World of Warcraft engagement is the highest in a decade at this point ahead of an exp

[Kralljin]

Trying to figure out the extent at which either game is impacting the other is ultimately pretty pointless.

You're just shifting the goalposts right now.

OP presented the idea that BfA (despite being an at best controversial expansion) seemingly holds decent subs, despite there actually being a pretty legitimate alternative explanation.

But please, go on and keep telling people "stop posting, we won't know for sure!".

[Traveler Voltin]

the 100% exp buff is probably helping

[Twdft]

Not really surprising. Pandemic made me work homeoffice with less workload... I literally levelled two chars to 120 on company time, don't tell my boss.

[Darknessvamp]

Funny that front page is different from what the press release actually says.

"Anticipation continues to build for Shadowlands, the next expansion for modern World of Warcraft coming in Q4. Engagement in the franchise is the highest it has been at this point ahead of an expansion in a decade."

That is far different from "World of Warcraft engagement is the highest in a decade at this point ahead of an expansion."

It could literally mean anything from there is far more hype/attention being paid to the game atm to there is slightly more people subbed during this end of expansion period as of this call compared to prior expansion lulls. Basically it's an extremely vague statement.

[Relapses]

You're just shifting the goalposts right now.

OP presented the idea that BfA (despite being an at best controversial expansion) seemingly holds decent subs, despite there actually being a pretty legitimate alternative explanation.

But please, go on and keep telling people "stop posting, we won't know for sure!".

Outside of the wojaks on this forum framing shitty arguments about how one version of the game is better than the other, who fucking cares about which game is doing better than the other? I'm not "shifting goal posts" or whatever the fuck you think, I'm telling you it doesn't fucking matter... because it doesn't fucking matter.

[Zyky]

Why are players more engaged now than in the past?

Gee I don't know. One word: Pandemic. It isn't rocket science.

There's also ZERO mention of the participation being in BFA, I see it significantly more likely the activity is in Classic.

[Stormdash]

Even with the added isolation from the global kerfuffle, I've never been more disengaged in WoW at this point in an expansion since I've been playing.

[McNeil]

Whats different now compared to Legion? Well we only got a worldwide pandemic where in some countries people aren't even allowed to leave their homes and others have to work from home, and the launch of Classic which since then has considerably increased the sub count and is going strong to this day. They haven't done much to hype up Shadowlands like they did with WoD, though I'm sure that the 100% XP buff also brought back some people. So basically its a combination of pandemic + Classic + 100% XP buff

[Kralljin]

who fucking cares about which game is doing better than the other?

I really have no idea why you once again bring up this subject, because no one else does.
My previous post virtually read:

Turning that into "Classic is superior to Retail" is reading way too much into it.

I really just seems to me that when someone brings up the subject of Classic being a factor for increased sub, you somehow take this as "Classic is doing better than Retail".
Which is a pretty huge stretch.

I'm telling you it doesn't fucking matter... because it doesn't fucking matter.

If someone presents a hypothesis that ignores obvious other factors, then people tend to have a discussion around it.

If you don't like that, then maybe forums aren't the sort of website you should engage in.

[Relapses]

I really have no idea why you once again bring up this subject, because no one else does.
My previous post virtually read:

I really just seems to me that if someone brings up the subject of Classic being a factor for increased sub, you somehow take this as "Classic is doing better than Retail".
Which is a pretty huge stretch.

If someone presents a hypothesis that ignores obvious other factors, then people tend to have a discussion around it.

If you don't like that, then maybe forums aren't the sort of website you should engage in.

There are no other "obvious factors" because any argument which introduces the possibility of Classic having an impact on subscriber levels is completely fucking meritless.

[Clozer]

Is the pandemic really the only reason why WoW is having more engagement? But, yeah Classic seems to be a big factor as well - didn't even think about that.

[arkanon]

Something to note - during this time, both sony and microsoft had serious trouble keeping their services live due to the unprecedented demand. Gaming in general went through the roof with everyone locked inside with nothing to do. Many people where completely unable to work for 1-2 months, most children were at home. Demand was so high it was literally crashing multiple platforms and throttling had to be used in some places.

Its good to see the demand is still there, its great, but lets not get too excited, and try to look at the bigger picture.

[Flurryfang]

Is the pandemic really the only reason why WoW is having more engagement? But, yeah Classic seems to be a big factor as well - didn't even think about that.

Its properly the prime reason. We are seeing this in nearly every other online market, the pandemic is increasing the hours people use online/home, so everything is just going up and up.

[Kralljin]

There are no other "obvious factors" because any argument which introduces the possibility of Classic having an impact on subscriber levels is completely fucking meritless.

Okay, believe what you want, but if you think there are no people that exclusively play Classic, then you do you.
Even in the presentation it straight up says "following the launch of Classic".

A rather odd hill to die on, because the argument would even be true if you only have like a few thousand people exclusively play Classic.

[Hellobolis]

they literally used the term "shelter-at-home conditions" in their slides, so i don't think it's a big secret.

it would have stayed much much closer to last years number without the pandemic.

further evidence is the big spike the gaming industry as a whole saw, that's a bit hard to contribute to individual companies performance.

[arkanon]

Pretty much every single corporate press release is full of misleading but technically true statistics.

It’s not corporate but look at how the government handles covid:

A surge in cases - look at how that death rate is going down! Cause: new cases haven’t started dying yet.

2 weeks later death rate is going up: look at how the case count is dropping!

I think shadowlands box sales are gonna be low. Curious to see how they spin it: “highest number of purchases in the 3rd hour on Thursday in the history of wow!”

I can confirm without a doubt that this is EXACTLY how it works in many industries - including mine.

Its not dated, it has character.
Its not small, its charming.
It isnt surrounded by noisy building sites - its 'situated in the heart of a booming location with growth and development all around"
Its not a 30 minute drive to the nearest shop - its located a short drive out of town and situated on a peaceful and private setting.
Its not tired and run down - it is full of potential and opportunity.
Its not unfinished, its waiting for your finishing touches.
Its not $600,000 - its $599,000

What amazes me is how this shit works - even with all the information and data that is available to people, they still fall for all these ridiculous marketing 'tricks'.

As for your last comment, just remember, "WoW BfA is the fastest selling expansion in wows history"......

[Mirishka]

The amount of overthinking and obsessing over these investor calls is mind-blowing. What difference does it make in any of your lives what Blizzard meant by the comment about engagement? There's a pandemic, people are stuck at home, and said people are spending more time doing stuff like playing games. It isn't rocket science and doesn't demand a bunch of ass-pulled analysis from people who have literally no clue what their numbers are.

[Gref]

this engagement? wtf? my guild has been dead for months, I can hardly find good enough people to do +15 keys.
It is fucking ghosttown. where is this participation? pet fights?

[Schattenlied]

There's a little itty bitty worldwide pandemic going on. I feel like that might have something to do with it.

This, they even mentioned that in the earnings call...

[arkanon]

this engagement? wtf? my guild has been dead for months, I can hardly find good enough people to do +15 keys.
It is fucking ghosttown. where is this participation? pet fights?

People grinding mindless shit. My understanding is this is the activity of those who are subbed, so even if subs have halved in the last 6 months, so long as those who remain are still playing actively, they call it engagement.