WoW Down to 5.6 Million Subscribers

[AdamSavage]

Blizzard has their Q2 2015 earnings call today, announcing that WoW is down to 5.6 million subscribers at the end of Q2 2015. This is down 1.5 million from the Q1 2015 call that listed WoW at 7.1 million subscribers.

More developers are working on World of Warcraft than ever before.

(yet they still come out with rushed content)

The Warcraft movie is a chance to expose Warcraft's lore to new audiences and increase interest in World of Warcraft overall.
The subscriber count was down in the east, in part due to Diablo 3 release.
Patch 6.2 helped to stabilize the subscriber count in the last few weeks of the quarter.
Blizzard has been listening to players experiences during Warlords of Draenor and thinks players will be excited by the announcement this week
Tokens are included in this timeframe, as they launched in Q2.
Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Destiny combined now have more than 70 million registered players.
Blizzard Entertainment had the largest online player community in its history, with Q2 MAUsB up 50% year-over
Hearthstone engagement metrics nearly doubled year over year, largely on account of the new content and new platforms
Diablo III has now sold-through over 30 million units life-to-date globally.

I'm not at all surprised by these numbers. I figured they would be around 5 Million. From a Business standpoint. This is bad... They almost HALF the Sub base in less than a year.. While the game still is big.. This sub loss is simply not sustainable.. They NEED to fix this, and do something drastic or the subs will keep falling.

[Castile]

This kinda reaction happens every time wow subs drop and seriously this is not the end of the world (of warcraft) as we know it. This is an old game and from a buisness standpoint I doubt they care about a few million subs - they are still the most subscribed to MMO ever. And their new games like Hearthstone and Heroes have a combined 70 million players according to your post...why would they care about 1.5?

Just wait they will announce the new expac, ppl will get excited and subs will do their usual spike again.

[AdamSavage]

This kinda reaction happens every time wow subs drop and seriously this is not the end of the world (of warcraft) as we know it. This is an old game and from a buisness standpoint I doubt they care about a few million subs - they are still the most subscribed to MMO ever. And their new games like Hearthstone and Heroes have a combined 70 million players according to your post...why would they care about 1.5?

Just wait they will announce the new expac, ppl will get excited and subs will do their usual spike again.

It's not that it's 1.5 Million, it's that they lost 1/2 of the sub base in under a year.. It's normal for subs to go up and down, but this is the first it's gone this low.. I expect it to dip even lower down to 4 million before the Expansion is over. I could be wrong though..

As for Heroes and Heathstone.. They are Free to Play.. You don't have to spend a dime to play it.. I'm playing heroes, but I'm saving up my gold to buy new characters. Eventually I will get bored of it, and stop playing it. There are people of course that will pay for new mounts, Heroes etc.. However, this isn't about Blizzard Games. It's about WoW, and it's sinking sub base. The fact that even with a new content patch, the subs still kept falling isn't good..

I'm simply pointing out that, such a big spike in sub loss in a short period of time isn't a good thing, no matter how you try to reason the numbers or sugar coat it.

[Makoes]

Would the wow tokens have any effect on subscriptions since it pretty much put gold sellers out of business on that aspect?

[AdamSavage]

Would the wow tokens have any effect on subscriptions since it pretty much put gold sellers out of business on that aspect?

The numbers do include the wow tokens, but they don't say how many use the tokens.

[Arwyn]

Yes, they've lost subscribers but will they get them back from the new exp or because of interest the movie brings in who knows. But the thing for me, as long as I'm enjoying the game number loss doesn't mean a thing.

Well..not true..when the numbers dip to Wildstar levels and there's talks of merging all servers into one massive PvP or PvE realm with no RP realms I may worry. A little.

[Castile]

I'm simply pointing out that, such a big spike in sub loss in a short period of time isn't a good thing, no matter how you try to reason the numbers or sugar coat it.

And I'm pointing out that a drop in numbers isn't an unusal thing - graphs speak for themselves really. The game has been in a slow decline of numbers since 2010 when it peaked at 12 million. The recent "spike" in membership to 10mil is actually quite out of the ordinary from previous years (perhaps something to do with the free 90) but in reality it's where it should be at 5mil considering the trend over the years - its been around the 7-6mil mark since 2013. The reason above all else is the the game is just OLD. The player base is getting old and for whatever reason new players aren't connecting with it the way they did.

http://www.statista.com/statistics/2766 ... y-quarter/

As for those "free" games - if just 10% of that 70mil player base spend money on characters etc (and they would) the company would be laughing.

Maybe the movie will spark interest as other have said or the new expansion could be exceptional - who knows but I wouldn't hit the panic button just yet. Not until the words "free to play" is uttered anyway.

