WoW Down to 9.6 Million Subscribers

[Jagoex]

God you fanboys never quit.

Neither do the haters.

That said, 9.6 million is likely a statistically significant drop from "over 10 million." Anything amounting to a drop of ~5% will raise investors' eyebrows.

[Hobb]

While not a huge hit, it does show in which direction the subs will be going between now and the next expansion.

[jason1975]

I think what most of the "500k? So What?" crowd is implying is this. In the grand scheme of things the loss of 500,000 subscribers will in no meaningful way impact the current game. Servers will not be merging. Subscription fees will not be decreasing (or increasing). Expansions and content will not be churned out at a greater pace, nor will micro-transactions burst into being at a greater pace than they already have been.

Subscription-based services are rarely as stable as one might dream. But we're talking of a drop from 10,000,000+ to 9,600,000. That's not even 1/10th of the subscription base. That's not even 1% of the subscription base. It's not even outside the realm of acceptable subscription losses given past quarterly earning reports and the general ebb and flow of World of Warcraft subscriptions.

Every time an expansion launches subscriptions soar. Then subscriptions dwindle down until a major content patch. Then they go back up again. Then as we wait on the next patch they taper down. So forth, so on. One day WoW will fade away into nothingness, but a 500,000 subscription loss isn't going to hasten it into an early grave.

A well reasoned logical post in this thread? AWAY WITH YOU!!

[mikencarly]

Well done blizzard!9.6 milion for a 8 year old game = WINNING! CHARLIE SHEEN STYLE!

[Immitis]

Currently I'm guessing?

there will NEVER be an mmo with more than 5 million players besides wow atleast in the next 10 years, why? because wow was a freak success not the norm.

blizzard took everquest made it alot easier and more casual and slapped some warcraft lore on it and somehow managed to take a genre that only had about 500k people interested in it and made it mainstream.

i bet if you went back in time and told chris metzen one day wow would have a million subscribers he would laugh in your face and say i wish man

[Deleted]

Good, one wotlk kid less. People nowadays expect to get everything for free without putting in any effort.

Reading your other posts in this news post, get the fuck out if you're so biased. 5 years ago would be during Burning Crusade. Everyone who has left wow during MoP didn't start in wotlk or cata, lots of vanilla and BC players have taken their leave too, you know.

Edit:
And why does someone always bring another MMO into the discussion? It has abso-fucking-lutely nothing to do with the amount of WoW subscribers.

[FeralSynapse]

Those who left are probably people that havent played prior to WotLK, because they cant handle the grind and effort which the game requires again.
Its nothing to be upset about, wotlk and cata kids...

I am honestly going to laugh at this idea. I'll admit to being a Cata baby-but I'm not going anywhere either. Not all new players are bad or mind a bit of a grind to this game. This idea that new players = bad is a bit insulting imo. I know quite a few people (myself included) that have ranked in WoL in the top 50 on current encounters and they have been playing the game for less than 2 years. If anything I see older players leaving.

[Kilpi]

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?

The golden age in my opinion ended the day patch 3.0 was released.

[Zokten]

there will NEVER be an mmo with more than 5 million players besides wow atleast in the next 10 years, why? because wow was a freak success not the norm.

blizzard took everquest made it alot easier and more casual and slapped some warcraft lore on it and somehow managed to take a genre that only had about 500k people interested in it and made it mainstream.

i bet if you went back in time and told chris metzen one day wow would have a million subscribers he would laugh in your face and say i wish man

So guessing you don't know about RO or are forgetting it?

[Sevarin]

since wow is dead with only 9.6 million subs... i think im gonna quit as well, you guys all should too... poor dead game.

[Deleted]

Except the game losing players doesn't have a direct effect on me, yet. Sometimes I think people jump ship because there is a perception that the game is bleeding rather than asking the question "Am I still having fun?"

It shouldn't have an effect on you... Well maybe if a lot of players from your realm/realmpool would've stopped but I guess that's not the case, so yeah, it doesn't have a direct effect on you. But that's not the point anyway.

[Reyzzz]

yeah well it's been like 5 months since last patch, they're too slow with content, people get bored, I figure it will increase a bit again when new patch is released. at least i'll subscribe then myself.

I'm just gonna quote this so everyone can see how ignorant you are.

[ro9ue]

there will NEVER be an mmo with more than 5 million players besides wow atleast in the next 10 years, why? because wow was a freak success not the norm.

blizzard took everquest made it alot easier and more casual and slapped some warcraft lore on it and somehow managed to take a genre that only had about 500k people interested in it and made it mainstream.

i bet if you went back in time and told chris metzen one day wow would have a million subscribers he would laugh in your face and say i wish man

Very true. I mean when you think big picture, even 9.6mil is an amazing amount of subs to have for a game this old. To think I was 9 years younger when I started playing.... lol

[Shaley]

Not sure how its "impossible"

I guess I should reword it to "Improbable" to sate the trolls.

What other things from 2004 are you still doing? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_in_video_gaming

Are you still playing Doom 3, or Pikmin 2, by chance? Perhaps JFK: Reloaded.

I'm willing to bet that the entire calendar year of 2004's videogame releases, excluding World of Warcraft, has sub 250,000 people playing their games. And WoW still has 9.6 Million.

Blizzard has earned [Doing the Improbable]

[Reyzzz]

So guessing you don't know about RO or are forgetting it?

Oh I know reverse osmosis pretty well, thank you.

[Dundebuns]

Losing ~5% of your market is a big deal. I dread to think what it will drop too before the next expansion.

[Marsha]

All that matters is how much money Blizzard made this past quarter. It's up....end of thread.

[Sett]

Not bad seeing how the annual pass is now over.

[Immitis]

So guessing you don't know about RO or are forgetting it?

oh sorry i guess i forgot to put SUBSCRIBER BASED MMO.

ro is a free to play korean game

[Zokten]

oh sorry i guess i forgot to put SUBSCRIBER BASED MMO.

ro is a free to play korean game

So thats why it had subs till 2011?