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World of Warcraft is down to 6.8 million subs; Blizzard on the verge of sleet

I

Into

Member
"As of June 30, 2014, Blizzard Entertaintment's World of Warcraft Remains the #1 Subscription based MMORPG, With approximately 6.8 Million subscribers. There was a decline in subscribers quarter over quarter, which was disproportionately concentrated in the East and was similar to the seasonal decline experienced during the second quarter of 2012, prior to the launch of the most recent expansion later that year."

http://files.shareholder.com/downlo...4aa6c/Q2_2014_ATVI_Earnings_Press_Release.pdf


Subscriber Definition:
World of Warcraft
subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules
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cBQthsJ.jpg
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http://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-of-warcraft-subscribers-by-quarter/

13ykb5R.png
 
M

Magnus

Member
A year of barely any updates will do that.

Back playing and loving it as much as ever, though, personally speaking.

MoP is a stellar expansion from a content, art/music, and accessibility/quality-of-life point if view.
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Maybe they should stop talking about how they need to stop having giant year-long content gaps, and then doing it anyways.
 
D

Danielsan

Member
6.8 million paying subscribers is nothing to scoff at for a 10 year old game. The new expansion will probably bring back a few people as well.
 
G

georly

Member
Magnus said:
A year of barely any updates will do that.

Back playing and loving it as much as ever, though, personally speaking.

MoP is a stellar expansion from a content, art/music, and accessibility/quality-of-life point if view.
Click to expand...

I came back for a 10 day trial after not having played it since Burning crusade, and the oversimplification of stuff was a bit off-putting, but made it really easy to get back in to the game and do some pick-up instances.
 
B

BearPawB

Banned
i would say that is a pretty good number. and i bet that will increase a decent amount when the new expansion comes out.

I think this one just took a little too long
 
B

BigDug13

Member
So? Everquest was happy to have 450,000 subscribers. WoW is still the most successful MMO of all time even if their current subscription numbers was the highest ever achieved.
 
T

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
I feel like the thread title should really read 'decade old game has 7 million people paying each month to play'
 
F

Freedom = $1.05

Banned
well, when the only new thing it has going for it is that Dan Ryckert started playing as a cerebral ass then you know that they're running out of steam.
 
RPGCrazied

RPGCrazied

Member
Well, they could have tried another annual pass to stop massive sub loss. Wonder why they didn't do one this year.
 
S

Sothpaw

Member
I played since beta, quit at pandaland. MMO's in general are boring to me now. All about MOBA and single player games.
 
Q

Queen of Hunting

Unconfirmed Member
i remember how every mmo accross the years got the title will this be the wow killer, and each one simply failed. aion, warhammer, star wars, rift yea get the point, not one of them has even had 6 mill subs once let alone dropping slowly from 12 to 6 mil.
 
M

McDougles

Member
There's an expansion coming out (was announced a year ago) and people are here pretending 6.8 million subs is the end of the game.

lol
 
S

Stormhammer

Member
I stopped playing when Siege of Orgrimmar had just released, and it shocks me that it's still the last big content almost a year later. I can see why the numbers would be dropping as the fatigue must be setting in, but I'm sure there will be a decent increase once Warlords of Draenor hits.

Hopefully they're a bit quicker with content updates in that expansion.
 
G

Gurrry

Member
Well.. If they went f2p.. they would add me as a player!

Its nearly 2015. No one has time for sub fees for MMO's!
 
S

Skelter

Banned
I'm waiting for WoD to sub again. It looks pretty great. Look at dat ICC pulling in 12 million subs. Everyone loves Arthas.
 
A

Aesthet1c

Member
RPGCrazied said:
Well, they could have tried another annual pass to stop massive sub loss. Wonder why they didn't do one this year.
Click to expand...

People got the annual pass for the free Diablo. They don't really have a game to give away this time.

Also, I imagine subs are just low because of the lack of any kind of content updates. I know most of my guild quit a while ago but plans to come back for the expansion. I imagine they will see a decent bump then.

Don't forget, any other game would kill to have 6.8 million paying subscribers.
 
M

Magnus

Member
flyinpiranha said:
Waiting for MoP to hit $10 then I might sub for a month to check it out.
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It's been $10 since December when on sale (which happens very frequently). It was even $10 directly digital via Blizzard.

Just saw it for $15 at best buy and EB games today.
 
F

Fjordson

Member
Not surprising with no major patch this year. Should be back up around 8 million once Warlords of Draenor hits. And damn @ 1.5 million pre-orders of WoD already.


er, I mean..WoW is dead! RIP in peace Blizz.
 
P

Perfect Cha0s

Member
We can come up with a few points about game design and philosophy to try to explain these numbers, but this is likely most attributable to one fact: there hasn't been any new content in 11 months.
 
E

erragal

Member
Netherscourge said:
Cataclysm and the changes to WoW thereafter really hurt the game.
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Very much so. Regardless of the anti GC propaganda the design for Cata to eliminate theorycrafting/the 'burden of knowledge' changed the game significantly.

It's been coasting on the fumes of its legacy since then.

There's no indication Blizzard will ever design a game with the knowledge-cap if release to wotlk era Wow again.

Considering the popularity of knowledge-intensive mobas it's become obvious that designing all mechanics towards the most casual of players is poison for player retention.
 
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