Shadowlands lost almost half of its playerbase?

[McNeil]

I know this might be another ''SL is bad'' thread or whatever you can make it out to be, but this seems concerning. While the game remains to be very profitable its apparent that players are leaving at a rapid pace. According to Superdata, revenue is down by 61% and user decline (not included China) is down with 41%. The Bellular video below could be more insightful (I know he's known as the clickbait guy etc etc):



This result can also be found back in Google Trends. While not as reliable its basically the same outcome:



What makes this even more worrisome is that it will take a long time for the next major patch to come out. Then you also have Classic TBC which is growing in popularity and might take away the spotlight. Classic WoW has even surpassed Shadowlands after their honeymoon phase if Google Trends is reliable enough:



While I have my issues with the direction they have taken the game, this must be the first time that I legit start to worry for its future. Am I overreacting or is this indeeed worrisome?

[willtron]

Why are people obsessed with a games population? It's still making a profit, so they'll keep making it.

[Cæli]

only a matter of time before creating a new expansion will become financially not worth it.
the game is getting less popular and it's normal. nothing can revert the trend. less players, less revenue.
one day, the revenue of one hour working on new content will be negative.

there will always be players though. wow will cycle through classic expansions forever because that requires 0 creation, just maintenance.
the sooner we realize wow will end the better. but end only means end of new content. you never really quit wow

what I fear is someone buying the game's licence at one point. in that moment there will be real reasons to fear about your character progression. imo we shall already ask ways to preserve our decade long progression. or at least export the data about what we achieved in wow so that we can try to recreate it elsewhere (quest completed, achievements ids, etc).

[Enclave]

Just like with every expansion in past 10 years, honeymoon phase is over and only dedicated playerbase stays to play

Why is it news to anyone?

[uncl55]

and there are still people screaming WE DONT NEED NEW CONTENT FAST, MAJORITY DIDNT FINISH THEYR STUFF!
So were stuck with one raid for half a year maybe more...

[Baleful]

Many people come back to the first patch of content every expansion and many quit playing because they remember they didn't like wow and they still don't like it. I wouldn't be surprised if we had 30-40% active acounts compared to release, it's just they way it works. Still, LFR queues are fast, we have plenty of M+ groups, there is no "guild killing" boss because people quits playing due to being very difficult... it's a smooth launch with the usual playerbase drop. If something, this drop is the smaller i remember since Pandaria.

[Daedius]

Do people still not understand the concept of fluxes happening during releases...?

[Unlimited Power]

Blizzard doesn't care whether people are subscribed to play retail, classic or classic TBC. It's all the same revenue to them. Their goal all along has been to split updates/releases between retail and classic so people who lose interest in one might subscribe for the other. The fact that Naxx coincided with the release of SL was only due to SL being delayed and was very much unintentional.

It wouldn't be strange for Blizzard to release classic TBC alpha/beta/whatever soon to tide people over while they wait for 9.1. Then sometime after 9.1 becomes "stale", classic TBC releases. When classic TBC becomes stale, 9.1.5 releases on the PTR etc. It's not coincidence, it's a very calculated move and there's nothing wrong with it. It's just smart business.

[A Chozo]

Happens with every expansion and most games of this type.

Just like with every expansion in past 10 years, honeymoon phase is over and only dedicated playerbase stays to play

Why is it news to anyone?

If you stop people from making their useless uproar about regular happenings in WoW, you would have to close down this forum.

[TheFirstOnes]

Sure, happens with every expac, whatever.

But the game's boring asf. The Maw is worthless, Torghast is repetitive, PVP gearing involved carries VIA gold and shit like that, and PVE gear is horrid.

[czarek]

That was predictable. Content is too short. Some done raid hc/myth others ranked PVP or finshed key master. Spring is comeing. Some needs to chill outside of Azeroth :P Thats normal. I bet on 9.1 population will rise. Did ppl still didnt realize that WoW actullay had no xpansions? There is just new season. Every major patch burning all down that matter before. New "expansion" change ambient more or less. Eveything is normal we do not drown lol

[crusadernero]

Most returing players come when a new xpac launches, less between content patches. They see what the xpac is about and some people just like to "clear" each xpac on a low lvl scale. I bet many of those that quit resubs when next xpac hits.

Im one of the people that decided to unsub, soon 2 months ago. I saw no reason to keep playing. I used to just let my sub run "just in case" I wanted to log in, but i've stopped doing that. Weird thing is, I actually liked SL at launch and for a while. suddenly it got quite boring. SL NEEDS a big content patch ASAP. The endgame acitivites are rather mundane.

It probably doesnt help that I dont have any friends to play with atm either, but those I did play with also quit before me soo..

Also - With how works now theres no reason to stay subbed through a whole xpac. I played BfA at launch, quit, came back in 8.2, quit, came back late 8.3. I could do all the content I missed out on if I wanted too and I got geared rather quickly.

I also get more enjoyment out of the game if I dont force myself playing the game when im bored of it already. I just stop.

[GKLeatherCraft]

only a matter of time before creating an new expansion will become financially not worth it.
the game is getting less popular and it's normal. nothing can revert the trend. less players, less revenue.
one day, the revenue of one hour working on new content will be negative.

there will always be players though. wow will cycle through classic expansions forever because that requires 0 creation, just maintenance.
the sooner we realize wow will end the better. but end only means end of new content. you never really quit wow

what I fear is someone buying the game's licence at one point. in that moment there will be real reasons to fear about your character progression. imo we shall already ask ways to preserve our decade long progression. or at least export the data about what we achieved in wow so that we can try to recreate it elsewhere (quest completed, achievements ids, etc).

Dude what you're talking about is literally many years away, Don't worry

[Big Thanks]

Entire thread will be "SAUCE?! No sauce? Ok bye"
Not that it matters in any way the population of wow.

Also...Bellular will be Bellular

[procne]

If at this point WoW had 40% of users during release then it would be a great result. Considering high SL sales...

[niztheundead87]

ah yes bellular the clickbait master

[Greyvax]

The motivation to play lately has been fully killed.

They said that mythic+ loot obtained before 9.0.5 will not be eligible for valor upgrades. So why waste any time?

It's also still going to be a few months until 9.1, so for most of us who have no interest in Mythic raiding, its pointless to play until at least 9.0.5.

[kaintk]

Why are people obsessed with a games population? It's still making a profit, so they'll keep making it.

population of a game is a hint that your product is bad and should be revised

[TheFirstOnes]

ah yes bellular the clickbait master

This I agree with. Bellular's got some clickbaity shit. I don't watch him because of that. There are some interesting videos of his tho, such as the recent SL lore interview with Steve Danuser.

[Big Thanks]

population of a game is a hint that your product is bad and should be revised

Dude...im here all happy NeverWinter Online has 2600 population at peak yesterday on Steam...and people here are all worried about population in the millions.