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[Enter the Dragon Punch]

From an interview with Tom Chilton in the Polish magazine "Pixel". Can't post a picture of it, due to scan rules, but rough translation from Reddit's WoW subreddit (you can find threads discussing the article on /r/wow and mmo-champion forums):

You've had your peak at around 12M players. At the end of 2015, it was 5.5M, then Blizzard stopped reporting numbers. Could you say, how many subscribers there is currently?
As we speak, there is around 10.1M. You know, it's hard to tell what the future is going to bring. We have our inner rivalry with Overwatch, but it's still possible that we'll jump over 12M again. There is a lot of potential players and there is over 100M World of Warcraft accounts created.

Got cleared by a mod to post this thread without the image.

Glad to see Legion is doing well.

edit: Better translation from our very own Lashman

You peaked at 12m users. At the end of 2015 it was only 5.5m and then Blizzard just stopped releasing the statistics. Could you tell me approximately how many users are paid subscribers right now?

Currently, it's around 10.1m. You know, it's difficult to say what the future will bring. We have an internal competitor - Overwatch but it's possible it'll get even higher than 12mil. There are plenty of potential takers and there are over 100mil WoW accounts.

You mentioned Overwatch - you changed the business model there. The game is $50 but doesn't have a subscription ...

Well it actually was just a traditional boxed release, just like Diablo. And you have to remember that we live in an age where everyone screams that f2p is the only possible business model nowadays. Subscriptions will still be used by us and we don't have any plans to change that.

 

[Nirolak]

Impressive, but I'm curious to see what it is by Spring or Summer of next year.

The problem with WoW expansion packs and subscribers numbers has generally never been the launch window.

They are in theory trying to run a much more robust service, so the numbers then would show how well that works.

 

[Nokterian]

Legion is great one of there best expansion yet i love it and can't wait for 7.1.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Not surprised, Legion is fantastic.

 

[BennyBlanco]

What is this game like as a new player jumping in in the year 2016? Will it all feel dated as hell?

 

[Enter the Dragon Punch]

Impressive, but I'm curious to see what it is by Spring or Summer of next year.

The problem with WoW expansion packs and subscribers numbers has generally never been the launch window.

On the bright side, they're already steering WAY clear of the content drought issues of Legion. By early 2017 we'll have 3 raids, one "mega dungeon", more new world quests, a world event on the Broken Isles, etc - along with multiple raid tiers guaranteed to be added still.

What is this game like as a new player jumping in in the year 2016? Will it all feel dated as hell?

Best it's ever been. Legion feels incredibly fluid and modern.

 

[KingBroly]

I'm guessing WoW will rise/fall based on when new expansions come in. That's a massive increase.

 

[dangerskew]

Glad to hear subscriptions are back up, Blizzard absolutely deserves it because Legion is fantastic.

Starting to see some players turn on the expansion, but it just amounts to people whining that there's RNG in an RPG.

 

[MassiveNights]

Deserved, Legion is an excellent product.

 

[KaYotiX]

Legion is amazing. I wish I had more time to play it.

 

[skynidas]

12 year old game. amazing.

 

[SargerusBR]

Holy shit, i expected a bump in subs but not this big. Gratz for Blizz, Legion is the best xpac since WotLK.

 

[FrontalMonk]

On the bright side, they're already steering WAY clear of the content drought issues of Legion. By early 2017 we'll have 3 raids, one "mega dungeon", more new world quests, a world event on the Broken Isles, etc - along with multiple raid tiers guaranteed to be added still.



Best it's ever been. Legion feels incredibly fluid and modern.

Mega Dungeon? Are we talking like a new BRD?

 

[Berordn]

What is this game like as a new player jumping in in the year 2016? Will it all feel dated as hell?

With the amount of overhauls they've made to the engine, we're basically on WoW 2/3/whatever at this point. Much of the content and many of the new mechanics could never exist in the game back at launch.

