World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Becomes Fastest-Selling PC Game of All Time

[Not A Cat]

Classic is doing some work there too, I would not be surprised if 30% (yeah yeah, pulled out of my ass) of the playerbase plays classic only.

This is purely anecdotal so take it with a grain of salt, but I finally convinced my friends to play classic with me and now we're all playing Shadowlands. Wouldn't be surprised if others had similar stories.

We still play classic, but we're all liking SL so far.

[Mad_Murdock]

And people are saying WOW is dead lol, nahh WOW is doing way better than before.

When I first started playing, my server was fairly full, even had a que at the wrath of the Lich King. At WoD, they Merged us with another server because both went from mostly full to mostly empty, This past summer, they merged 8 server together and we still don't have ques. Wow isn't dead, but it is not doing better than before.
Fastest selling doesn't mean best selling. Those loyal to WoW gobble wow up and that is OK. This is being presented isn't telling us the full picture. Like How many subs, which is where the real money is at. Of course, Covid and lockdowns were bound to help out.

[Darknessvamp]

They literally announce it is the highest amount of day 1 sales, which includes pre-orders and you decide, in your head canon, that it means its decreasing.

As you said it includes pre-orders as in over the whole year and they're boasting about the day one numbers and not the fact it's been two weeks since release and they're not celebrating a boom in play numbers similar to Warlords, Legion and BfA over the same period. Additionally they're celebrating that they managed to keep just enough people subscribed to hit the same population in post-expansion drought. They're literally telling us more people bought pre-orders of the expansion than they have over the first two weeks which is a decline in comparison to other expansions.

It literally broke legion's record. How can it be declining?

Because they're focusing specifically on Day One and Pre-order sales instead of gushing about the first two weeks. They're literally telling us they did good up front but are already declining from the normal amount of sales within that period.

Declining? Bfa was 3.4 legion and wod were 3.3, 7 is a bigger number then 3 or 4 you know?

Yes the fact two weeks in they're celebrating just the pre-order and launch day sales that only reached 3.7 mil and it's been two weeks since release and comparatively they were celebrating more than 3.3 million first day and a sub base of 10 million for WoD and far higher player participation in Legion and BfA in the same periods suggests there has been a decline.


Also largely irrelevant I wouldn't be surprised if a number of these were multiple copies bought by a single person if the number of reports of multiboxers still being around in Shadowlands is anything to go by.

[Nerovar]

this can be interperted in so many ways lol
what are they saying, someone help me

is the amount of players now exceeding 12 million ?

I guess the answer will differ vastly depending on whether you define a decade to be from 0-9 or from 1-0. Strictly speaking, the latter is the correct one since there exists no year 0 in our calendar. If it's the first one however we could be anywhere between 10 and 12 million. Otherwise we would be between 7.5 and 10 million subscribers (which sounds more realistic to me).

We'll know when the Q4 earnings call happens.

[LordVargK]

I actually do want to play more but im just like, why would i when my weeklies are done?

Well if you play WoW only because of the rewards then maybe SL will not be as fun for you as it will be for me.

[TheFirstOnes]

I could never get this train of thinking how a single player game will cull players from mmos.

Because, surprise surprise, hype over big games can overshadow the hype of other games.

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Lots of people agree with you it would seem, I wish Shadowlands had captured me in the same way

I get how you feel. I'm just glad we're expanding upon the Warcraft Cosmology even more. Especially regarding the Cosmic Forces of Life and Death.

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The person I responded to was talking about current subscriptions based on the subscriptions pre-launch (Shadowlands) surpassing other expansion's pre-launch periods. They brought up a number which is based on the subscribers during the period right before WoD launched but back then Classic obviously wasn't a thing. That's literally all I said.

I'm dumb then. Nvm, sorry I couldn't catch on regarding that topic.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Yes the fact two weeks in they're celebrating just the pre-order and launch day sales that only reached 3.7 mil and it's been two weeks since release and comparatively they were celebrating more than 3.3 million first day and a sub base of 10 million for WoD and far higher player participation in Legion and BfA in the same periods suggests there has been a decline.


Also largely irrelevant I wouldn't be surprised if a number of these were multiple copies bought by a single person if the number of reports of multiboxers still being around in Shadowlands is anything to go by.

Do you know what a decline is? Not only is 3.7 higher then 3.3 on launch sales they also have this nugget in the post.

In the months leading up to the expansion’s release and the time since launch, the game reached and has sustained its highest number of players on monthly or longer-term subscriptions compared to the same period ahead of and following any WoW expansion in the past decade, in both the West and the East.

What part of highest number of players makes you think there was a decline?

[Hellobolis]

man these press releases are such a case of "mangle the numbers till you get something that sounds good".

still good sales numbers ofc, but they've been selling and more importantly delivering goods for over a year, not 1 day.

[bagina]

Omg Sylvanas' impact ^^

[TheFirstOnes]

When an example is as accurate as possible... I'm going to bring politics into it.

and @Cazze, what edge? lol.

Sylvanas has boobs.

Other examples exist tho. Bringing up Trump in almost every thread is tiring.

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Omg Sylvanas' impact ^^

Or the impact of wanting to leave BFA...

[CerealLord]

I might be stupid, but why the heck should Classic Players buy an Expansion that they dont play?

The part I was referencing was not about "buying the expansion." It had said monthly engagement is at the highest at any point in the last decade, which makes it sound like subs. Sorry that I wasn't clearer! You aren't stupid :P

[Kathranis]

When I first started playing, my server was fairly full, even had a que at the wrath of the Lich King. At WoD, they Merged us with another server because both went from mostly full to mostly empty, This past summer, they merged 8 server together and we still don't have ques. Wow isn't dead, but it is not doing better than before.

