Interest in WoW declining over time - Google Trends

[Wilfire]

Now this is not a very accurate indicator of how many subscribers there are in game but since Blizzard has stopped providing us data, we have to make do with what we have.

https://trends.google.co.uk/trends/e...date=all&q=WoW
https://trends.google.co.uk/trends/e...all&q=Warcraft
https://trends.google.co.uk/trends/e...0of%20Warcraft

Each of these charts shows a steep downwards slope. Right now there's less interest in "WoW" than there was during the lowest point of WoD, despite Legion being a (mostly) better expansion. Why do expansions lately have such horrible player retention to compared to classics like Vanilla, TBC and WotLK? It looks like interest in WoW had peaked in 2008-2009 and now it's just waning slowly over time and there's nothing that can be done about it. Even if the next expansion is as good as WotLK was, it's doubtful that it would reignite the same excitement people had for WoW a decade ago.

Do you think Blizzard keep making WoW for the remaining playerbase or focus on a WoW 2 project to get to those crazy high sub numbers again?

[XDurionX]

Google trends says nothing about player retention. I can't remember when i had to google "wow" for anything. All i need is wowhead and mmo-c.

Plus there will never be a WoW 2, would just not be reasonable.

[Darsithis]

This is only web searches. That means nothing about people actually playing.

[Deleted]

I never google WoW, I have my MMO-C and Wowhead on shortcuts and that's all the WoW websites I need.

[Wilfire]

Google trends says nothing about player retention. I can't remember when i had to google "wow" for anything. All i need is wowhead and mmo-c.

Plus there will never be a WoW 2, would just not be reasonable.

https://trends.google.co.uk/trends/e...=all&q=WoWhead
https://trends.google.co.uk/trends/e...q=MMO-Champion

There you go. Same decline. A certain % of players googles WoW-related content. If number of those people drops, it means the number of players in total is also dropping.

[SoulSoBreezy]

Google trends says nothing about player retention. I can't remember when i had to google "wow" for anything. All i need is wowhead and mmo-c.

Plus there will never be a WoW 2, would just not be reasonable.

Pretty much this.
When most WoW related news is curated into MMOC, Wowhead, Reddit and other fansites, what's there to search for?

[Deleted]

[There you go. Same decline. A certain % of players googles WoW-related content. If number of those people drops, it means the number of players in total is also dropping.

the grasping at straws is STRONG in this one to prove his CLAIM....

[XDurionX]

https://trends.google.co.uk/trends/e...=all&q=WoWhead
https://trends.google.co.uk/trends/e...q=MMO-Champion

There you go. Same decline. A certain % of players googles WoW-related content. If number of those people drops, it means the number of players in total is also dropping.

More Players know it, so less have to google it. Logic, how does it work?

[Amaterasu65]

https://trends.google.co.uk/trends/e...=all&q=WoWhead
https://trends.google.co.uk/trends/e...q=MMO-Champion

There you go. Same decline. A certain % of players googles WoW-related content. If number of those people drops, it means the number of players in total is also dropping.

Wow, the Scandinavians really keep the game going.

OT, why would any1 google wowhead or MMO-C? These sites can be directed to via in-game's support as well so.

[Deleted]

I doubt anyone googles wow.
At this point people already know what is wow and don't need to google what is it and current players are not googling because there's no point.
Also those that don't use quick address bar I pity you.

[Kazuchika]

There you go. Same decline. A certain % of players googles WoW-related content. If number of those people drops, it means the number of players in total is also dropping.

You are unbelievably dumb.

Like even by MMOChamp's subterranean standards for coherent intelligent discussion this scrapes the bottom of the barrel.

