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

[Mainphrame]

The exact wording that they used was:


I think it's pretty clear that they have a lot of subscribers. And I dont mean 5 million, they have way more than that.

Not saying it will stick, the pattern is clear, players leave during the expansion. But the day one sales are an excellent way to gauge interest in the game. I disagree with you in that regard.

Utter nonsense. You would have to be on the payroll to make an unironic claim like that and be serious.

[Frankminimia]

So many haters in this thread

[deenman]

I agree, there is no reason to believe WoW is dead at all.

After 16 years, it is down to but maintains 3M average continual subs per month

which is $45M per month in revenue

which is just over a half Billion ($540M) dollars in sub income per year.

On top of the 3.7M x $/unit in Shadowland unit sales (min $185M)

All before store, tokens, and in-game services revenue.

WoW is not going anywhere, and with bloodsucking ko-tick's constant office closures, removing development costs by not creating new classes and races, firing costly experienced talent and replacing with younger cheaper workers without families and willing to work huge hours for the opportunity, merging of realms/servers to reduce costs, and the continual reskinning/repurposing of old content, WoW will generate massive income for years to come.

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No one is saying they didn't sell 3.7M units, we're saying that's about what the level of subs are as well, people who think WoW is anywhere near 5.5M (which is what WoD was down to before Blizz stopped reporting the continually declining sub numbers and focused on playing time metrics) or higher are just completely wrong.

raider.io had a few days ago around 5 mil characters at lvl 60 (outside of china),and wile im sure many people have alts,most people outside of world first guilds focus on a main,and thats only the people that log on raider.io,i think its safe to say milions dont do that,also not everyone raced to 60

so...to say that wow has only 3.7 subs is extremly unlikely,in fact its more than likely way more,i mean...seriously...how can you even think its lower than what wod had when there was literaly nothing to do?

[Kumorii]

At the start of expansions, the numbers are always good. Wait 2 months, only then the real results show theselves. 3.7 mill subs at the start of WoW expansion is absolutely nothing to be proud of!

Btw, selling a product in 9 month, and calling it "the FASTEST' selling of "ALL TIME", is beyond stupid!

That's how all games throughout history count day one sales...preorders included. Because that's how many wants to play/get it on day one.

[Pacster]

That's how all games throughout history count day one sales...preorders included. Because that's how many wants to play/get it on day one.

Yeah, but to be fair: Blizz got a huge advantage there as they got the Blizz-launcher(which is great for accessibility and marketing) and people can buy with WoW-Gold. Not to mention that they got a lot of players that already got a char they can expand on.
Possibly even the rather disliked last expansions helped in a way that people feel a bigger urge to come back now.

So I do not think it's not really fair to compare the numbers to other games...

[Kolvarg]

The exact wording that they used was: (...)

I think it's pretty clear that they have a lot of subscribers. And I dont mean 5 million, they have way more than that.

Not saying it will stick, the pattern is clear, players leave during the expansion. But the day one sales are an excellent way to gauge interest in the game. I disagree with you in that regard.

You can't really know that because they have never reported how many "players on monthly or longer-term subscriptions" there are, before. That number does not include players in some Eastern countries in which there are no monthly subscriptions, which means they are specifically looking at players on the West (which iirc were less than half the total number of subscribers they used to report - which peaked at 12M within the last decade). If the game was doing its best in a decade overall, why would they specifically use a wording that excludes half the previous number?

I'd say that wording is very possible to mean not much higher than 6 million or so. Though personally, I would expect around 10M subs (active players) at any expansion launch. Even more so now that there's also Classic.

I disagree. I think it *can* be somewhat indicative of how interested players are in a given expansion (even for that there are way too many variables involved to say the specific xpac is responsible), but it is in no way a contradiction that the game might be in decline in the long term. Even MoP, one of the least hyped xpacs and less liked themes, still managed to have an increase in subs, box sales, and halt the subscriber decline temporarily.


Edit: Here is the wording they previously used:

World of Warcraft’ s Subscriber Definition
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet game room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees’ territories are defined along the same rules.

[Kumorii]

Yeah, but to be fair: Blizz got a huge advantage there as they got the Blizz-launcher(which is great for accessibility and marketing) and people can buy with WoW-Gold. Not to mention that they got a lot of players that already got a char they can expand on.
Possibly even the rather disliked last expansions helped in a way that people feel a bigger urge to come back now.

