WoW Down to 6.8 Million Subscribers

No surprise here, since people have winded down until the expansion.

I will sub either when we know the exact release date or 3 months before the release date, whichever comes later. So I may be resubbing as soon as 9 days from now! Need to get recruitment going for my guild and grind up a nice stockpile of gold.

It doesn't take an MBA to look at the graph and see that this isn't likely a trend to stop anytime soon. The game is in a clear gradual decline since the top 2009-2011, which the expansions basically just temporarily offset and slow. In fact it would be pretty easy to extrapolate the graph out figuring in a bump of ~2 million for WoD followed by more gradual decline. I've played in the beta and it's looking great but there isn't a game changing feature in it that will bring 5M subs back. Wow is unique though in that I think there is a floor to the graph. Wherever that floor point is (2M? 3M? 5M?) it will be down to the really hardcore subs that simply aren't ever going to unsub until Blizz pulls the plug or completely stops development.

Hahahahahahahahaha

keep in mind, this is q2. q3 ends sept 30. that's why they are telling people to log in for their bike (get some subs back).

the biggest problem with content droughts, like the gigantic one there is currently, is while some people will come back many people will not. and that's where you lose subs. don't keep people engaged with content and they will look elsewhere for their entertainment.

WoW isn't dead, but you can't argue that it's dieing.
WoD is the first expansion i can recall that doesn't trigger a feeling of re-subbing among most leavers. Shit is gonna hit the fan real soon.

Its a no brainer why subs have dropped (no, WoW is not dead/dying).
Its simply because most people have burned out from WoW. With SoO patch being out for almost a year, and no new content patches out, players get bored and drop out.
Theres only so many times you can run through a raid before you get sick and bored of doing it.

I wonder if this kind of dip has every happened before? You know, like at the end of an xpac, right before another one drops? #theskyisfalling

Originally Posted by Kori

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?

800k is a misleading number. Much more people than that have unsubbed in the last 3 months. 800k is only the difference between those who unsubbed and those who resubbed. The unsub exodus more than likely contained a lot of veteran players or those who play a lot. The truth is, 2 million could have unsubbed, but 1.2 million also resubbed. The majority of the player base is very casual, often just quest by themselves and don't talk to anymore, so servers would appear to be more empty than they actually are.

The bulletpoint in this news article sounds like it was written by Blizzard.

It's happening pretty slowly, but it's happening. And 800000 x $15 x n momths it's alot of money isnt it?
From the bussines standpoint, Blizzard is losing that money no matter what.

Originally Posted by Lahis

Okay, time to shut down the servers! No way mere 6.8 million subs will be profitable!

Technician: Roger that! (flips switch)

Most of the loses were in China. Revenues were fine. They just keep shedding all those China internet cafe accounts that never should have been counted as subscribers anyway.

I really do think that WoD is the expansion that will send people packing.

I think they are really missing the mark here.

Very interesting looking at the numbers:

~8 million around TBC launch on upward trend
~11 million around WotLK launch on upward trend
~12 million around Cata launch on flat trend...but ~9 million at Cata end = ~3 million loss
~10 million around MoP launch on declining trend...& now 6.8 million at MoP end = ~3.2 million loss

Big losses & almost down 50% on high of 12 million. Performance of WoD will be really telling about if WoW can climb up again or this is a slow terminal decline.

Unless it's some sort of business tactic - the drought in content really is disorganised for such a successful company.

"WoW is not dead or dying" this has been said for years. Obviously the game is going on. The word that you are all search for is decline. WoW is in decline and has been for a long time now. It will probably only get worse as time goes on.

every time there is a huge decline, people still say "hey, it's still successful!"

...6 mil subs! it's fine!

...3 mil subs! it's fine!

...900k subs! it's...under 1 mil?

at some point, blizzard needs to admit "hey, we keep fucking up". if you don't innovate, or keep fucking over customers with long content droughts, that is how you lose subs. also, i'm not sure a "filler" xpac like pandaland was a good idea. ironically, they lost business in china, the xpac that this was pandering to (no pun intended).

People need to quit saying " people will come back they always do ". If that were the case, the numbers wouldn't would be consistent. The only consistent is the decrease of player base. people AREN'T coming back. Quit three months ago because most of my friends/guild called it quits, and are off to other things. I won't be returning until Blizz can prove they can can make a stellar xpac, this game has gone to shit, and their " fuck it " attitude with PvP only proves it.

To be fair, a lot of people have probably unsubbed until WoD. After all, the lack of new content makes people very bored.

There will likely be a jump upwards in numbers (as is the trend with new expansions) once WoD gets released, but its unlikely that it will ever reach Wrath numbers again, ever.