World of Warcraft Subscriber Base Increases Despite Downward Trend

[roseofbattle]

World of Warcraft Subscriber Base Increases Despite Downward Trend

Subscribers have steadily dropped for World of Warcraft over the years, but now there's been a sudden surge in subscribers.

Activision-Blizzard has announced that World of Warcraft [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/world%20of%20warcraft] has 7.4 million subscribers as of the end of September, a 9% increase in its subscription base for the MMO from the end of June (from 6.8 million subscribers). The company believes the rise in subscriptions is related to next month's release of the expansion pack, Warlords of Draenor.

Warlords of Draenor is the fifth expansion pack for World of Warcraft. The company notes there was a similar jump in subscribers in October 2012 near the launch of the last expansion pack, Mists of Pandaria.

World of Warcraft subscriptions have steadily dropped over the years. The game, which launched in 2004, saw a great increase in subscribers from early 2005 to early 2008 with a smaller increase later in the year. Since the highest point of worldwide subscriptions in late 2010, the subscription base has decreased overtime. Activistion-Blizzard stated the historical subscriber trend, while declining, "is still fairly strong for a 10-year-old video game franchise."

Warlords of Draenor launches November 13. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/136838-Blizzard-Entertainment-Announces-Release-Date-for-World-of-Warcraft-Warlords-of-Draenor] The expansion takes place in Draenor, a world in an alternate universe and the home of the Orc and Draenei races. The level cap will be increased from 90 to 100.

Yesterday Blizzard launched Patch 6.0.2: The patch notes are available to read here. [http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/16296588/patch-602-the-iron-tide-crashes-into-azeroth-october-14-10-9-2014]

Even with World of Warcraft's continued loss of subscribers, the game is still one of the most popular MMOs in the world.

Source: Activision-Blizzard [https://sterneagee.bluematrix.com/sellside/EmailDocViewer?encrypt=37e067f5-55f1-4dab-a5e4-7ff02f5e89f2&mime=pdf&co=Sterneagee&[email protected]&source=mail]


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[Roofstone]

Was anything else expected really? It is WoW after all. Azeroth.

 

[laggyteabag]

I was kind of under the impression that this was something to be expected. It is something that has happened across each expansion, and it is to be expected for each new expansion. A new expansion sparks new interest in the game, and of course it is going to raise sub counts, even if it is only a temporary rise. Blizzard have been pretty poor with major content releases as of late (The last major patch for MoP was over a year ago) and people just get bored of playing the same content over and over, so if they really want to keep the subs, they need to make more of these updates.

 

[omega 616]

Meh, look what "Mists" did for the game, made an almost perfect V and then decreased in numbers ... it will be people who have re-subbed to see the new shit, try it out a little and then get bored again.

The game is dieing a long slow lingering death, with Blizz administering shots of adrenaline to boost the heart rate a little for a short time.

Nothing wrong with that, it is still laying golden eggs! Just it's not the best carat any more, it's more 22, than 24.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Time for the new WoW content Mad Libs!

I've been playing since ________.
The Game was better before ____________.
It's too ______ now and was better before they added_________.


As predictable as the tides (of war.)



All joking aside, I really rather enjoyed the storyline they went with in MoP, and WoD seems to be gearing up for some pretty fun stuff as well. I'm hoping it keeps in line with the episodic content patches of MoP, I really enjoyed playing through that story as it unfurled.
(Even if, as a Forsaken, I felt little character motivation for most of it.)


Edit: I'm hoping that the prelaunch event isn't just the Blasted Lands quests and the new UBRS dungeon, kinda hoping for more escalation prior to the actual launch of WoD kinda like we got with WotLK and Cata.

 

[Janaschi]

I am happy with this news. I always stop playing WoW for long periods of times, but I end up returning after every 10-12 months, play for a few months, and I always enjoy the experience, no matter what changes they make. Only real problem has been the lack of players running around as compared to the olden days, but the recent surge of players has actually been creating a bit of post-expansion lag, which is sort of nice in a way.

 

[El Luck]

Meh, look what "Mists" did for the game, made an almost perfect V and then decreased in numbers ... it will be people who have re-subbed to see the new shit, try it out a little and then get bored again.