That's not to say it isn't super clunky at times and it still shows stretch marks in places, but the game is still very competent.

 

[LastGamer84]

Well they brought me back. Just wish I had friends to play with. Cross-realm groups and raids still feels so lacking in social aspects to me.

Amazing expansion though.

 

[Enter the Dragon Punch]

Holy shit, i expected a bump but bot this big. Gratz for Blizz, Legion is the best xpac since WotLK.

Goes to show just how bad Warlords was for players who weren't raiders. People WANT to love WoW, but WoD made that really hard. Legion on the other hand has content in spades.

Mega Dungeon? Are we talking like a new BRD?

The entirety of Karazhan. 9 boss dungeon.

Also, like Court of Stars and The Arcway, new dungeons don't get group finder support. You can only do it on mythic with pre-made groups. No queueing!

 

[Loxley]

That's an astonishing jump from the 5-6 million they hit in the middle of WOD's 14-month drought of content.

Well deserved though, Legion has been fantastic so far.

 

[Maintenance]

The same thing happened with WoD, down to the "best expansion ever" comments.

 

[MUnited83]

Is it really surprising when you can pay subscriptions with in-game gold now? Unless i'm wrong numbers have been steadly rising since whenever they introduced that mechanic.

 

[Hazmat]

Their expansions are always top-notch, so the numbers are well earned. I can't imagine I'll be playing once 2017 rolls around, but I enjoy the first stretch after an expansion every two years or so.

 

[The Lamonster]

Damn, I wasn't expecting such a big bump. Grats, Blizzard!

 

[Somnia]

Mega Dungeon? Are we talking like a new BRD?

Karazhan is going to have a 5 man version in Legion with the 7.1 patch.

 

[kiguel182]

I bought WoW for the first time. It runs like crap on my laptop but I'm really enjoying it.

12 years too late but Im here.

 

[Enter the Dragon Punch]

The same thing happened with WoD, down to the "best expansion ever" comments.

A month into WoD people were already complaining about Garrisons and a lack of stuff to do. By patch 7.1, Legion will easily have more content than the entirety of WoD.

Is it really surprising when you can pay subscriptions with in-game gold now? Unless i'm wrong numbers have been steadly rising since whenever they introduced that mechanic.

Nah, when they hit 5.5m and stopped reporting numbers they already had the tokens in place AFAIK

 

[Shalashaska161]

Legion is really great so that number isn't too surprising. Let's see if they can actually keep a reasonable content flow this time so sub numbers don't crater like the last couple expansions.

 

[Abounder]

Seems like it's been rising on twitch as well. Still can't believe that there was a Warcraft movie released this year, what a franchise

 

[N7.Angel]

Make sense, Legion is the best extension since WOLTK, the PVP is fantastic as well but pleased, nerf rogues to the ground, thanks.

 

[Chris R]

Thing is, I can spend ~2 hours farming and pay for a month of playtime now, I'll never have to unsub again.

 

[CHC]

Impressive but it will fall, it always does. Legion has made me enjoy WoW in a way I have not since Wrath, but at the same time with each passing day I feel that pulling gravity of the game diminishing bit by bit. It's been great leveling and getting geared, but I don't want to be weekly raider at this point in my life, so sooner or later that well is going to run dry. But for now, it's fun - I bought two months of game time and I certainly plan on using every minute of it and possibly extending it by a little bit too.

Mega Dungeon? Are we talking like a new BRD?

It's a new version of Kara, with 9 bosses. I don't know if it will be quite as expansive as BRD was but it seems pretty subtantial, probably about the size of a regular raid.

 

[Somnia]

Seems like it's been rising on twitch as well. Still can't believe that there was a Warcraft movie released this year, what a franchise

Yep, Towelliee got to 5k subs during the Legion launch and with Twitch Prime he just broke 6k, Bajhera is getting a ton of subs, Sloot, etc. The WoW viewer numbers has gone up for sure.