But the thing for me, as long as I'm enjoying the game number loss doesn't mean a thing.

^ QFT. Unless you have shares in Blizzard Activison, then maybe you should care....maybe.

[Wain]

I think it's some of both. If you want to find something to support your annoyance with the game then subscription numbers are all too easy, as they're slowly declining anyway. The game is getting old and there are too many shiny new games to play. Plus their subscription base has changed and they're now dealing with a generation 10 years younger, but I'll try to avoid the pitfalls of going into what I mean by that But I think people were looking for, even hoping for, reasons to tear the expansion apart before it even began. As Ben Folds sang, "If you can't draw a crowd, draw dicks on a wall".

On the other hand, I did find that the shine wore off this expansion for me much faster than any other. I enjoyed questing through the zones, but overall found I just didn't care so much about the characters, or even remember them. I had garrison followers show up that I'd apparently spent a lot of time questing with and had forgotten them entirely. I think part of it is that I find the two major races of the expansion, Draenei and Orcs, make fairly wooden characters. I think that's not really a fault of the story writers, just that the races were created that way. So I think it's what they were stuck with, but it must make it hard to make the characters engaging and memorable, unlike the Pandaren. On the other hand, characters like Khadgar and Reshad really stuck in my mind, but there were too few of them.

Ah well, whatever the reason, we'll know in around 29 hours what they have planned next and can speculate on whether we think it'll grab people's attention back

[Qraljar]

It's okay to admit that Blizzard could have done more to make a good expansion for players. Yes, the game is getting old, and yes, the new expansion, will - regardless of anything - at least temporarily cause a spike.

But this "it's getting old" excuse is.. well, also getting old. It's not bad to admit that Blizzard screwed the pooch. And no, I'm not saying that as someone who wants WoW to die or something. (people who visit this place would know that, I believe)

I'm just saying that if you have an expansion with an inconsequential, unsubstantial filler plot, then that's a bad place to start. But that wasn't the huge problem. It was just a disadvantageous basis.

It was what followed what made it worse. The cutting of so many corners (WoW team size doubled, what?), bullheaded reactions to criticism, the, by their own admission, intentional creation of shop mounts that looked better than actual ingame attainable mounts. (hello boar reskin #15)

Not to get started on how many things were cut from it. Farahlon is just a small example. The questing experience was great, and the pets were fun, I won't deny. But the way they've handled this expansion, I've felt more like walking, talking $$$ than before.

I believe they can get back from this, but they'll have to stop sitting on their asses and relaxing while players wait a year for them to deliver a one content patch expansion for 50 euros in which, unless you raid, you can either play facebook garrison games or farm Apexis Dailies until your head explodes.


Sorry for seeming so hostile, but I'm just offering a counterpoint to this, in my opinion quite cynical view of WoW's future. If anything, this expansion made it obvious that if you have a good expansion, people will flock to it regardless of age. At the start, WoD caused one of the biggest spikes in WoW history, remember? They just didn't retain it.

I believe they can do better, but first they have to try better. Not for money, but for their customers. In every way imaginable, I found their handling of Grommash to be a perfect metaphor for how they've handled WoD as a whole. Quite meta if you asked me.

Once again, sorry for my aggressive manner of replying, but I simply highly disagree with it.

[SpiritBinder]

Wow is completely unique, no game has (and dad I say ever will) last so long. It's in completely uncharted water, it could roll over and die tomorrow, or last another 10 years.

The extreme "Omg the sky is falling!!" posts and the "We have ZERO to worry about" are both circumstantial and neither can be proven either way.

What we can say is "Yay!!! We still have another expansion coming our way!!" (Unless the new expansion info coming tomorrow is that there none ) Lets hope is just and fun and exciting as others that came before (well the ones you liked at least )

[Qraljar]

Wow is completely unique, no game has (and dad I say ever will) last so long. It's in completely uncharted water, it could roll over and die tomorrow, or last another 10 years.

The extreme "Omg the sky is falling!!" posts and the "We have ZERO to worry about" are both circumstantial and neither can be proven either way.

What we can say is "Yay!!! We still have another expansion coming our way!!" (Unless the new expansion info coming tomorrow is that there none ) Lets hope is just and fun and exciting as others that came before (well the ones you liked at least )

All hope is that it's a big wake up call to them that makes it clear to them that they have to do their very best to earn players' subscriptions. No bullshit like 18 boar reskins for regular players and unique mounts for those willing to open up their wallet and pay extra.

I really, really hope they go all out. I know they can.

[Wain]

All hope is that it's a big wake up call to them that makes it clear to them that they have to do their very best to earn players' subscriptions. No bullshit like 18 boar reskins for regular players and unique mounts for those willing to open up their wallet and pay extra.