The game is dieing a long slow lingering death, with Blizz administering shots of adrenaline to boost the heart rate a little for a short time.

Nothing wrong with that, it is still laying golden eggs! Just it's not the best carat any more, it's more 22, than 24.

Ok I need to ask because its been said a lot but...in what way is this game dying?

 

[omega 616]

Meh, look what "Mists" did for the game, made an almost perfect V and then decreased in numbers ... it will be people who have re-subbed to see the new shit, try it out a little and then get bored again.

The game is dieing a long slow lingering death, with Blizz administering shots of adrenaline to boost the heart rate a little for a short time.

Nothing wrong with that, it is still laying golden eggs! Just it's not the best carat any more, it's more 22, than 24.

Ok I need to ask because its been said a lot but...in what way is this game dying?

Everything is subject to entropy and decay. At some point the balance of profitability will slide to make the game unsupportable (through legit means), so the game will officially close.

People get bored of games and WoW has been riding high for years, the arc of this game has already crested and it's on the back hand of life. Unless they make WoW 2 out of WoW and it's like a phoenix rising from it's own ashes ... it will die at some point.

 

[Janaschi]

Meh, look what "Mists" did for the game, made an almost perfect V and then decreased in numbers ... it will be people who have re-subbed to see the new shit, try it out a little and then get bored again.

The game is dieing a long slow lingering death, with Blizz administering shots of adrenaline to boost the heart rate a little for a short time.

Nothing wrong with that, it is still laying golden eggs! Just it's not the best carat any more, it's more 22, than 24.

Ok I need to ask because its been said a lot but...in what way is this game dying?

Everything is subject to entropy and decay. At some point the balance of profitability will slide to make the game unsupportable (through legit means), so the game will officially close.

People get bored of games and WoW has been riding high for years, the arc of this game has already crested and it's on the back hand of life. Unless they make WoW 2 out of WoW and it's like a phoenix rising from it's own ashes ... it will die at some point.

If WoW dying means we get a new Warcraft RTS, with a BNet as innovative as WC3(FT)'s, then I will drop WoW like a brick right this second and gleefully watch it die. :3

 

[thetoddo]

WoW might be declining, but it's far from dying. I heard an interview with one of the developers from SWTOR and he said that the game is in the "making a profit" territory at 700k subscribers (back when it was just subscription). WoW is a mature game, they don't have to worry about buying/leasing new servers because they already have them and the engine is old but stable, patching in new features/content is way less expensive than starting from zero. WoW is still printing money for Blizzard and they're not likely to stop publishing new content for it till they're under 1-2 million subs.

 

[Charli]

Meh, look what "Mists" did for the game, made an almost perfect V and then decreased in numbers ... it will be people who have re-subbed to see the new shit, try it out a little and then get bored again.

The game is dieing a long slow lingering death, with Blizz administering shots of adrenaline to boost the heart rate a little for a short time.

Nothing wrong with that, it is still laying golden eggs! Just it's not the best carat any more, it's more 22, than 24.

Guarantee you that was the year of Dragon soul raid and cataclysms extremely lackluster end game content. Cata tops a lot of vet players worst expansion list. Mists was the bandage on a severe fallout.

 

[DugMachine]

I'm not too confident that those subs will stick around and I'm sure by the end of this expansion WoW will have even less subscribers. I still enjoy the game but even I get bored and unsub from time to time. For some people, it's for good. The game is still great as evident by the millions of subscribers but its getting pretty dated and some want to move on. Really nothing more to it.

 

[Sanunes]

I gave the beta for Warlords a try and just couldn't get back into the game. I think they made a lot of poor choices with Cataclysm and the game took a severe dive because of it. My guild fell apart and most of the people that stuck out since launch just left the game which caused more people to leave the game because the people weren't there anymore. I know by the end I was basically paying $15 a month for a chat interface with some interactive content as a bonus.

 

[Zydrate]

I'm just expecting a WoW2, really. Different timeline entirely. Shinier... everything.

 

[Svarr]

My boyfriend just resubscribed for nostalgia the other day and then I see this article..

Stop stalking him internet! Rawrwawrawrwarwar. XD

Seriously though, glad to see blizzard having things go their way for a bit longer, maybe they'll continue to polish WoW some more with more subs coming in.