 

[Iadien]

Seems like it's been rising on twitch as well. Still can't believe that there was a Warcraft movie released this year, what a franchise

That's mostly because Lirik was streaming it a fuck ton.

 

[Intru]

What is this game like as a new player jumping in in the year 2016? Will it all feel dated as hell?

Honestly, not sure what it would be like to someone completely new. I think if you start from level 1, you'll run into quite a few zones and dungeons that look/feel very dated as they haven't all been updated since the game's launch.

If you start at level 100 (you get a level 100 boost if you buy the newest expansion) you'll be into the new stuff right away, which doesn't feel dated at all. The downside is, you might be a little overwhelmed if you start at level 100. There are some tutorials when you boost a character though.

 

[WarMacheen]

Legion is very good so far. I hope it get supported unlike WoD

 

[Somnia]

That's mostly because Lirik was streaming it a fuck ton.

Even without Lirik the WoW streamers have all seen an increase in viewers. Towelliee is regularly getting 5-10k viewers, Sloot getting 2k, Baj getting 1.5-2k, DCarter is now getting 1-2k regularly, Sparty 1.5-2k, etc.

Everyone of those has seen a major rise since Legion (dcarter because he helped Towelliee during his 10 day mega stream and gained 17k followers in that time frame and got his partnership).

 

[shoreu]

Ayyyyye f the haters! Great expansion

 

[WaterAstro]

Even without Lirik the WoW streamers have all seen an increase in viewers. Towelliee is regularly getting 5-10k viewers, Sloot getting 2k, Baj getting 1.5-2k, DCarter is now getting 1-2k regularly, Sparty 1.5-2k, etc.

Everyone of those has seen a major rise since Legion (dcarter because he helped Towelliee during his 10 mega stream and gained 17k followers in that time frame and got his partnership).

Newsflash: New game gets viewers.

We'll have to see if this doesn't drop by the millions when Blizzard, once again, stop updating the game for an entire year like the past two expansions.

 

[Linkark07]

We all know WoW subscription number always increase when an expansion is released. The question is, will the numbers stay mostly the same or will they fall? Only Blizzard can answer that by releasing steady content instead of long droughts.

 

[Yoshichan]

I'm pleasantly surprised by these numbers, but I'm still waiting for the numbers in 3 months. Regarding the quality of the game, I can confirm that it is indeed better than the shithole that was Warlords but then again, that's really no achievement. This release is nothing compared to pre-patch Cataclysm and the entirety of first content MoP. And I'm not even going to mention pre-WotLK.

Legion ups and downs IMO.

+ Garrison/Billboard shit is actually decent now (the mobile app helps)
+ Vaults of the Warden. That's right, two of the bosses (wizard and the warden) should've been raid bosses.
+ Art direction and graphics, as usual
+ Artifact Power is incentive enough for me to come back every day
+ Sylvanas as my leader (10 years too late, but I'm fine with it)

- Dailies replaced by World Quests, they're both trash
- LFR still exists
- World Quest "epic" bosses aren't epic despite Blizzard saying that they'd change that
- The lore is worse than it's ever been
- Too much RNG on loot. I get that RNG is a factor in these games, but holy fucking shit is it intense in this game. I'm not even only talking about the stupid legendaries, but the ilvl of items that drop in anything above Mythics. Someone getting a 835 item while the other guy gets an 880... from the same boss? Not acceptable.
- Suramar. Blizzard tried something new here, and they failed miserably. I'm the minority here, I understand that - but I simply cannot fathom why you would like this shitfest of a zone.

Comparing early content (7.0, 6.0 etc), Legion simply doesn't hold jack compared to MoP and Cata. I can't however wait for 7.1 to see how that'll fare with the audience.

 

[ChaosSmurf]

Was this Polish mag just the first guys lucky enough to ask or what? They said they'd never give these figures again, and for good reason.

