WoW Down to 8.3 Million Subscribers
Activision Blizzard's press release states that World of Warcraft is down to 8.3 million subscribers. This is a loss of 1.3 million, down from 9.6 million last quarter. Most of the loss came from the East once again.

  • Blizzard expects to have less subscribers at the end of the year than they do today.
  • Most of the decline in subscribers came from China.
  • There has been less engagement by casual players.
  • Blizzard is going to work on improving the experience for returning players.
  • Blizzard All Stars and Titan will not be released in 2013 according to the slide below.
  • Heart of the Swarm was the #1 PC game of the quarter, selling 1.1 million copies in two days.
  • There has been increased competition with F2P games in Asia.
  • Players consume content faster and subscribe and unsubscribe as new content is added.

This article was originally published in forum thread: WoW Down to 8.3 Million Subscribers started by chaud View original post
Comments 904 Comments
  1. Dalanos's Avatar
    I'm disappointed in the fact that All-stars and Titan will not be coming out this year.
  1. Celista's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Incandio View Post
    This is it for me. The "level up / gear up" cycle is just getting old. With every new XP the zero to hero cycle is reset. It's classic Sisyphus. People are addicted to progress that is actually fruitless labor.
    I always thought attaching so much stats to your gear was kindof silly. Gear should be aesthetic only imo....

    I'd like to see more of a modified Path of the Titans system where you gain power, talents etc through pvp/pve achievements.

    ---------- Post added 2013-05-08 at 07:16 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Dalanos View Post
    I'm disappointed in the fact that All-stars and Titan will not be coming out this year.
    There was no way Titan was going to come out this year, it hasn't even been announced yet. I'm assuming the announcement will happen at Blizzcon.
  1. Magemaer's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by valcrist View Post
    Wow is a great game for how longs its been out but its time is coming and they know that, hence Titans release probably in the next 1-2 years.
    WoW is still a ridiculously awesome franchise. They just did A LOT of design mistakes that hurt the game and didn't do justice to the franchise and the quality of the game we saw on tbc.
    Who knows if they'll get it right again in the future?
  1. Garrikk's Avatar
    Been out for 9 years and still has 8.3 million subs.
    OMG WOW IS DEAD LOLOL YOU'RE STILL SUBSCRIBED?
  1. thatmikeguy's Avatar
    Blizzard expects to have less subscribers at the end of the year than they do today.
    Because doing the wrong thing over and over, makes things like that! LoL

    Most of the decline in subscribers came from China.
    People who have more money available now, have more options! Like other single player games! LoL

    There has been less engagement by casual players.
    Because LFR and mindless questing SUCK! They do not need to look at their screen to get things done. But at the same time this is not fixable, because of the amount of people who do not care that are doing LFR! New players are NOT learning anything! What are guilds used for!?!

    Blizzard is going to work on improving the experience for returning players.
    With free stuff! This is as mindless as dumping 100 billion dollars out of a jet over Chicago! Same result.

    Blizzard All Stars and Titan will not be released in 2013 according to the slide below.
    Who cares if they suck? Herthstone is no more engaging than many flash games! Especially if everything tis already known, how dumb of an idea was that?
    [*]There has been increased competition with F2P games in Asia.
    Even with more money overall they still have far more people with free time.
    [*]Players consume content faster and subscribe and unsubscribe as new content is added.
    That's because Bliz made it that way!! Is this statement blaming the customer for doing exactly what they are told? LoL!! Content is consumed as fast as it's allowed period! If they wanted they could have far higher set of everything. Not having dungeons that people must do more than one time, and choosing to make one time scenarios that many people may never see? LoL!! Heroic scenarios? ONLY would work if it was mandatory for NEW progression gear!!

    Bliz, you are on the wrong path! The communities are WoW, M"M"O!!! United we stand, divided we....! I can soon buy a PS4 and NextBox for a single player game! Why would I play WoW as a single player?

    There are no surprises whatsoever in WoW today, WHY?!? Want to bring subscribers back? Have their friends telling them things like "You wouldn't believe what happened yesterday when I logged into WoW!". Content!
  1. Bogrim's Avatar
    I think that the MMORPG scene is just in decline. It was very trendy and popular, but nowadays most FTP games offer a far better competitive experience at no cost where you don't have to grind to begin playing. While new players still have the entire world to explore, veteran players don't really have anything left to explore outside the release of a new expansion and quit until content worth exploring is released again. WoW however runs a lot on socialization with a very polite and welcoming community (with battleground chat being the black sheep), which will naturally keep the game running for years to come.