That's less an issue of not having a healthy playerbase and more an issue of them launching too many servers years ago, when the playerbase was climbing and server capacity was lower. It's still the most played MMO in the world.

[Darknessvamp]

Do you know what a decline is? Not only is 3.7 higher then 3.3 on launch sales they also have this nugget in the post.

What part of highest number of players makes you think there was a decline?

It's because they're only focusing on the 3.7 mil at launch two weeks after, prior expansions they boasted about large numbers up front and player participation booming in the two weeks following their release. The fact they're chuffed about getting more pre-orders than they are about boasting about current participation numbers suggests there has been a decline comparatively to other expansions even thought they made more day one sales.

Also it should be noted they're talking about sub plans there "the game reached and has sustained its highest number of players on monthly or longer-term subscriptions", whatever that means for player numbers I haven't a clue.

[Utrrabbit]

In other news, WoW now has 3.7 million players.

In other news thats only day 1 sales.

Report came out that wow currently has 12million players.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

It's because they're only focusing on the 3.7 mil at launch two weeks after, prior expansions they boasted about large numbers up front and player participation booming in the two weeks following their release. The fact they're chuffed about getting more pre-orders than they are about boasting about current participation numbers suggests there has been a decline comparatively to other expansions even thought they made more day one sales.

Also it should be noted they're talking about sub plans there "the game reached and has sustained its highest number of players on monthly or longer-term subscriptions", whatever that means for player numbers I haven't a clue.

You really don’t know what monthly or longer term subs means? It’s literally them saying they have more subs then past expans.

They have had the highest first day sales and the highest number of subbed players then any other expan launch in the past 10 years which includes cata.

[Thoriangun]

Because, surprise surprise, hype over big games can overshadow the hype of other games.

Eh, hype is hype, you play a game, you stop playing a game for whatever reason which includes completing it.

What does that have to do with culling players away from an mmo which has a constant content going through it, remember, WoW is quite old now.

[Sluvs]

As you said it includes pre-orders as in over the whole year and they're boasting about the day one numbers and not the fact it's been two weeks since release and they're not celebrating a boom in play numbers similar to Warlords, Legion and BfA over the same period. Additionally they're celebrating that they managed to keep just enough people subscribed to hit the same population in post-expansion drought. They're literally telling us more people bought pre-orders of the expansion than they have over the first two weeks which is a decline in comparison to other expansions.


Because they're focusing specifically on Day One and Pre-order sales instead of gushing about the first two weeks. They're literally telling us they did good up front but are already declining from the normal amount of sales within that period.


Yes the fact two weeks in they're celebrating just the pre-order and launch day sales that only reached 3.7 mil and it's been two weeks since release and comparatively they were celebrating more than 3.3 million first day and a sub base of 10 million for WoD and far higher player participation in Legion and BfA in the same periods suggests there has been a decline.


Also largely irrelevant I wouldn't be surprised if a number of these were multiple copies bought by a single person if the number of reports of multiboxers still being around in Shadowlands is anything to go by.

You are kidding right? That is some gigantic leap that you are taking. Actually, several leaps. They just said that the engagement is higher than it has ever been in a whole decade. That is some serious mental gymnastics. They are focusing on the sales because it is a record that they broke. You are trying to paint a record breaking game as in decline.

[chrisnumbers]

To call is sky shattering is kinda weird. I know it's a play on the cinematic but... lol
It barely beat Diablo 3 and other wow expansions. Also what are the first week numbers compared to other first week numbers? I understand they use 24 hours to fit their narrative since the vast majority are pre sales and not literal 24 hour sales as if people were nail bitingly waiting.

[Mad_Murdock]

That's less an issue of not having a healthy playerbase and more an issue of them launching too many servers years ago, when the playerbase was climbing and server capacity was lower. It's still the most played MMO in the world.

If 3 of the 8 (not sure about the other 5) servers used to be High pop servers and now they are so all empty, that they have to be merged and then merged again. I think is a pretty clear indicator WoW isn't "better than before". They did use the term "monthly engagement" being higher than the last 10 years, which implies near Wrath levels, but the fact they didn't say monthly subscribers and instead used engagement has me wondering.

This isn't meant to be bash of WoW or Blizzard, I just don't like marketing speak

[Darknessvamp]

You really don’t know what monthly or longer term subs means? It’s literally them saying they have more subs then past expans.

They have had the highest first day sales and the highest number of subbed players then any other expan launch in the past 10 years which includes cata.

No it literally doesn't mean that. It means they were able to meet and increase the number of people who were subbed on monthly and longer subscription plans during the post-expansion content drought than the last highest number of players subbed on recurring plans. They're boasting about the six month offers working not more players being subbed than usual in general. Yes they're had highest Day One sales due to pre-orders but they have decidedly little to boast about players actually playing the game unlike previous expansions.

You are kidding right? That is some gigantic leap that you are taking. Actually, several leaps. They just said that the engagement is higher than it has ever been in a whole decade. That is some serious mental gymnastics. They are focusing on the sales because it is a record that they broke. You are trying to paint a record breaking game as in decline.

Engagement isn't tied to player numbers or even actual participation. It's their way of saying "people are interested and talking about the game". Just because they sell a larger number of copies upfront doesn't mean they are not declining in other aspects. Especially when they're addressing the good news for this expansion lacking one of the major things they boast about following releases which is players actually playing the game.