Subscriptions only kept growing in Vanilla

[Unholyground]

The problem was other games, that is the true reason for the decline. People shift their tastes over time to other games and responsibilities.

[CrawlFromThePit]

Why wouldn't they keep growing when Classic is released? With an entire new population of gamers, fewer barriers to entry, stable internet now the norm, and with no requirements to buy the boxed game. There have been over 100 million WoW accounts made in WoW's lifetime. Do the math.

I anticipate that the number of Classic players will only continue to rise as the months go by.

It's concerning and baffling that your thought process could be so wrong. I'm not trying to be insulting, but if this is how you think about stuff you're gonna run into some problems in life.

[Enthusiastic Steward]

The problem was other games, that is the true reason for the decline. People shift their tastes over time to other games and responsibilities.

I still blame Cataclysm.

[Dudenoso]

It's concerning and baffling that your thought process could be so wrong. I'm not trying to be insulting, but if this is how you think about stuff you're gonna run into some problems in life.

Agreed. How high must someone be to think that launching the exact same product as in 2004 is gonna give you more or less the same results in 2019?

That's as good as saying if Xerox starts selling the LDX again there's gonna be a resurgence of fax machines.

[Maell]

Why wouldn't they keep growing when Classic is released? With an entire new population of gamers, fewer barriers to entry, stable internet now the norm, and with no requirements to buy the boxed game. There have been over 100 million WoW accounts made in WoW's lifetime. Do the math.

I anticipate that the number of Classic players will only continue to rise as the months go by.

[Unholyground]

I still blame Cataclysm.

I mean, it didn't help that is for sure. I do think general interest was lost, but going from Lich King to a recycled character was a slap in the face too.

[Enthusiastic Steward]

I mean, it didn't help that is for sure. I do think general interest was lost, but going from Lich King to a recycled character was a slap in the face too.

Well devil's advocate Lich King could be called a recycled character too. And a lot of it for me is personal preference, everything in current retail I dislike has its roots in Cat, so it's an easy finger-point with the numbers dropping as soon as it launched.

In my personal opinion which is right and correct, they should have started with Deathwing and Twilight's Hammer more being the nebulous threat over Classic culminating in Deathwing re-opening the Dark Portal to return to Outland in search of his brood there. We fight Deathwing first in TBC while stumbling into conflict with Illidan and all that business and then while the armies of Azeroth are distracted the Lich King makes his move leading into WotLK blah blah blah and then we can move in a different direction after WotLK.
But meh.

[Unholyground]

Well devil's advocate Lich King could be called a recycled character too. And a lot of it for me is personal preference, everything in current retail I dislike has its roots in Cat, so it's an easy finger-point with the numbers dropping as soon as it launched.

Well he wasn't recycled as much as her was frozen for 4 years at the end of WC3:TFT and it was an inevitability.

[Misuteri]

Why wouldn't they keep growing when Classic is released? With an entire new population of gamers, fewer barriers to entry, stable internet now the norm, and with no requirements to buy the boxed game. There have been over 100 million WoW accounts made in WoW's lifetime. Do the math.

I anticipate that the number of Classic players will only continue to rise as the months go by.

Past performance does not guarantee future results. Buggy whip sales are at an all time high!

Message board translation; I haz graph, graph sez I am rite!

[cparle87]

Vanilla attracted so many players initially because of its Warcraft IP and because it was the most casual and least grindy MMO on the market at the time. It appealed to the more casual players-base that was bigger than the super hardcore. Also Vanilla didn't have to compete with modern quick games like Apex, Hearthstone, OW, TFT, LoL, Fortnite.

This. Early WoW was a perfect storm, an enigma, a once in a lifetime fluke. When those circumstances changed it began to decline, not through any fault of its own.

[Enthusiastic Steward]

Well he wasn't recycled as much as her was frozen for 4 years at the end of WC3:TFT and it was an inevitability.

Yeah I'm being nitpicky.