    I'm one of those players---I want to play the game again, I really do, but I just can't be bothered paying for the same kind of content I've been playing for several years. I look forward to what decisions Blizzard will be making to improve the experience for returning players, maybe they can still win me back. :-)
  1. hulkgor's Avatar
    I reckon the West could use with some server mergers to inject life into a lot of the less populated realms.
  1. thatmikeguy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by hulkgor View Post
    I reckon the West could use with some server mergers to inject life into a lot of the less populated realms.
    WHY? HOW does having even more people to NOT do anything with help anything?
  1. ringpriest's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tomana View Post
    Because they don't need to. Every step you take is in the database and the logs. What you did, where you went, what you purchased etc...
    So there is no need to ask stuff like "do you prefer PVE or PVP" or "what class do you play the most", all the data is already there it is "only" a matter of exploiting it.
    They think they don't need to. Which is sheer arrogance. For example, that sort of data-mining can tell you stuff like, "Players run lots of dailies". It won't tell you that players hate dailies, but run them anyway because they're the most time-efficient way to earn something they think they need. And then you get blindsided by, say, a loss of 1.3 million subs.
  1. theredviola's Avatar
    I wonder how many subs WoW could keep if they rewarded long term subs instead of people who quit and simply came back?
  1. thatmikeguy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Bogrim View Post
    I think that the MMORPG scene is just in decline. It was very trendy and popular, but nowadays most FTP games offer a far better competitive experience at no cost where you don't have to grind to begin playing. While new players still have the entire world to explore, veteran players don't really have anything left to explore outside the release of a new expansion and quit until content worth exploring is released again. WoW however runs a lot on socialization with a very polite and welcoming community (with battleground chat being the black sheep), which will naturally keep the game running for years to come.

    I'm one of those players---I want to play the game again, I really do, but I just can't be bothered paying for the same kind of content I've been playing for several years. I look forward to what decisions Blizzard will be making to improve the experience for returning players, maybe they can still win me back. :-)
    Bliz, read this one!! COMMUNITY=GUILDS

    Make guilds better! Add surprise (content), random events (content), and story lines that are exciting! (content).

    Failboat ideas: Have people do more things that do not require the second M in MMO. Build things that take as much or almost as much time building as something that is a kind of actual progression for something (anything). Changing the game for the kinds of players that will soon be playing a PS4 anyway. Giving rewards for nothing, or almost nothing. Changing things that were far more difficult one or two patches ago, so that people start believing they can wait and do, or get, everything eventually far easier or for nothing. Anything that makes a players accountability less in an MMO.
  1. Malkhor's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by crakerjack View Post
    jeez, don't take your anger out on me... I'm sorry your game isn't as good as you like to believe it is... just because you're mad doesn't mean you have to show hostility towards me.
    If you can't see how your "holier than thou, i am such a genius" attitude makes people respond to you in this way I'm sorry, so just to clear it up, people will respond negatively to such an attitude.

    PS: I would not be surprised if you wear a fedora. :d
  1. Lemons's Avatar
    I think MoP's downfall is they're trying to milk the player too much. They need to go back to the wrath model...no rep gates, you just grind vp and buy the gear, and every new patch resets the cycle so new players can catch up quickly...right now anyone coming back to the game is treated to a perversely complicated gearing ladder that will only get worse as the final patches are added to this expac. Unless, of course, Blizzard returns to a friendlier gearing model.
  1. Spammeister's Avatar
    Double gating was the single worst idea they ever decided to try again. No matter how much they keep "fixing" it it's just artificial walled in walls. Whoever thought it was a good idea need to be taken out back and flogged and shown as an example to everyone Blizzaro who would try something so stupid as that again.

    The guild I was in died since MoP (maybe because of it), and basically I'm only playing because my subscription hasn't expired yet. Blizzard will have to do something magical to get me to renew, and wrapping another 1 year annual pass around a new game won't work this time, they fooled me badly with Diablo III and the total debacle that game turned out to be.
  1. Isolyphic's Avatar
    World of Warcraft has became a theme park. It's not a fun MMO anymore.
  1. Egeldi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by segoplout View Post
    There is nothing more in the market in MMOs, Wow is still a Goliath. What are you talking about exactly?
    I'm talking long term trends here. I didn't mean to imply that WoW will go off the market within a year. What I meant was that it is slowly going to bleed subs over time as more and more F2P competitors hit the market. While certainly WoW is the highest quality MMO currently available, its hard to compete with free.

    I never see it hitting more than 10 million subs again (maybe for a brief period at the next expansion, but dipping down again quickly) and I wouldn't be suprised if it was down to 5 million in about 2-3 more years.
  1. TheWerebison's Avatar
    It's honestly stupid to post numbers on this website. It only leads to discussions that involve peoples opinions. No new knowledge is shared. Baseless conjecture and heated arguments about a topic we have only the TINIEST bit of information about. The internet. Thank you, Al Gore! :P
  1. GreatOak's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Spammeister View Post
    Double gating was the single worst idea they ever decided to try again. No matter how much they keep "fixing" it it's just artificial walled in walls. Whoever thought it was a good idea need to be taken out back and flogged and shown as an example to everyone Blizzaro who would try something so stupid as that again.

    The guild I was in died since MoP (maybe because of it), and basically I'm only playing because my subscription hasn't expired yet. Blizzard will have to do something magical to get me to renew, and wrapping another 1 year annual pass around a new game won't work this time, they fooled me badly with Diablo III and the total debacle that game turned out to be.
    This.

    Slowing down the rate at which players can get VP (and in turn, gear) by lowering the amounts from dungeons and making dailies damn near required is stupid. Whats worse is that they didnt give us more to do at all. They just made all options unappealing and gave us artificial choice. They need to go back to the WoTLK model where you arent punished for having alts
  1. Ruck's Avatar
    hah called it!
  1. Utinil's Avatar
    For those shrugging it off because "most" were in the East. Most players are from the East, so it is natural that most will always be from the East. Also go back and look at every time they have announced a subscriber loss, it has been the East, the fact that they even mention this is to draw attention away.

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