is no reflection on the quality of the game.

Edit: I just looked at the wiki for subscriber numbers and 7 weeks before MOP was released (August 2nd) wow had 9.1 million subscribers. So you can say there's been a loss of 500k subscribers.... but you could also say there's been a gain of 500k depending when you take the original count from.

Originally Posted by Goldjman

False. Vanilla and BC players who tried the game again are leaving. out of 40 players I know who tried again, only one still plays.

Well, out of the seven-ish people I know who played during Vanilla and TBC, all seven of them are still playing.

Sample sizes.

I only buy time cards now to play whatever the latest tear in the LFR is then i stop , this expac isnt alt friendly, requires more points to upgrade heirloom gear, and they centered the game around dailies and more dailies, i hate questing, i hate dailies, i just wana run dungeons and gear up, you really cant do that this time, plus the game mechanics feel old , nothing really feels exciting anymore, i will wait until a few weeks before the next expac, then i will buy a time card gear up and then wait till the end of that one, besides with all the video leaks and updates here , we are ahead of any surprises, the game just feels "meh" anymore

Originally Posted by Courierrawr

So what? A decline is a decline, WoW's "golden age" is long over, the game is going to keep losing players, will you still be using that defense when it's down to 3 million players?

9.6 million is 500k more than WOW had at the end of Cataclysm (figure taken from August 2012).

You will ALWAYS get a dip in subscribers from the high point at the start of a new xpac when old players return to try it out....

Originally Posted by Beefhamer

Yes. Monthly subs are still counted even if their time ran out on 12am Jan. 1, 2013.

WoW East doesn't pay by the month, they pay by the hour. Buy 1 hr in a quarter and they count you as a sub.

so......9,600,000 is still pretty good if you compare to other games.
how many subscribers does your game have?

Originally Posted by Pann

I completely agree it is hilarious to watch people's predictions.

That was such a beautiful bit of ownage that I think we all need to take a step back and admire it for a few seconds.


WoW is still doing extremely well, but pretending losing half a mil players is nothing is equally stupid as saying WoW is dying. 500k is the whole playerbase of some MMO's.

Originally Posted by Beefhamer

Except they were pretty much all in China.

Got any breakdown on sub numbers per market / location ? I've not seen any such numbers released so I suspect you are pulling these numbers out of your.... well you know.

---------- Post added 2013-02-08 at 02:04 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Udderpowered

That was such a beautiful bit of ownage that I think we all need to take a step back and admire it for a few seconds.


WoW is still doing extremely well, but pretending losing half a mil players is nothing is equally stupid as saying WoW is dying. 500k is the whole playerbase of some MMO's.

I'd be curious to see numbers for sub drops from the start of each expansion to 6 months in. I'm fairly sure every xpac has experienced a drop after it's high point at release. Maybe not BC because that was a time when the game was still growing it's subs base.

They can always make a new minipet and/or mount and throw it up on the Blizz Store to print extra money. I don't see them in danger any time remotely soon.

Originally Posted by Beefhamer

In your case and maybe top end raiders in a race. 16/16H this last week finally and many of us never bothered with rep or dailies. Again, it is optional and not required. It is also a bonus chance at loot and people should be expected to put in a bit of time or effort to receive it.

---------- Post added 2013-02-08 at 01:44 AM ----------


Which could also include many people who have signed up since then as well. Your argument works both ways. Regardless of price, it still sold 12M copies.

B/s. Stop telling people what's optional or not for them, that's different for everyone. And good for you being proud that you finally cleared the content, but for those of us who take it seriously and cleared it weeks ago, optional doesn't exist, and that's the end of it. If any of our raiders is caught not doing their reps or capping valor, there's going to be a problem. Thankfully, everyone is fully committed.

It's tiresome to hear this "optional" vs "mandatory" argument. It's great that you don't care enough to do whatever you can to be at your best for your raids, that's fantastic and tbh, great for you that your guild puts up with that semi-dedication. But for tons of us, it's not, and we'll be putting up with the shit Blizz shoves through our throat no matter what so we can do what we care about a lot to the fullest. That is how at ilevel 508 I'm still doing random dungeons every day, LFR, and frigging dailies even though I'm exalted thrice over. For people like us, raiding is their favourite past time and we'll do whatever it takes to do it properly - just like buying a new racket for your tennis sports is "optional", but it sure as hell will improve your performance.

Besides, even "optional" does not excuse content being crap. Not saying Mop's content is crap (just the valor grind I have an issue with really), but that's how some people feel.

For that matter, the entire frigging game is optional, I don't even get why this argument exists in the first place. Content exists to be done, when people feel they hate the majority of the content I think they have a right to complain.

---------- Post added 2013-02-08 at 03:21 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Udderpowered

That was such a beautiful bit of ownage that I think we all need to take a step back and admire it for a few seconds.


WoW is still doing extremely well, but pretending losing half a mil players is nothing is equally stupid as saying WoW is dying. 500k is the whole playerbase of some MMO's.

Sure, it sucks, but in the big image of things in WOW, it's but a comma in the total amount of players and I don't think Blizzard is terribly fussed. Besides, declining subs at the end of a patch have pretty much been a trend since forever.

20 years from now there will still be people playing this game. I haven't touched it since 2011 december and don't plan to anymore tho'. Dead realm, asking extra fee for transfers, constant gear resets etc. Not my thing anymore.