WoW Down to 10.3M Subscribers, PTR Build 14966, Class Balance Q&A, TCG Art

[Gentlepenguin]

12M six years on. After expanding onto several new continents. Now that they've run out of continents to expand onto, they're bleeding 2 million a year, and the pace is accelerating, even without any major competitors... which will change December 20th.

except again, you fail to consider that twice as many have left wow than those who play over it's entire lifespan. that's the active subscriber number, not the everyone who ever played number, which is probably near 40 million now.

[Arganaut]

I think it's inevitable that a game so popular will reach a peak and begin to decline. But I have been surprised with the sudden decline in subscription numbers and this has to account for what can only be described as a tragic x-pac. Blizzard have so far stopped short of admitting it, but i've been pleased with how they have hit back with 4.3 looking promising and it looks like a lot of wrongs will be put right in MOP.

But is it all too late? Star Wars, Guild Wars, Tera, BF3, MW3 so much competition brewing, and then Blizzard trying to keep a game that has been so successfull for so long interesting for such a wide and diverse player base.

I personally feel they took too much on, and tried to cater for too many people, and failed in delivering what made the game so good to begin with and so immersive. It's lots it's social side and it's lost the war'ing, but I hope MOP brings some of that back.

You cannot doubt though that Blizzard still has a majority market share, a hugely successful product, a massive cult following, and a gravy train that will keep the coffers full and shareholders happy for a few more years to come yet.

[Thassadar]

Honestly, not surprised that WoW has lost so many subscribers; Wrath babies can't handle Cata.

[Heathy]

its obviously mop, i like wow but after all the years it just ain't what it was, not counting any particular stage in its metamorphism classic was fun, tbc was probably my peak in enjoyment, then it probably did start to go down hill toward the end of that. now we're getting pandas and even more revamps.. i'm in the crowd that wants to try something new instead of having the game try to be something new each year while detracting from what made it fun in the first place.

[Epicsik]

After 6 years playing wow i quit 3 months ago. I lead a guild and was a raid leader for a while. Mostly my decision to stop playing was mostly bordem and how it seems like its a never ending cycle..you work hard raiding, gear up then the next patch people can just go buy the armor with less tier points, then everyone is running around with the same armor that you spent time working to get LoL. Going from 40 mans to 25 now to 10 it just seems like everything is dummed down and there is a lack of care to spend the time with a massive amount of people to get the job done in killing a boss. Im not saying that doing 10's is any easier than 25's or 40's but there is no incentive or reward into running a large guild or raid. Let's be honest its alot harder to get 25 or 40 on the same page than 10.
I met alot of good people and friends and i wish the WoW community the best! Hopefully Blizzard will bring back the true raiding or some incentive for large guilds to be distinguised from the smaller guilds. But for me they don't seem to care so why should I.

[Deleted]

Blizz needs to look at it's product, and realize were they went wrong. Here's a clue for them...4.0

fixed your post

[matters]

They'll be rolling in even more dough next year with the D3 release + possible MoP release, so the subscription loss doesn't scare me.

I am thinking the same thing.

[jax]

You have not done your research and should not be talking until you do so. Most of the people that quit, quit because the pandas LITERALLY look like they were copy and pasted from Kung Fu Panda.

/sigh...
please try and understand that the 800k were from LAST quarter... meaning Pandara wasnt announced so it has nothing to do with the kung fu panda crap your spitting.

its obviously mop,

please read the above statement...

[Synstir]

All things aside... The 800K drop is worrying!
I'm hoping the meassures Blizzard is taking will help stop this fall of subs.

The drop is growing by the quarter, let's hope for the best in Q4.

[Zdrasti]

Q3 numbers would not include that information - Q3 is July, August, September. Bear in mind that there's usually a dip in playerbase over the summer.

Q4 - October, November, December, will have that info, and it'll look like a whole huge turnaround for them. XD

I have seen the "summer slump" used to explain sub losses in Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4. I guess it sort of does feel like summer all year long in California, but this is getting a little ridiculous. Regardless, if there was an actual summer slump, this quarter ended in September -- plenty of time for those players to have returned.

[karlodav]

After 5 years playing wow, i cancelled my account 2 days ago, blame swtor beta and bf3 .

[Nefastus]

I am personally waiting SWTOR but I am stopping WoW no matter what, going to play some other games. 7 years playing wow, I dont think pandas and pokemon fit in it, just my opinion of course.

[Barracks00]

I guess I'm in the "minority" (not really, but you know what I mean) in that I resubscribed about two months ago and have been enjoying playing very casually. I resubscribed mostly because of the LFR announcement. I also managed to get my brother to resubscribe and sign up for the one year deal, just as I did. Used to raid hardcore back in the day, but now I enjoy the game for what it is and do what I can when I have free time.

[Deleted]

doesnt bother me unless my server drops rapidly in players that would be upsetting i hope the best for Q4 but with the mop announcement we could be looking at a stampede of pissed people.

[Hobb]

Not even surprised that most of the subscriptions were lost in China.WoW is really in a bad shape in China.

It's also where over half of WoW's subscribers are at as well.