I'm also remembering back to the early days when people started talking about expansions and there were consistently 4 that came up: Outland, Northrend, Great Sea, Emerald Dream. Obviously there were other ideas but these 4 were pretty universal when lists were made. So TBC came out and everyone went "Obviously" and WotLK came out and everyone went "Obviously" and Cat came out and everyone went "Ok. I mean yay for flying in Azeroth but, ok."

[hyphnos]

Why wouldn't they keep growing when Classic is released? With an entire new population of gamers, fewer barriers to entry, stable internet now the norm, and with no requirements to buy the boxed game. There have been over 100 million WoW accounts made in WoW's lifetime. Do the math.

I anticipate that the number of Classic players will only continue to rise as the months go by.

You mean the math where 100 million people tried it and something like 3 to 5 million liked it?

That math?

[Unholyground]

Yeah I'm being nitpicky.

I'm also remembering back to the early days when people started talking about expansions and there were consistently 4 that came up: Outland, Northrend, Great Sea, Emerald Dream. Obviously there were other ideas but these 4 were pretty universal when lists were made. So TBC came out and everyone went "Obviously" and WotLK came out and everyone went "Obviously" and Cat came out and everyone went "Ok. I mean yay for flying in Azeroth but, ok."

Honestly, I think we are about to go into the Emerald Dream for 8.3, We all think of Ny'alotha as in the depths of the ocean but it is far more likely it is rooted in the Emerald Dream. So I expect if not 8.3 it will be part of the next expansion 100%.

[cparle87]

100M was reported during MoP. Vannila, TBC had giant retantion rate. People start quiting game in wotlk and game adopt trend of sub spikes with content updates becousr game become so accessible thay people run out of stuff to do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_ignorance

Might want to familiarize yourself with the content of this wiki page.

[Ragu4]

My gut keeps growing too, hopefully I'll get less carb subscriptions so it will go back down.

[Enthusiastic Steward]

Honestly, I think we are about to go into the Emerald Dream for 8.3, We all think of Ny'alotha as in the depths of the ocean but it is far more likely it is rooted in the Emerald Dream. So I expect if not 8.3 it will be part of the next expansion 100%.

I've been assuming we would go there in some capacity in the near future since they revamped the 'Nightmare look' in Legion with Val'sharah.

[seventysix]

Impossible, classic wow does not have trendy dances for hooligans to perform at every middle school pep rally.

[cuafpr]

vanilla grew cause it was new.... product life cycle is your friend here....

[Malikath]

>that WoD drop.
and they still think that's a successful model...

[Lillyth]

Vanilla WoW did great for a long time all the way up to Wrath of the Lich King because:
Story Elements:

• Arthas storyline continues in WOTLK finally.
• Illidan story continues with an ominous "YOU, ARE NOT, PREPARED!"
• Lord of the Rings upbeat the mood for Medieval Fantasy worlds which is what Warcraft is.
• Many elements from Warcraft 1, 2 and 3 present.

Game elements:

• Most MMO's are nowhere near as user-friendly at the time.
• Casuals can just boot up the game and start, find their way one quest at a time.
• Interesting new art style
• Easy to learn game that allows you to explore as much as you want.

This is just scratching the surface when you combine it with the breathtaking and emotionally invested Cinematics! The Wrath of the Lich King cinematic continues where Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne left off, setting the perfect stage for those yearning for the story to continue.


Setting the stages higher and higher, starting out as nothing but as an adventurer. You finally are slowly but surely recognized as "Hero" during The Burning Crusade which ended in an extremely familiar Outland with focus on the demons & Sin'Dorei. Followed closely by the familiar sight of The Lich King sitting in the Frozen Throne and awakening as the player is excited to become a Death Knight for the first time.

To answer you. Everything added up, that's why it did so well. It was a magical series of events that worked in favour of Blizzard and they did nothing wrong in tailoring the expansions just like they tailored the Warcraft 3 & The Frozen Throne Campaign.