WoW Down to 6.8 Million Subscribers
Blizzard had their Q2 2014 earnings call today, announcing that WoW is down to 6.8 million subscribers. This is down 800k from the Q1 2014 call that listed WoW at 7.6 million subscribers.

  • There are now over 1.5 million preorders for Warlords of Draenor.
  • Hearthstone on the iPad has added millions of new users to Battle.Net.
  • There have been over 20 million copies of Diablo III sold, counting both the base game and Reaper of Souls.
  • There was a decline in subscribers quarter over quarter, which was disproportionately concentrated in the East and was similar to the seasonal decline experienced during the second quarter of 2012, prior to the launch of the most recent expansion later that year.

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This article was originally published in forum thread: WoW Down to 6.8 Million Subscribers started by chaud View original post
Comments 689 Comments
  1. Vecksi's Avatar
    I find the lack of 'ABANDON SHIP!!!!' responses disturbing.
  1. Baneleaf's Avatar
    I do wonder if this takes into account people like me with three accounts that turn the extra two down every month or two. My main account has never had a time it was not active since 2006 but the others are down for months at a time, especially since they killed pvp multiboxing.
  1. furydeath's Avatar
    oh man another drop you know what that mean's time for another blizz store item to come out.
  1. Beatndown's Avatar
    What kills it is lack of content for a year and the content being so easy for the hard core raiders. I mean 2 years worth of expansion but the last patch last a year. The should go back to 4 tiers a expansion and do a tier every 6 months.

    Example
    Jan new expansion drops.
    usually 1 descent raid and one small raid

    Small raid drops pre tier
    Larger drops tier

    Feb
    nothing amazing

    March
    nothing again

    April
    Small patch that is pre tier no raids just worldy events

    may
    nothing

    June
    nothing

    july
    New tier

    aug
    nothing

    Sept
    small patch up for coming tier

    Oct
    nothing

    Nov
    small 2-3 main raid no new tier just free loots

    Dec
    nothing


    Repeat another year
  1. saucywench's Avatar
    PPl can only take so much of the same old content but you know this is temporary, when WoD hits the numbers will increase.
  1. Polarthief's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tisane View Post
    I'm not someone who defends Blizzard's subs-decline by coming up with several excuses and that everything will be better later on again, but I definitely blame this one on the lack of content for almost a year now.
    It'll be 12 months come September, and it's expected that October will be the release, so it'll be 13 months. Blizzard fucked up (yet again) plain and simple. They just don't understand that these end-of-expansion dry periods are inexcusable.
  1. Lahis's Avatar
    Okay, time to shut down the servers! No way mere 6.8 million subs will be profitable!
  1. Hupriest's Avatar
    Meh, there isn't much to do on WoW anyway to be honest and I'm probably going to unsub till WoD due to this lull. It is still miles ahead of other MMOs so not sure what the panic here is all about.
  1. Celawien's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Arbs View Post
    The Flood gates are open, let me know if you want a Chair, Shades & Popcorn. I also got drinks on hand.
    yo over here

    in all honesty, who cares if the subs drop. less server lag imo.
  1. Polarthief's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vecksi View Post
    I find the lack of 'ABANDON SHIP!!!!' responses disturbing.
    Because everyone is fully aware of what's causing the sub dip. Anyone claiming "WOW IS DYING" is a moron. We've had no content for just about 12 months (another week will be a full year; 5.4 came out 9/10/13 and it's now 8/5/14), and that's simply unacceptable. We pay monthly for "more content", so that $180 that everyone spent has been for nothing, PLUS, you have to pay an additional $50 for the expansion.

    So, y'know, it's a no-brainer why we've had a massive sub loss.
  1. Turaska's Avatar
    I know one thing, Blizzard will be putting lots of overtime into WoD + 6.0 now given how many subs they lost since Q1, if I was a business that was essentially built around 1 golden goose atm i'd be bricking it if it was in decline so quickly, I think their "No content until WoD" thing kind of backfired on them a bit.
  1. charizma's Avatar
    of course the numbers will go up. but look at the last time they did. they went from 9.1 to 10. they WILL NOT jump that high again. with their amount of time, resources, and money im baffled at how their screwing this up so royally
  1. Theronus's Avatar
    WoW is dead.
    There, I said it.
  1. Shaktard's Avatar
    6.8million is still a massive number for a mmo and Blizzard is still making alot of cash with it.
  1. Forgottenone's Avatar
    My only hope is that this game drops just enough and a new mmo rises that competes with WoW. Competition does wonders, being the top dog for so many years lets you get away with a lot more. Not saying Blizzard has done anything but competition greatly benefits us players so I hope the numbers continue to drop. Not like it affects me, this game could lose 3-4 million subs and I would only notice anything if the content was pushed out slower
  1. Osmeric's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ravensword View Post
    I actually thought it would be wosre with all the drama, no content for a year as well as Wildstar launch. Also there a lot of MMO's that would love to have 800k subscribers, never mind lose them. As someone above me said, it would be interesting to see a current trend in all subscriptions based MMO's. By the looks of things in Wildstar and ESO they seem to be losing subscribers hand over fist as well. I really think it is just a steady decline in the genre rather than any particular game.
    ESO and Wildstar were plagued with bugs and design flaws, I understand. MMO audiences these days are not forgiving of these. Making a polished, reliable, balanced MMO is frightfully difficult.

    Going forward, I expect WoW will face fewer (or no) new AAA MMO competitors. Too many people have been burned making them.
  1. Kori's Avatar
    I wouldn't be surprised if they lied about the sub numbers tbh. I'm on Tichondrius which is the largest server in the game and it seems much emptier than usual. All my other servers I'm on are completely empty. That just leaves the question that I keep finding myself asking would they actually lie about that to reassure consumers?
  1. Polarthief's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Turaska View Post
    I think their "No content until WoD" thing kind of backfired on them a bit.
    Except they misled us thinking that we'd have only a 6 month period (tops) of no content, which is usually the higher-end of a tier, because they actually had a very good track record with 5.2 and 5.4. Sadly, they fucked up royally here.

    The no content until WoD thing is fine, they're just taking way too long with WoD itself. 6.0 won't even come until September, and the pre-expansion patch lasts a full 4 weeks before the expansion.
  1. Ayla's Avatar
    Im actually unsubbed for the first time in 8 years. Outside of a few day long rage quits for a week or two to show blizz I was unhappy. Aka real names etc
  1. Leih's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Turaska View Post
    I know one thing, Blizzard will be putting lots of overtime into WoD + 6.0 now given how many subs they lost since Q1, if I was a business that was essentially built around 1 golden goose atm i'd be bricking it if it was in decline so quickly, I think their "No content until WoD" thing kind of backfired on them a bit.
    Except their revenue has actually gone up in the same quarter, in spite of the sub losses (HS helped a lot with that).

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