WoW Down to 8.3 Million Subscribers

[hiragana]

i expected as much, i left a while after mop and i can imagine a lot of others did too. Was wondering when wed hear about the sub numbers again. Certainly not the death of wow, it will be going for many years yet, but definately the decline, i expect numbers will snowball once more and more servers feel dead.

[Archegonus]

The solution is simple, ans has been there for a while: Make servers wich allow people to play old content only: Vanilla, BC and WOTLK, even one for Cata probably would bring some people back.

[stellvia]

The good news about this is, losses from WoW China are almost irrelevant to their profit margins. Their sub prices for WoW are around 20-25% what the West pays ... and then consider that Blizzard only gets a fraction of that as a royalty. When WoW was up in the 11M sub range, I heard that China made up like only 5-10% of their profit from WoW, so I wouldn't worry about it.

[Kazlofski]

Ah... 1.3M as of 31/3/13... Means 5.2 wasn't out yet, so probably some players did come back as overall I saw quite many that liked ToT.

[Deleted]

Not surprised, I cancelled my subscription last month, I love the game but the dificulty of raids and all the time required to be prepared for them became too much to handle for me and my schedule.

[Faroth]

WoW will be killed off when Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is released, right guys?! RIGHT?! .......yeah? .....hello?
/snicker

8.3 is a good, solid number. Still think a couple million less would settle to a sustainable core audience that would need less "how can we please every possible gamer mentality" design philosophy.

[Celista]

You forgot the main reason: people no longer willing to commit themselve to an MMO time-wise, they would rather play a shooter or a mobile game.

You're right, could very well be the main reason.

[Bahska]

Please elaborate on that statement, what is it that hasn't improved/gotten worse?

One word: Cataclysm I enjoyed the raiding in that xpac but even i have to agree it was bad. If you didn't raid you looked at a wall in a main city MoP is leaps and bounds better then that.

[Bawk]

When they say east, how do you know they're not talking east america? Did they say east asia? Or asia in general? I didn't think so.

Because geographically speaking the 'East' refers to Asia. Are you an idiot?
Asia's subscriber base doesn't pay a monthly fee like we do, for the most part. They pay by the hour at internet cafes and other internet venues.



1.3m Subscribers with majority of the lost from the East has nothing to do with North America or EU. In fact, the subscriber base in the US/EU servers is probably quite stable and Activision should release a report that splits up the numbers by region to debunk this fiasco so people can stop complaining that the game is going in the shitter.

MoP has been unfriendly on alts but, the current tier is refreshing, the bosses are fun and the content has been well designed. And unfriendly on alts or not, I still have 9 90s, most of which are fully geared and able to get into ToT LFR. So if you think MoP is that horrible on alts, you just aren't trying hard enough. :P

[Hitei]

Please elaborate on that statement, what is it that hasn't improved/gotten worse?

One word: Cataclysm

You don't seem to understand the concept of elaborating.

One word: Cataclysm I enjoyed the raiding in that xpac but even i have to agree it was bad. If you didn't raid you looked at a wall in a main city MoP is leaps and bounds better then that.

As opposed to Vanilla? Where the "only thing" to do besides raid was battlegrounds?

[yuca247]

Imagine the next quarter.... don't think 5.3 will impress people enough to stay subbed.

If people are only subscribed based on how many subs there currently are that's sad on their part. People should only play a game when they enjoy it and stop playing once they no longer enjoy it.

[TheWerebison]

the game is improving. the problem is, it's STILL wow. despite frequent content updates. some of best raids ever. tons and tons of content, it's STILL wow. for example, i've been around many years. i know the raids and content is good, but i'd still rather play something fresher. ya know? Everquest is better than it's ever been, is it number 1? no. things get old. WoW will jump each new expansion, then bleed out from monotony that is still wow. It's still an old cat no matter how many new tricks it learns. Put it next to a kitten and you can't compete, unless that kitten scratches you and claws up your furniture that is (ie the game is an utter disaster)
The reason people keep returning to wow is the plain ole fact, no one has done better yet, plain and simple. Until someone does, wow will be king. however, it's going to stay in an endless cycle of "new expansion, lets see if i can feel it this time". followed by "yeah i still don't feel it, bye bye"

this is not me saying wow is bad at all. it's greatest it's ever been. it's great for new users. but all us vets, which are still a large sum of people, monotony

Exactly this. It's the one thing the doomsayers AND the defenders both seem to forget.

Doomsayers - and I'm not calling anybody out here - but shut the hell up. There's still people who enjoy this game. And it IS still improving. It isn't what YOU want, but that doesn't mean it's getting worse. Sorry. Now stop trying to ruin everybody else's experience by being insulting.

Defenders - don't fall into the trap. Just enjoy your game, and don't worry about numbers. Let Blizzard worry about the numbers. The only thing that should matter is are YOU having fun?

[Pull My Finger]

The solution is simple, ans has been there for a while: Make servers wich allow people to play old content only: Vanilla, BC and WOTLK, even one for Cata probably would bring some people back.

LOL. This is hilarious.

[Rekuja]

Most were from the East anyway, relax people :\

FFXI has 500k subs, and it still feels populated.. 8.3m is huge.

RELAX MAN SHIEEEEEEEEEET

p.s Vanilla sucked, it's just Nostalgia kids... get over it. You enjoyed waiting hours for a 40man to get ready? civilian kills? DAT HONOR GRIND......

no thanks, MoP is great, 10x better than Cata.

[Bahska]

You don't seem to understand the concept of elaborating.

Didn't need to say more, if you played Cataclysm you would understand why i think MoP is leaps and bounds better.

[Boogieknight]

The time of vanilla-like stuff is dead and buried.

Yeah, the newer generation of players don't go in for grinds most of the time. It's not an instant gratification thing, it's just how the industry has evolved. We all played games like vanilla WoW, EQ, Eve Online, FFXI, etc. because that was the industry at the time and what we became accustomed to. Vanilla-like grinds and huge difficulties are pretty much never coming back, and it's almost suicide to actually try to put that into a game (look at FFXIV 1.0).

If people are only subscribed based on how many subs there currently are that's sad on their part. People should only play a game when they enjoy it and stop playing once they no longer enjoy it.

It depends on the sub that's lost. If 5 people are irl friends and one of them quits, then there's a good chance the other 4 will join them. Then someone else may quit because they quit. And so on...

[Samaramon]

Still more subscribers than all the "WoW-killers" combined.

[majesta]

Them not dealing with low server population is only going to bite them in the ass more. It would not surprise to see another 2 million in loss subs. I watched a decently healthy server in the last six months die. As it stands now, the very last Alliance raiding guild quit Tuesday night. There are no other options if you are alliance on Dragonmaw US other than server transfer. I refuse to spend 2 accounts, lol old PvP restriction, 11 alliance + 11 horde *$25 each to move to healthier realm. It is total bull. Their greed will be the demise of Warcraft.

[Bluthsbananas]

They'll be aight. I as a subscriber am enjoying the game. Not always about quantity.

Do you really think Blizzard, as a business, shares this sentiment? Quantity is EVERYTHING.

[Deleted]

It will ramp up again with the new expansion reveal and then the new expansion release.