Important - Some people got automatically redirected to Facebook from MMO-Champion for a couple of minutes. Nothing compromised or anything like that, this is happening all over the web.

WoW Down to 9.6 Million Subscribers
Activision Blizzard's press release states that World of Warcraft is down to 9.6 million subscribers as of December 31, 2012. This is lower than the amount of subscribers from the "over 10 million" announced for Q3 2012. A few other interesting points:

  • Mists of Pandaria was the #3 best-selling PC game at retail.
  • Diablo III was the #1 best-selling PC game at retail, breaking PC-game sales records with more than 12 million copies sold worldwide through December 31, 2012.
This article was originally published in forum thread: WoW Down to 9.6 Million Subscribers started by chaud View original post
Comments 954 Comments
  1. mmoc634c6db597's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Assumi View Post
    God you fanboys never quit.
    So now liking a game is being a fanboy? I won't even comment further.
  1. markdall's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tharkkun View Post
    You mean where you get revered on one character and buy a token which doubles that reputation on your current toon and all future alts? Takes about 1.5-2 weeks to hit revered.
    Yeah I mean where I don't play my alts because of their bullshit reputation-gated VP gear. I do in fact mean that, yes. I have one level 90 alt that doesn't run dailies ever. I have 8 other level 85 characters. Well. Two of them are 88 but I've stopped playing them.

    Getting my one alt geared enough to run all the LFRs was hard, took me several weeks since I didn't have the rep to buy the VP gear for it. It was the opposite of fun. Running dailies for rep is not fun. I play this game to have fun. Weird, I know.
  1. stigz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Chuckd View Post
    But I agree about Blizzards stand point these days and there arrogance over dailys and this "we know best, despite outcry" BS.

    Dailys = un-fun

    HC`s = not hard enuff and no reward past jp lvl.

    JP = Useless to pointless to run 5mans

    Charms/Coins = Only from dailys? no from 5 mans aswell please

    No point having x rewards for x gameplay. I should be able to earn the same charms/coins/vp/jp etc no matter what i play be it 5mans/scens/dailys the only factor should be how you obtain them and the rate.

    Likewise if your going to stick us for all these fucking reps, give us the option of tabards, they need to show there able to let us play the way we want and not box us into to these grind fests to artificially lengthen a game that actually now doesnt need it.
    You're an idiot.

    Infracted
  1. mmoc1376ef233f's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Azax24 View Post
    500k loss? Looks like WoW is dead oh well goodbye all i will miss you ima go play rift now
    Lol see you in 3 years when Rift will be dead and WoW still has way more then 5 million subs.
  1. mmocd57e83b07c's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by markdall View Post
    Yeah I mean where I don't play my alts because of their bullshit reputation-gated VP gear. I do in fact mean that, yes. I have one level 90 alt that doesn't run dailies ever. I have 8 other level 85 characters. Well. Two of them are 88 but I've stopped playing them.

    Getting my one alt geared enough to run all the LFRs was hard, took me several weeks since I didn't have the rep to buy the VP gear for it. It was the opposite of fun. Running dailies for rep is not fun. I play this game to have fun. Weird, I know.
    I hate to be "that guy" that always comes along to pat his own back with how great a player he is. But....

    Seriously. I am a very casual player and I still have 4 level 90'ies 3 of which can run the ToES. Getting to 460 ilevel to get into the first LFR is very easy indeed. Buy some 450 crafted gear. Spend an evening chaining heroics and you will get very close to 460 if not way over. In case you are missing just that little bit of ilevel then buy som 476 crafted gear. Quite cheap and easy to come by. With regards to rep you can be at least revered with klaxxi before hitting level 90 and getting honored with the other factions really doesn't take very long.

    Saying that it is hard to get gear for running LFR's is just plain wrong.
  1. glo's Avatar
    A 9 year old game losing small amounts of subscribers over the years. Shocking!

    For all of those attacking each other, shut up. It's an ancient game, people move on, it's to be expected. This isn't a huge revelation to anyone with half a brain.
  1. Hyve's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Deleth View Post
    Doesn't really matter, it's a huge loss of many of those are in Europe/US and will mean a whole less money for them. Grinding Dailys and stuff all day doesn't seem to have been that liked afterall, so people were right that the whole double rep for factions and other things were a saving throw by Blizzard.
    500,000 people don't like the current game model. 9.6 Million do. People quit for thousands of reasons, so I am certain that dailies are in there, but there could also be simple ones, such as work, money issues, bored because they've been playing to long, and many more.

    Quote Originally Posted by Assumi View Post
    God you fanboys never quit.
    Being rational and looking at the statistic for what they really show, is not being a fan boy. 9.6 Million active subscribers is a large number. World of Warcraft could drop down to 5 Million and still be the best game. Many of the people on these forums are critical of Blizzard, so I fail to see how we can be fan boys.
  1. mmoc73fb8ac2b2's Avatar
    As someone who has quit a couple months back, I can see why 500k would be lost.

    1) Game doesn't seem as fun, or at least the focus shifting to dailies overload didn't make it fun for me.
    2) People are getting older and having less time for MMOs (Or grinding dailies)
  1. Ijanaak's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tharkkun View Post
    You mean where you get revered on one character and buy a token which doubles that reputation on your current toon and all future alts? Takes about 1.5-2 weeks to hit revered.
    Oh and "10 mans are what everyone wants to do" ... don't forget that lie.
  1. Farora's Avatar
    One upside, Wow is so much a singleplayer game now, that you won't notice less people playing.
  1. Dakara's Avatar
    9.6 is a decline, not a death, but I do agree the trend will continue unless they address certain issues the seem to ignore/be blind too. Regardless however, the game doesn't need X Millions players to be fun.

