Mop - 2.7 million sold in first week

[Exroyal]

Sorry guys, as much as i like WoW, i have to say i agree with Conscious on this one.

Don't get me wrong, selling 2,7 million in a week and subs up to 10m is good indeed, but it still shows something and you can deny it as much as you wan't, but people have started to lose interest in the game, either it be because of them playing the game for so long or losing faith in Blizzard. The only thing that these sales show are recovery. Also, because they do not show day 1 sales we can assume the sales weren't near the sales Blizzard expected, instead they give us 1 week sales, which kinda tells us something and to those who said "WoW is dead," no, it's not, but neither is it fully revived and more like people from this forum thought.

[KrazyK923]

what matters is that sales spike from day one and get lower and lower and lower. Which means that maybe day 1 sales were 2 mil who knows but the rest of that 700k was over a period of 6 days. Unlike the other expansions which spiked at at around that first number. meaning they will likely sell less copies of MoP than the other expansions, but that also relies on the total playerbase, So since there were less players in BC, MoP can still sell more copies than BC over a month, But since Cata had the largest player base MoP will not sell more than Cata did.

Which clearly means WoW is quickly dying now. Yup.

[Deleted]

In da face.

Please post constructively

[Deleted]

I've seen a maximum of 10 posts that are actually logical and not fully opinion based nonsense.

All of which are mine

None of which are yours, really.

With the way you're ignoring the fact that an eight year old game, after having beaten half a dozen overhyped "WoW-killers" throughout the years to a humiliating bloody pulp still manages to get 82% of the first day sales of the last and fastest selling expansion within the first week of sales, and still already 57% of the first month sales of that same expansion (Cataclysm), within the first week of sales, while allowing for three weeks of catch-up to that 4,7 million figure from already sold 2,7 million copies, not to mention this being the most pre-hated expansion of this game, with a humongous amount of negative publicity and anti-hype, all of the aforementioned showing that for it's age the game is still doing brilliantly, one might think you should call yourself Unconscious, because you surely seem to be ignorant to reality.

No offense.

[Deleted]

I am equally as curious if not somewhat afraid, as the annual pass has yet to let out. And lord knows everyone had mixed feelings on that.

If another annual pass come up, offering free Heart of the Swarm, I am getting it 1000%

[Conscious]

Well... In a way more active subscribers bought this expansion early on than previous expansions have had.

We had about 3 million more players at Cataclysm launch. 3,3 million of those bought the expansion the first day.

This time around, we had about 3 million less active subscribers at launch, yet the expansion sales the first week was only 600k less than when we had 3 million more players.

Yeah but those numbers are all bent out of whack because they're over the course of a week. So the monthly sales overall are going to be less than you think.

In da face.

...?

Being slower out of the gate doesn't mean it is less popular in the long run. Way too early to tell.

I agree.

But I also personally believe it needed a strong out-of-gate launch if it's going to shake the Cataclysm woes.

[KrazyK923]

Yep.

I am equally as curious if not somewhat afraid, as the annual pass has yet to let out. And lord knows everyone had mixed feelings on that.

See, here's another example of why taking you seriously is impossible. Its not just the hypocrisy, its not just the double speak, but its the opinion as a fact argument as well.

[xanzul]

I think a lot of those "users" who only have the battlechest are RAF account which were used to lvl up a toon quick, subscriptions that only last 2 months.

And yet again paying accounts are paying accounts. All this other nonsense is irrelevant to shareholders.

[Deleted]

18 pages, and no one calling other MMO's the worst pieces of shit in the history of existence? I'm impressed.

[Conscious]

See, here's another example of why taking you seriously is impossible. Its not just the hypocrisy, its not just the double speak, but its the opinion as a fact argument as well.

Dude, what? I'm not even sure what the hell you're talking about at this point.

Try telling me people didn't have mixed feelings about the Annual pass, because then you're implying that 100% of the people either liked it, or hated it. Both of which are foolish arguments.

[Frozen Death Knight]

My major point has been throughout this entire thread, that Mists got 2.7 in a week. The rest of the expansions got that or almost that, in a day.

I just fail to see how people can think that the sales are somehow just as, good? I guess? Because it directly implies that it's first 24hr sales were an entirely different number, which we can only guess at, and they've been construed (obviously on purpose) as being great.

I'm still more concerned with subscribers, but I just can't take anyone seriously who thinks that these sales were great. I just can't.

I don't think anyone here is claiming that they were just as good as the rest, since they all broke records on release day, but the numbers were hardly bad, either. I don't expect another WoW expansion to ever break record sales, especially MoP, simply because it's being released during the game's lowest point in the history of WoW. The odds have simply been against it. They were not bad considering the reputation Cataclysm gave WoW and we will see how the sales look like after the month has passed. If they are much lower than the other expansions (by at least a few hundred thousand), then I will agree with you.

As for the actual subscriptions? Yeah, they are of much higher concern than the expansion pack sales. The expansion got a better start in that aspect than I expected, but now we have to wait and see if Blizzard are able to keep those for a longer period of time, or even more surprisingly, make the game gain more subscribers again. The latter is not extremely likely, but things change, so we just have to wait and see what Blizzard will be doing with the game.

[tylenol]

How many new subscribers did they gain?

[KrazyK923]

Dude, what? I'm not even sure what the hell you're talking about at this point.