 

[Somnia]

Newsflash: New game gets viewers.

We'll have to see if this doesn't drop by the millions when Blizzard, once again, stop updating the game for an entire year like the past two expansions.

Newsflash: we were just discussing how it has rose on Twitch with Legion.

No kidding it will drop in time.

 

[Finaj]

I'm pleasantly surprised by these numbers, but I'm still waiting for the numbers in 3 months. Regarding the quality of the game, I can confirm that it is indeed better than the shithole that was Warlords but then again, that's really no achievement. This release is nothing compared to pre-patch Cataclysm and the entirety of first content MoP. And I'm not even going to mention pre-WotLK.

Legion ups and downs IMO.

+ Garrison/Billboard shit is actually decent now (the mobile app helps)
+ Vaults of the Warden. That's right, two of the bosses (wizard and the warden) should've been raid bosses.
+ Art direction and graphics, as usual
+ Artifact Power is incentive enough for me to come back every day.

- Dailies replaced by World Quests, they're both trash
- LFR still exists
- World Quest "epic" bosses aren't epic despite Blizzard saying that they'd change that
- The lore is worse than it's ever been

Comparing early content (7.0, 6.0 etc), Legion simply doesn't hold jack compared to MoP and Cata. I can't however wait for 7.1 to see how that'll fare with the audience.

That's impossible. Warlords of Draenor exists.

 

[Nokagi]

Personally I'm not enjoying Legion very much. It was fun until I finished the Class Hall stuff but now I'm bored. I just log on to do the daily world quests then log off. Heroics are rather pointless as the gear drops are worse than what I already have. The only quests I have left to do are locked behind Mythic dungeons which I probably won't be doing ( don't feel like sitting there retrying until a group to actually accepts me). Hard to believe but I think at this same period I was enjoying WOD a lot more.

 

[DrPreston]

How is Overwatch more of an internal competitor than any other Blizzard game?

 

[FrontalMonk]

The entirety of Karazhan. 9 boss dungeon.

Karazhan is going to have a 5 man version in Legion with the 7.1 patch.

It's a new version of Kara, with 9 bosses. I don't know if it will be quite as expansive as BRD was but it seems pretty subtantial, probably about the size of a regular raid.

God...dammit...why did they have to hit on the one big nostalgia spot for me?

Fuck. I'm going to be subbed by the end of the year.

 

[Ensirius]

Thing is, I can spend ~2 hours farming and pay for a month of playtime now, I'll never have to unsub again.

Really?

I can buy the expac here in EU and do what you just said and I'll never have to worry about paying for a sub again?

 

[SmartWaffles]

Eh resubbed but dropped out at level 106. The endgame this time is just way, way too fucking grindy.

 

[Somnia]

Personally I'm not enjoying Legion very much. It was fun until I finished the Class Hall stuff but now I'm bored. I just log on to do the daily world quests then log off. Heroics are rather pointless as the gear drops are worse than what I already have. The only quests I have left to do are locked behind Mythic dungeons which I probably won't be doing ( don't feel like sitting there retrying until a group to actually accepts me). Hard to believe but I think at this same period I was enjoying WOD a lot more.

Start your own group.

 

[ChaosSmurf]

How is Overwatch more of an internal competitor than any other Blizzard game?

It sold 15 million copies.

 

[Levito]

Good on Blizzard, seems they took some valuable lessons from WoD's reception and worked hard to turn it around and make players happy.

 

[Enter the Dragon Punch]

Added another translation from Lashman to the OP. No plans to go F2P

Really?

I can buy the expac here in EU and do what you just said and I'll never have to worry about paying for a sub again?

Yes. Right now, Foxflower, an incredibly easy to gather herb at any skill level, goes for ~100g per unit. You'll be able to gather a few hundred in an hour or two of farming (a fox spawns sometimes and you can follow it to gather like 10 free foxflowers), and that alone is stupid good money.