World of Warcraft Subscriptions Rise to 10 Million

[Marshall Honorof]

World of Warcraft Subscriptions Rise to 10 Million

Mists of Pandaria netted almost 1 million paying players for WoW.

A lot of MMOs are Mists of Pandaria [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120189-BioWare-Charts-Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic-Free-to-Play-Restrictions] expansion, the game's subscriber base has recovered somewhat and is holding steady - for now - at a respectable 10 million.

A few months ago, two analysts posited [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118880-Financial-Wizards-Call-World-of-Warcraft-Activisions-Achilles-Heel] that World of Warcraft represents a danger to its parent company, Activision Blizzard. In light of a declining subscriber base, they argued, leaning too heavily on the aging MMO for revenue would not work as a long-term strategy. While a gain of 1 million subscribers in a single quarter is promising, this could simply be an upward bump in a general decline. The real test of Mists of Pandaria's success will be how many players who joined (or rejoined) WoW for the new content stick around in the long-term.

WoW has made some concessions to the free-to-play market [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111348-WoW-Goes-Free-Forever-Except-Not], but so far has exhibited no real interest in abandoning its highly successful subscription model. Based on these numbers, it won't have to anytime soon, but WoW is not likely to plateau at 10 million subscribers, one way or another.

Source: MCVUK [http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/world-of-warcraft-subscriber-numbers-bounce-back/0106005]

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[DugMachine]

This makes me happy. So glad I've been hearing positive feedback about this expansion... makes me want to play again haha.

 

[Mr.Wizard]

Sure, might not be a good idea to rely on the revenue long term, but until then they are raking in $150 million dollars a month (sub fee for WoW is $15 a month right?)

 

[anthony87]

This makes me happy. So glad I've been hearing positive feedback about this expansion... makes me want to play again haha.

I re-subbed a couple of weeks ago and I was starting to wonder if it was worth the new subscription.

.....Then I got one of these as a mount

(sans Goku unfortunately)

You should definitely give it a go. I've been having a blast since I went back.

 

[kaizen2468]

Apparently only 1/10 are capable of walking away from that damn game.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Apparently only 1/10 are capable of walking away from that damn game.

Frankly the thing that most people go back for, in my opinion, is the relationships they build with other players. You find yourself a tight knit group of people that you have fun playing with regularly and already 70% of the work is done for Blizzard. Some of the best times I had were when some guildies and I would make our own fun.

The game itself is easy to leave, but what's hard is leaving behind the friends you made while playing it.

 

[StriderShinryu]

As others have said, this is hardly anything to get too excited about. You need to have a subscription just to try the new content so an uptick in subs is hardly a surprise.

 

[Starke]

Honestly, it's kinda nice to see this one's recovered a bit. Usually with MMOs it's a slow (well, sometimes not so slow) deterioration after launch no matter what you do.

 

[crepesack]

I don't get why its become cool to hate on WoW. It's not a bad game. It's not "unhealthy" for the industry and the devs seem to be trying their hardest to keep people playing. They are basically what we'd all want an MMO to do.

 

[Brainst0rm]

This surprises me - I wonder how current that figure is. Because I know that a -lot- of players have dropped their subs in the past two weeks due to the daily grind and general aimlessness of this xpac. I have, and a lot of my guild. And if 1/10 of the people whining about dailies on the forums have... it's a lot.

 

[Kyrinn]

This surprises me - I wonder how current that figure is. Because I know that a -lot- of players have dropped their subs in the past two weeks due to the daily grind and general aimlessness of this xpac. I have, and a lot of my guild. And if 1/10 of the people whining about dailies on the forums have... it's a lot.

I believe the figure is current as of this quarter,not sure though.
The problem wth basing how players feel about the game by the forums is that you really only see those that complain. Those who are enjoying the game aren't generally going to show much they love it on the forums. However you will get many people who aren't enjoying themselves posting because people want their complaints to be heard. I'm pretty sure the majority of the playebase don't even visit the forums.
The daiy grind was only really an issue for those on the bleedig edge of progression raiding. Not to mention it's pretty much the only real complaint the playerbase has this expansion.

 

[Terminate421]

This makes me happy. So glad I've been hearing positive feedback about this expansion... makes me want to play again haha.

I re-subbed a couple of weeks ago and I was starting to wonder if it was worth the new subscription.

.....Then I got one of these as a mount

(sans Goku unfortunately)

You should definitely give it a go. I've been having a blast since I went back.

I got one of these:

 

[Draconalis]

Subs are up because mists makes all the Chinese gold farmers feel at home

 

[Timmey]

This surprises me - I wonder how current that figure is. Because I know that a -lot- of players have dropped their subs in the past two weeks due to the daily grind and general aimlessness of this xpac. I have, and a lot of my guild. And if 1/10 of the people whining about dailies on the forums have... it's a lot.

I believe the figure is current as of this quarter,not sure though.
The problem wth basing how players feel about the game by the forums is that you really only see those that complain. Those who are enjoying the game aren't generally going to show much they love it on the forums. However you will get many people who aren't enjoying themselves posting because people want their complaints to be heard. I'm pretty sure the majority of the playebase don't even visit the forums.
The daiy grind was only really an issue for those on the bleedig edge of progression raiding. Not to mention it's pretty much the only real complaint the playerbase has this expansion.

Good points and i couldn't agree more really. I re subbed for this expansion and im loving it, plus i don't particularly mind the grinds, no one is forcing me to do them, and i just choose a faction and knock off the dailies on a regular basis, you don't have to go doing them all at once.

 

[Marowit]

This xpac has done a great job adding stuff just to have it added to the game (not to mention the obvious outstanding-standard content). Even if there's no real reason for it being there other than making a person get the warm fuzzy feeling of having stumbled across it.

An example, i was in the first zone of the new expansion, and came across a shrine. I saw a sparkling sack of coins sitting in front of the shrine. I right click it, you know, because it's shiny, and get a 30min "Stealing from the dead - that's bad luck" debuff. No reason for it to be in the game, but it's shit like that makes the game just feel better, more like an MMO, than the last expansion (at least in my opinion).

Plus, I had a couple of friends come back to the game, and now that we live apart it's a great way to have a regular interaction with them again.

 

[disgruntledgamer]

New expansion comes out subscriptions increase for a couple of months who would of thought. Not surprising I expect they hold until the holidays and than drop back down come new year.