Try telling me people didn't have mixed feelings about the Annual pass, because then you're implying that 100% of the people either liked it, or hated it. Both of which are foolish arguments.

Actually you are the one implying by saying things like "EVERYONE had mixed feelings."

[Dasffion]

Because that actual first day sales were not 2.7 million. They were less than that, albeit we don't know what they were.

It took a week to reach 2.7 Million.

Again, literally every other WoW expansion had this, or near it, in 24hrs. Deliberately, misconstrued, sales numbers.

And how does this equate to the expansion selling like shit? It doesn't. 2.7 million is still a great number. If you consider 2.7 in a week selling like shit how do you feel about Guild Wars 2 that took a month to hit 2 million, or SWTOR that never even reached 2 million? What's worse than selling like shit?

[xanzul]

Creative number crunching.

There is no creative number crunching. Paying accounts are paying accounts and sales are sales. You people are just butthurt that there wasn't a mass exodus from Wow because of pandas. Like I said before this expansion has clearly cleaned out this community of the worst of the worst and seems to be bringing back players who aren't nearly as whiny and petulant.

[DisposableHero]

If you express the sales figures for each expansion as a percentage of the total subscriber base at the time, you find the following:

Burning Crusade - 2.4 million first day sales, 8.3 million subscribers, 28.9% first day adoption
Wrath of the Lich King - 2.8 million first day sales, 11 million subscribers, 25.4% first day adoption
Cataclysm - 3.3 million first day sales, 12 million subscribers, 27.5% first day adoption
Mists of Pandaria - 2.7 million first week sales (since we don't have first day sales numbers to look at), 9.1 million subscribers, 29.7% first week adoption

If we make the logical assumption that most of the first week MoP adopters are also first day adopters, and consider that this does not include the launch in China, I think it is safe to say that MoP had the exact same 25-28% of the subscriber base as first day adopters that every previous expansion has had, and the figures are neither disappointing nor inspiring but basically what should have been expected.

Mists also increased subscriptions at the launch by 900,000. Looking at the gains in the first quarter for each of the other expansions, BC bumped the subscriber base by a 600,000, Wrath by 1.2 million, and Cata's launch saw a 100,000 subscriber decline over its first quarter in action. So numbers for sales so far look average and increased subscriber count is very strong, but they will need to maintain those numbers over this quarter before that can really be found in evidence.

So the numbers are decidedly average, and basically, look roughly in line with the previous expansions, with the exception of Cata's subscriber performance.

Cata breaking sales records is entirely an effect of the peak subscriber base playing in late wrath of the lich king, and them getting their usual adoption rate. MoP sales are correspondingly down because their active player base is down substantially.

Interestingly if you look back at WoW's largest subscriber gains on a quarterly basis, the sharpest gains are mid 2005, late 2006, and late 2008, each corresponding to a gain of 1.0 to 1.3 million subscribers. A 900,000 subscriber gain probably ranks in the top 5 or 6 quarterly subscription performances in the game's history, so there really is no reason for blizzard to express disappointment. The game is clearly alive and well and this is a first step in moving on from the failures of cataclysm that caused them to lose almost 3 million subscribers over the expansion.

Those calling these numbers abysmal really are looking for any excuse to say the game is failing, and people calling these numbers amazing are looking for any excuse to trumpet the game's success. The reality is the numbers are typical, but encouraging.

[Trassk]

Funny thing with this, if these figured were for any other game, people would see it as a huge success. But because its wow and wow has its collection of doomsayers, of course it must be a flop.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

And yet again paying accounts are paying accounts. All this other nonsense is irrelevant to shareholders.

Money is money. But he has a point, RAF accounts mean nothing in terms if New players.

But I doubt 1 million people did that.

[Pachycrocuta]

My major point has been throughout this entire thread, that Mists got 2.7 in a week. The rest of the expansions got that or almost that, in a day.

I just fail to see how people can think that the sales are somehow just as, good? I guess? Because it directly implies that it's first 24hr sales were an entirely different number, which we can only guess at, and they've been construed (obviously on purpose) as being great.

I'm still more concerned with subscribers, but I just can't take anyone seriously who thinks that these sales were great. I just can't.

What you can't seem to understand is this: TBC sold 2.4 in one day riding on the success of classic WoW, with no decline before-hand. Wrath sold 2.8 in one day riding on the success of TBC with no decline before-hand. Cata sold 3.3 in one day riding on the success of Wrath with a few 100k in decline before-hand, plus the massive hype over the "harder content" and more TBC-like feel. MoP sold 2.7 in a week following the shitfest that was Cata with massive decline (25% of starting numbers) before-hand, plus the negative "hype" of LOLKungfu Panda and pokeymans and people feeling emasculated because WoW isn't filled with super manly stuff like demons and skeletons and dragons.

People got fucked the wrong way with Cataclysm, and are being a little reluctant to bend over in fear of another wrong way fucking with Pandaria, so they are taking it a bit slow.

[Duridi]

Yeah but those numbers are all bent out of whack because they're over the course of a week. So the monthly sales overall are going to be less than you think.

I don't really think anything at this point, but I do "wish" we had the first day numbers to look at. Not that I am convinced they matter right now, due to the circumstances(people sitting on the fence etc.).

If anything, I find the current data unreadable. I really can't see where it is heading, but I do think there is a lot of scepsism in the community, that has to be turned into trust. Something which isn't done over night, or in this case the 24 first hours of this release.

That's just my thoughts around it.