[Swalload]

Now this is not a very accurate indicator of how many subscribers there are in game but since Blizzard has stopped providing us data, we have to make do with what we have.

https://trends.google.co.uk/trends/e...date=all&q=WoW
https://trends.google.co.uk/trends/e...all&q=Warcraft
https://trends.google.co.uk/trends/e...0of%20Warcraft

Each of these charts shows a steep downwards slope. Right now there's less interest in "WoW" than there was during the lowest point of WoD, despite Legion being a (mostly) better expansion. Why do expansions lately have such horrible player retention to compared to classics like Vanilla, TBC and WotLK? It looks like interest in WoW had peaked in 2008-2009 and now it's just waning slowly over time and there's nothing that can be done about it. Even if the next expansion is as good as WotLK was, it's doubtful that it would reignite the same excitement people had for WoW a decade ago.

Do you think Blizzard keep making WoW for the remaining playerbase or focus on a WoW 2 project to get to those crazy high sub numbers again?

First of all, the crazy high numbers they had is not necessary to sustain the game, they don't even need to be a goal.
People know WoW, it's not a surprise or anything so as time goes by, there's less people who have a reason to look for WoW, specially on google, people go straight to MMO-C or whatever, there's less and less reason to search for WoW on google.

The game is old, and it plays exactly the same, they add content but nothing in terms of gameplay ever improves, inevitably that bores some people and they quit, it's just natural, nothing here is out of the norm. Do the same research for any games, you'll see the same thing, they keep people in the early stages, then lose people, and there's a wave of interest with every new content release, and eventually people move on. The fact that WoW has kept that many people for that long is already a gigantic accomplishment rarely seen in the industry, if WoW died with BfA it would die proud.

Even if all the following xpacks are factually better than everything ever seen before, it will not bring back as many people as it has during its prime, that's just not how it works and it's very foolish to think that's a possibility, the quality of a game is not the only thing making its success, people need to want it and right now people aren't into MMOs as much as they used to be.

[Firatha]

You are unbelievably dumb.

the grasping at straws is STRONG in this one to prove his CLAIM....

No WoW is dying thread in on first page must make my muh own shit post is pretty much this OP.

[Schattenlied]

MMOs in general are a dying breed. There hasn't been any new innovations in a long time

There haven't been any innovations in FPS for a long time either, they are still going strong... Innovations aren't required for a good game, well polished gameplay mechanics and decent balance are (and content, but I think that goes without saying).

[Soon-TM]

You are unbelievably dumb.

Like even by MMOChamp's subterranean standards for coherent intelligent discussion this scrapes the bottom of the barrel.

At least he bothered to do some research before posting, unlike you.

[BananaHandsB]

What this shows is that people do not need to google "WoW" or "Warcraft" nearly as much as in the past. WoW isn't a new thing. People don't need to google it nearly as much as when it was newer. This trend will continue no matter how well the game does because the longer the game is out people know where to go for their information rather than using google.

[Kazuchika]

At least he bothered to do some research before posting, unlike you.

Look at my profile. I been here for almost 6 years. I've been researching stupidity on these forums for over half a decade.

Imagine researching shit no one cares about and then posting dumb shit based on that useless information that literally no one cares about.

[Soon-TM]

I think that WoD damaged the game more than many want to admit. Or maybe it just speeeded up an already ongoing process.

Look at my profile. I been here for almost 6 years. I've been researching stupidity on these forums for over half a decade.

Mind showing the results, duly calibrated?

[Firatha]

At least he bothered to do some research before posting, unlike you.

meaningless info is still meaningless it being researched does not change that.

I think that WoD damaged the game more than many want to admit. Or maybe it just speeeded up an already ongoing process.



Mind showing the results, duly calibrated?

Or maybe its that after over a decade people know what world of warcraft is?

[Magister of Quelthalas]

Even WoW 2 won't save it.

MMOs in general are a dying breed. There hasn't been any new innovations in a long time - People try, but they just don't catch anyone's attention anymore.

WoW gets it's sub boost every time a new expansion comes out, because people hope that it'll be better this time, but it's just the same old grind. It will eventually die, but it will die simply out of age moreso than any changes made to the game.

I think WoW is doing great despite the gaming community's interests.