    My whole argument against the daily flaw (which Blizzard seem blind too) is that dailies aren't fun... they're a chore. Yes, they don't want us to receive all the rewards in one week, I get that, but guess what happens when you've finished all the rep grinds? Shock horror, it's Cata again and there's nothing to do. What's worse, is the dailies have left you feeling disgruntled like you're working a boring 9-5 job you hate, but tolerate simply to pay the bills.

    We can only hope that one day, Blizzard will introduce dynamic content/events to keep is interested. If not that, then perhaps a PvP system that's balanced and isn't so heavily based around what gear you have that more people participate. BG's have so much potential to keep us entertained in the lul between patches, but for most they fall short of the mark.
  1. gkai's Avatar
    Doesn't really surprise me, people are bored of the same game year after year. It's just natural progression, no game lasts forever.
  1. The Small Hours's Avatar
    I logged in on one of my alts on a different realm from my main the other day, I was 1/150 online and not one character in the guild was above 85, like some kinda ghost town.
  1. Elexo's Avatar
    Doing a lot better than I expected.
    Assumed by now it would only be 8 mil, MoP must not be as bad as people say it is.
  1. mmocc7ae5c5557's Avatar
    Lots of doomsayers in the thread I see

    I don't care if its losing subs, i don't care if the playerbase is slowly getting smaller, it could go down to 5 million and I wouldn't care... that would still be double any other MMO

    I love all the people shouting "WOW is over! its golden age is past! its all downhill from here!" Why do you think people care?

    And then anyone who argues against you is labelled a fanboy lol. Get over yourselves...
  1. Kathranis's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Chuckd View Post
    But I agree about Blizzards stand point these days and there arrogance over dailys and this "we know best, despite outcry" BS.

    Dailys = un-fun

    HC`s = not hard enuff and no reward past jp lvl.

    JP = Useless to pointless to run 5mans

    Charms/Coins = Only from dailys? no from 5 mans aswell please

    No point having x rewards for x gameplay. I should be able to earn the same charms/coins/vp/jp etc no matter what i play be it 5mans/scens/dailys the only factor should be how you obtain them and the rate.

    Likewise if your going to stick us for all these fucking reps, give us the option of tabards, they need to show there able to let us play the way we want and not box us into to these grind fests to artificially lengthen a game that actually now doesnt need it.
    I don't agree with you.

    First of all, there is nothing preventing you from playing the way you want to.

    You do not need to farm the reputation gear, and you don't need Elder Charms.

    You do not need to grind for valor/justice points.

    You are perfectly capable of gearing up purely by running heroics and raids. It's not even like the charms were a thing before, they're something completely new that was implemented as a way to reward dungeoneers/raiders for optionally doing daily quests.

    The fact is, their current setup is far closer to the way things worked in Burning Crusade, where you geared up in dungeons and raids but could spend tokens to fill in slots, unlike in Wrath and Cataclysm where earning points became the primary ways to gear up, to such an extent that you could obtain an almost complete set of tier gear without ever stepping into a raid.


    More importantly, you're basically just asking for more rewards for doing the content you are already getting rewards from.

    Let me twist your basic argument around to suit me: I like doing dailies, but I don't really like raiding, and I prefer only to do dungeons once or twice so I can experience the story. However, they have really cool gear in raids that I can't get from doing the content I enjoy the most. I don't need the gear, since I can handle the content I enjoy with the gear I have, but boy, I really wish Blizzard would let me play the way I want to play. They should totally let me get tier gear from daily quests.

    Probably sounds absurd to you, right? Well you want daily quest rewards for doing heroics, which is just as absurd. Why should they cater to your playstyle but not mine?


    Even if it takes longer to gear up without the charms or reputation gear, I don't really see where the complaint comes from. You would just need to keep running heroics and raids, which is the part of the game you already admit to enjoying. If anything, it gives you more incentive to keep doing them, not less. If you got fully geared, would you just quit doing heroics or quit raiding? I doubt it.
  1. Curd3x's Avatar
    How come they have 9.6 million when they have sold about 4 milions of MoP?...dont understant this....i think from 9,6m are about 10-15% goldsellers...maybe more
  1. mmocc58067b9f8's Avatar
    the actual number is probably very very much lower, there are so many servers in Europe that are dead or low populated
  1. Kathranis's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Teeruk View Post
    I logged in on one of my alts on a different realm from my main the other day, I was 1/150 online and not one character in the guild was above 85, like some kinda ghost town.
    Maybe because it's full of alts belonging to players who spend most of their time on different realms (or in different guilds), just like you do.

    ---------- Post added 2013-02-08 at 08:54 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Curd3x View Post
    How come they have 9.6 million when they have sold about 4 milions of MoP?...dont understant this....i think from 9,6m are about 10-15% goldsellers...maybe more
    I don't understand your question at all.

    First of all, goldsellers use compromised (stolen) accounts to do their business. They don't buy new copies of the game and all the expansions just to farm gold, that would be ridiculous. They'd constantly be getting banned and having to buy new copies of the game and its expansions, and every time that happens they'd have to level their characters from scratch.

    Second of all, not every subscriber who plays WoW buys all the expansions. More importantly, in some regions the expansions aren't sold seperately and are instead released as free content patches.

    The number of players buying the expansions at launch have historically been about 30-40% of total players.
  1. The Small Hours's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kathranis View Post
    Maybe because it's full of alts belonging to players who spend most of their time on different realms (or in different guilds), just like you do.
    Possible, but even my realid friend list is becoming like a ghost town.

Site Navigation