Earnings Call - WoW Classic: Biggest Quarterly Increase in Subs in History

[chaud]

Activision Blizzard Earnings Call
The quarterly Activision Blizzard earnings call is today:

• World of Warcraft Classic drove the biggest quarterly increase to subscription plans in franchise history, in both the West and East.
• Blizzard had 33 million MAUs
• The Overwatch League™ concluded with a sell-out crowd of over 11,000 fans watching the San Francisco Shock defeat the Vancouver Titans in the Grand Finals at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia in September. Season Two average minute audience grew 18% year-over-year.
• There was significant growth in the size of the World of Warcraft audience.

[Lyasandre]

World of Warcraft Classic is to thank for that, Blizzard should really learn more from it just like they said and bring more of it into retail!

[Archmage Alodi]

Hell Yeah, wow is popping off.

[Kyphael]

Too bad we got no new playable class which doesn't bode well for Q1 in 2020's numbers.

[Zentail]

Remember, it was obvious Classic would result in a massive influx on players--there was no question there. The answers we haven't got that I am interested in are:

- How is Classic doing now (servers are becoming lower pops)?
- How it Retail doing now (servers are becoming higher pops, but leveled out and haven't changed for a few weeks now)?
- Obviously tons of players tried Classic and ended up on Retail. Similarly, plenty of Retail players went to Classic. How many of those first-classic players are not playing anymore and how many players from Classic ended up staying on retail and those who went to classic, how many went back to retail?

[FelPlague]

That is amazing, now lets see if it holds, or if it was purely tourists.

if this lasts another qauter, then well i think we can label classic an outstanding success.
right now though its made an amazing quater, the biggest increase in subs ever in 1 quater.
but if it holds? we shall see, we shall see.

[WinningOne]

I know most people are going to turn this into a negative thread so I wanted to get in ahead of all that I say how happy I am for this news about classic. I've had a great time playing classic since it launched and look forward to many years of playtime leveling my 14 characters . Thanks to Blizz for making it happen.

[Nellyel]

Remember, it was obvious Classic would result in a massive influx on players--there was no question there. The answers we haven't got that I am interested in are:

- How is Classic doing now (servers are becoming lower pops)?
- How it Retail doing now (servers are becoming higher pops, but leveled out and haven't changed for a few weeks now)?
- Obviously tons of players tried Classic and ended up on Retail. Similarly, plenty of Retail players went to Classic. How many of those first-classic players are not playing anymore and how many players from Classic ended up staying on retail and those who went to classic, how many went back to retail?

Reach in October remained well above pre-Classic levels, with deep engagement across Classic and Modern World of Warcraft.

[Dystemper]

Retail feels dead, worse than WOD levels at the end. BFA is a ghost town. Classic seeems tobe doing great, I see plenty of people all the time

[davidcryix]

Too bad we got no new playable class which doesn't bode well for Q1 in 2020's numbers.

New classes are fun but what are we really missing at this point after having twelve of them? Demon hunters are cool but warlocks were pretty unhappy losing ome of their kit to that class. I can't see how they could add another one that wouldn't take away from an existing class in the same way.

Call me an optimist, but i really believe that streamlining the leveling experience, significantly increasing the character customization available, and adding DK to all races including allied races will be more useful and more fun than a new class at this point. If you've never played a rogue before and now its 50% easier to get one to max level well...it's new to you, right?

To ride this wave of optimism a little further, if they finish out BfA with some new choices like night elf worgen, lightforged undead, night elf undead, or Sethrak then I think that'd go a long way towards making up for no new class.

[FelPlague]

Reach in October remained well above pre-Classic levels, with deep engagement across Classic and Modern World of Warcraft.

yes. 2 months. the question is how long will that last, and all within 1 qauter.
the best bet is to see if in the next qauter it is still the same.
in october, and even now, alot of people are still less then level 60.

[Dystemper]

ATVI was down 3.21% today on the earnings call....ouch

[jellmoo]

Given this information, it would have been nice if they had had more info about future plans at Blizzcon. Such a driving force really could have had both more mention, and a frank discussion about possibilities for the future.

[GreenJesus]

Reach in October remained well above pre-Classic levels, with deep engagement across Classic and Modern World of Warcraft.

What does that even mean? It's a bunch of mumbo jumbo.

[tangers58]

Deep engagement in modern WoW... seems legit

[Relapses]

Given this information, it would have been nice if they had had more info about future plans at Blizzcon. Such a driving force really could have had both more mention, and a frank discussion about possibilities for the future.

Classic wasn't mentioned because it isn't important. That's not a hot take, it's reality. It achieved its goal of retaining existing players and likely attracted a number of returning players who will end up playing retail once they grow tired of Classic. Players expect OSRS levels of backpedalling from Blizzard but that was never its intended purpose. Classic+ definitely isn't happening and if TBC and WotLK is a possibility they're still waiting for populations to stabilize before announcing it. (BlizzCon 2020 would be the natural timeframe for such an announcement.)

[Sesto]

ATVI was down 3.21% today on the earnings call....ouch

before the earnings call, the actual impact is yet to be seen

[Dystemper]

before the earnings call, the actual impact is yet to be seen

After hours its down another 2%

[korijenkins]

Will Blizzard learn from this and realize making quality games is a superior way to make money than cash shops and greed?

No.

[Relapses]

Agreed. I understand what MAU stands for..but "Reach"?

Exposure to the brand, ie ads served and engagement in said ads. At least, that's my best guess. :^)