Earnings Call - WoW Classic: Biggest Quarterly Increase in Subs in History

[Firebeast]

Remember, it was obvious Classic would result in a massive influx on players--there was no question there. The answers we haven't got that I am interested in are:

- How is Classic doing now (servers are becoming lower pops)?
- How it Retail doing now (servers are becoming higher pops, but leveled out and haven't changed for a few weeks now)?
- Obviously tons of players tried Classic and ended up on Retail. Similarly, plenty of Retail players went to Classic. How many of those first-classic players are not playing anymore and how many players from Classic ended up staying on retail and those who went to classic, how many went back to retail?

From personal experience, players have not come back to retail. I know of entire guild that have switched Classic with no intention of coming back any time soon. What would have been interesting would be to have had numbers of people who subscribed ONLY for Classic

[Nokami]

From personal experience, players have not come back to retail. I know of entire guild that have switched Classic with no intention of coming back any time soon. What would have been interesting would be to have had numbers of people who subscribed ONLY for Classic

We had other experiences, no one out of the guild plays anymore, but we are raiders and classic has literally nothing that is exciting in that regard.

[Chromell]

No you won't, because that is a terrible can of worms that they would rather not open. What about when people start demanding 1.12 again after the move forward? What about if people like the next patch, but not the one after?

What will happen if the interest shows to be greater than an average one is that retail will start to pull back to some of the old philosophies. That is all, not a Classic+. I mean hell they said they still need to figure out how to do TBC/WotLK right, and those are much easier to manage than a Classic+.

Did you reply to the wrong comment?

[TJ]

WoW was relevant as the biggest MMORPG out there since forever, calm down.

Relevant where? It was pretty much dead on Twitch and there's more negative reception for new expacs than I've ever seen. Classic reached record numbers for a lot of things and is booming in comparison, it brought back many memorable/famous players.

[glowpipe]

Except Blizzard will always be driven by revenue, which they can measure as metric by what subscribers are playing. Having the largest bump in subs ever really is significant. If they see that Classic remains the driving force, as in way more people are active in it than in retail (I'm not saying this is the case, mind you), I guarantee we will see a shift of resource and focus.

1-2 million subs that won't last aint that much revenue for them tho. Considering they made over 150 000 000 euro, minimum, the first day of bfa from expansion sales alone, not counting shop, services and token sales. For classic to reach that revenue, they need a month with 15 million subs. or keep 1 million subs for 15 months. Thats just to make the same as day 1 of bfa. which was easily over 200 000 000 euros

[TJ]

1-2 million subs that won't last aint that much revenue for them tho. Considering they made over 150 000 000 euro, minimum, the first day of bfa from expansion sales alone, not counting shop, services and token sales. For classic to reach that revenue, they need a month with 15 million subs. or keep 1 million subs for 15 months. Thats just to make the same as day 1 of bfa. which was easily over 200 000 000 euros

Won't last says who? Your undying hate for Classic? Solid.

[Redroniksre]

Did you reply to the wrong comment?

You are god damn right i did. I did it once and i'll do it again!

[Tabrotar]

"Reach is the number of people you touch with your marketing message or the number of people that are exposed to your message." - So basically useless... It doesn't equal results. It just means they ramped up their advertising. And "deep engagement" means what? 1 million are playing? Why can't blizzard put numbers on the screen if they are so "deep".

They stopped doing that bcs seeing the player numbers for wow decline almost every earning call made them shit their pants.

[Kralljin]

1-2 million subs that won't last aint that much revenue for them tho. Considering they made over 150 000 000 euro, minimum, the first day of bfa from expansion sales alone, not counting shop, services and token sales. For classic to reach that revenue, they need a month with 15 million subs. or keep 1 million subs for 15 months. Thats just to make the same as day 1 of bfa. which was easily over 200 000 000 euros

Now take the production cost into account.

A handful of Software / Server Engineers vs. the entire BfA dev team.

The current WoW team counted like 60+ heads last i heard.

[Nokami]

Relevant where? It was pretty much dead on Twitch and there's more negative reception for new expacs than I've ever seen. Classic reached record numbers for a number of things and is booming in comparison, it brought back many memorable/famous players.

Twitch as a metric is just so dumb and useless in general, as big streamers pull all the weight like Asmongold or Esfand. Classic was obviously doomed to reach the highest increase in subscribers in a quartal (not players in general), as it's basicly a free game without the inital 40 Dollar price point of expansions. If Classic would have a initial price those numbers would be very very different. The real questions are not answered in this call, like how much did continue playing after the first month? Seeing the queues are not there anymore and the general engagement in the open world is very limited now this would be interesting.

[Kyphael]

Sure is with me ....https://www.statista.com/statistics/...ters-by-class/ still least played class, even after monks.