So I do not think it's not really fair to compare the numbers to other games...

Those still count as day on sales... for all games, no matter the reason why people buy the game.

[Gurahk]

Blizzard seems to make this claim about whatever the latest expansion happens to be. Conveniently, it is always the latest (and current) one that is the 'fastest selling PC game of all time'. Makes you wonder.

Nope, they don't. This is the first time they've done that, the latest game from Blizzard to be the fastest selling PC game was Diablo 3.

[kodemonkee]

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

But the servers like Kazzak are still dying. Something's wrong in the priorities list of Blizzard.

[Gorsameth]

But the servers like Kazzak are still dying. Something's wrong in the priorities list of Blizzard.

No, their priority list makes complete sense even if you don't agree with it.

Its not worth it to spend a lot of time and money to reinforce servers when they are only busy for 3 weeks over 2 years (2 weeks at launch and the first raid day for every new raid).

[Kel_Sceptic]

Whereas your made up search of "wow" shows that presently it has half the interest of Fortnite, which has 350 MILLION players. So are you suggesting world of warcraft at its peak in 2008 had 500M players and currently has 175M players? Hah hah, you should go work for Rudy!
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You bet, unlike my worthy opponent, I actually know what I'm talking about!

Well, seems like google is smarter and has the filters all sort up, we just need to use them wisely.
And if you look at this "World of Warcraft (online game)" and my WoW search term, you will see it has more in common then your "world of warcraft" search term. Cause, logic, no fking player would search anything on google about "world of warcraft nyalotha raid tactics" :/ we all play this game in so long that we use "wow nyalota raid tactics".

But, what the hell, we are in the age of hating, shiiting and spitting in anyone else's stuff, cause it is so easy to destroy and so hard to create. But we never look in the mirror.

GG.




LE: you people seem to not understand that even if wow has "only" 3milions, 2 milions, it is still the BIGGEST MMO player base that exists in this world.

Some "people" are really wierd:
When stuff is alive, we get: wow is dying, wow is dead
When stuff is dead, we get: 2pac lives, elvis is alive, Biggie is alive, Michael Jackson is alive, it is all just a conspiration.

[Kynario]

WoW is still the king. It's doing better than any other PC game, evidently.

WoW isn't going anywhere.

[Asrialol]

Yeah, but to be fair: Blizz got a huge advantage there as they got the Blizz-launcher(which is great for accessibility and marketing) and people can buy with WoW-Gold. Not to mention that they got a lot of players that already got a char they can expand on.
Possibly even the rather disliked last expansions helped in a way that people feel a bigger urge to come back now.

So I do not think it's not really fair to compare the numbers to other games...

You realize that someone buying a sub for gold means they buy a wow token someone else sold? Meaning Blizzard earns more money than if they paid for their sub normally.

So, of course it's fair.

[Shakou]

This is a good expansion for sure. But Covid-19 is certainly giving a lot of people the free time to play again.

[Mainphrame]

Nope, they don't. This is the first time they've done that, the latest game from Blizzard to be the fastest selling PC game was Diablo 3.

"Fastest selling PC game" is the current lie, "fastest selling expansion" was the false claim about BFA. They have a history of misleading shareholders (and players) with their claims.

WoW is still the king. It's doing better than any other PC game, evidently.

WoW isn't going anywhere.

Maybe the king of MMOs (which are a dying breed), but to say it is doing better than any other PC game is an outright lie.

[Grimbold21]

Are people doing what they still do with Diablo 3? Conflating - sometimes intentionally - the rate at which a game sells with an indication of its quality?

[Gurahk]

"Fastest selling PC game" is the current lie, "fastest selling expansion" was the false claim about BFA. They have a history of misleading shareholders (and players) with their claims.

Please show me proof for why it is a "lie", other than the fact that you personally want the game to fail.

[Fincayra]

So, have a game available for preorder for up to a year, and then when the game finally launches, cash in all those preorders, and it's suddenly the fastest selling of all time? Help me with this logic here.

[Kynario]

Maybe the king of MMOs (which are a dying breed), but to say it is doing better than any other PC game is an outright lie.

Obviously that's what people mean In terms of MMO's.

[Fincayra]

Please show me proof for why it is a "lie", other than the fact that you personally want the game to fail.

Criticizing Trump lying about the size of his inauguration crowd isn't the same as wanting his presidency to fail.