But that was just a quick google and the first result I pulled, not a deep research...so I don't know.

Damn... less popular thank monk? Um, I'm wondering if that has to do with the monk speed boost so people could get their heritage armor because I see demon hunters everywhere. They're like DK's in Wrath.

[Nagawithlegs]

Why are people still fighting about Classic vs Retail?

[Relapses]

Beautiful. It just makes sense to you that people didn't play retail wow (for whatever reason) before classic but they will surely start doing it now. Because those reasons are going to disappear?

Yes? While I'm sure you have super fucking cool ideas about what did or didn't make WoW great, most people don't give a shit. It's a different flavor of the same ice cream.

Apart from being utterly illogical, your calling my only buying games I like a "moral repulsion" is preposterous. What kind of a twisted world do you live in where every time you don't pay for something it's a moral choice. Is going to a steakhouse instead of mcdonalds a moral choice too? I don't play retail wow anymore because I don't like it. Same way I don't like crappy food, cheap beer or crossovers(cars). Being generous here and assuming you're an adult that's actually capable of appreciating the ridiculousness of it.

The fact that you see retail the same way as you see crappy food, cheap beer and crossovers is all the evidence anybody would ever need to understand your distaste for retail is anything worth discussing.

As for the rest - "is anecdotal at best." is more than you have. Because you're pulling everything you said straight out of your ass. Unlike you I actually play and talk to other classic players. In the actual game, not some discord or whatever internet echo chamber you're basing your opinion on. Assuming it's not just your fantasy.

Oh, okay. I didn't realize that you talked to every single Classic WoW player in existence. My bad, I now see the err in my ways.

Jesus fucking Christ dude. Not everybody hates retail with the unbridled passion as you. Simply suggesting that there exist people who might enjoy both versions of the game shouldn't ellicit this much of a reaction.

[Kyphael]

???

Has nothing to do with Q1 in 2020. New class wouldn't be playable until likely the 4th quarter of 2020 regardless.

Yeah, slow moment. lol I meant Q4.

[glowpipe]

Now take the production cost into account.

A handful of Software / Server Engineers vs. the entire BfA dev team.

The current WoW team counted like 60+ heads last i heard.

Yeah, bfa cost more to make, but still made them a shitton more profit then classic.

[Celarent]

Won't last says who? Your undying hate for Classic? Solid.

At least we've got them talking about millions of subscribers. Goalposts have been moved so many times the field's like 15,000 yards.

[Doffen]

That's great news. Thank you classic, I still think I don't, but it sure helps.

[glowpipe]

Won't last says who? Your undying hate for Classic? Solid.

Before classic i was invited to a classic guild. On discord in the days before classic came out we had over 400 members coming back. We had spreadsheets with classes, roles and everything ready to go. Out of those 400+ members, we currently only have 72 people left. not even half of them are active and we need to pug people to raid. So based on that retention rate and not my "hate" for the game im currently playing. But you do you

[themaster24]

Relevant where? It was pretty much dead on Twitch and there's more negative reception for new expacs than I've ever seen. Classic reached record numbers for a lot of things and is booming in comparison, it brought back many memorable/famous players.

Twitch viewership is not what makes a game relevant. It makes relevant in streaming metrics, but not as an MMORPG. WoW has continued to be the most successful MMO year after year. No other MMO has been able to topple it, no matter how much bluster people throw out.

Classic brought a huge increase in subs, but no one knows yet how long the success it found will last. We also don't actually know how much was retained since October, as they were intentionally vague on that point. Citing reach could mean that people still clicked through on ads, it has nothing to do with active players. Regardless, we will have to see how long Classic maintains a healthy playerbase. It could last 3 months, 6 months, a year. It could fizzle out after the holidays or after Shadowlands drops. The most likely scenario will find Classic hitting a relative plateau after a certain point and hovering there for the foreseeable future.

However, it's evident that, just like retail, subs are already starting to dip. It's what happens, as many players sub for a short period of to enjoy the game, then pop off for a while, only to return later. Let's see how the ship steers in the next 3/6 months (3 months will likely be shortly after 8.3 drops, and 6 will be the drought in between 8.3/8.3.5 and 9.0). I'm very curious to see what the metrics show during these timeframes.

[LordVargK]

attracted a number of returning players who will end up playing retail once they grow tired of Classic.

well, I would be one of those players. Classic wasn't for me so I switched to BfA, got my flying and now the anniversary mount. And thus I canceled my sub, because there's nothing I would like to do anymore in BfA, as I don't enjoy the game anymore than at the launch of Beta for Azeroth. Getting to see (and much, MUCH worse: to HEAR) Sylvanas in the new expansion is not very promising as well.
I recon there will be a massive drop in subscriber numbers in Q1 2020, because i can imagine that there are more people like me.