I have no objection to them allocating resources to shop mounts. And the fact that they have only produced two this expansion (one using a model that was used in the expansion) means they aren't allocating a lot of resources to it. But I was curious if what you were implying - that we had fewer unique models in this expansion - was true. I was surprised by the result as I actually thought we were closer to MoP levels than we are. I was actually expecting to at least partially refute your claim. But...

In WoD we have had around 13-17 completely unique mount models, not counting armour as a different model and not counting any that required real money (or recruit a friend) to obtain. 17 includes the four "vicious" mounts from PvP.

In MoP we had around 30 (I only skimmed through the list once and that may not be exact) including the vicious mounts.

Mind you, MoP went for a lot longer, so the results will be closer if you factor in time. But still...

This clearly isn't a result of the designers choosing to withhold mounts from us, but rather a lack of art assets being created for mounts. The models just aren't there. So I wonder what the model artists are being allocated to. Maybe they were moved to the next expansion very quickly this time around.

[Qraljar]

All hope is that it's a big wake up call to them that makes it clear to them that they have to do their very best to earn players' subscriptions. No bullshit like 18 boar reskins for regular players and unique mounts for those willing to open up their wallet and pay extra.

I have no objection to them allocating resources to shop mounts. And the fact that they have only produced two this expansion (one using a model that was used in the expansion) means they aren't allocating a lot of resources to it. But I was curious if what you were implying - that we had fewer unique models in this expansion - was true. I was surprised by the result as I actually thought we were closer to MoP levels than we are. I was actually expecting to at least partially refute your claim. But...

In WoD we have had around 13-17 completely unique mount models, not counting armour as a different model and not counting any that required real money (or recruit a friend) to obtain. 17 includes the four "vicious" mounts from PvP.

In MoP we had around 30 (I only skimmed through the list once and that may not be exact) including the vicious mounts.

Mind you, MoP went for a lot longer, so the results will be closer if you factor in time. But still...

This clearly isn't a result of the designers choosing to withhold mounts from us, but rather a lack of art assets being created for mounts. The models just aren't there. So I wonder what the model artists are being allocated to. Maybe they were moved to the next expansion very quickly this time around.

My problem isn't that there are unique shop mounts at all. Just that of the already very few unique and cool looking mounts, most of them are shop mounts, going so far as even looking like they were supposed to be rewards for players, but got ripped out. (Faerie Dragon Draenei rep mount, Grinning Reaver Laughing Skull rep mount, Iron Skyreaver raid achievement mount)

They barely finished their plate (making unique and cool mounts for regular players to get) and already want to get dessert (get money from cool shop mounts), and I don't really agree with that.

[AdamSavage]

Wow is completely unique, no game has (and dad I say ever will) last so long. It's in completely uncharted water, it could roll over and die tomorrow, or last another 10 years.

The extreme "Omg the sky is falling!!" posts and the "We have ZERO to worry about" are both circumstantial and neither can be proven either way.

What we can say is "Yay!!! We still have another expansion coming our way!!" (Unless the new expansion info coming tomorrow is that there none ) Lets hope is just and fun and exciting as others that came before (well the ones you liked at least )

I'm not trying to be like that, but when you spike up to 10 Million subs with a new expansion, and then less than a year later, You loose 1/2 that. Old game or not, that's a huge loss.

[SpiritBinder]

I'm not saying it's not, but everything is unprecedented and unknown. This may just be wows new trend with massive number fluctuations (as the more fickle generations that now engage with it get bored, then interested, then bored and so forth at the drop of a hat). Also as others have stated, there are other factors like game coins (which about 50% of the people I know, even some playing from vanilla, are buying off the AH and using now) and the the games current expansion wrapping up.
But then it also may be a sign, and these numbers predicting the end is nigh.
It's fair to air concern, but it's impossible to know how justifiable it is unless there is a prior pattern/precident with a game of this age/status.

[Lupen202]

I'm one of those lost subs, but I'm eagerly looking forward to the expansion reveal as many others are. I'm still very into World of Warcraft... but not WoD. I still like mount collecting, and raiding, etc. but I was so bored of WoD I couldn't even stomach logging in anymore to do simple things like missions and mount runs. Like always I'm sure we'll see a huge spike when the next expac is revealed, as long as they convince us it'll be a lot better than WoD was. Hopefully this time the expansion will hold our interest and those subs will stay.

Everyone talked shit about MoP but it's funny how now people are praising it since they experienced WoD... lol.

[SpiritBinder]

Everyone talked shit about MoP but it's funny how now people are praising it since they experienced WoD... lol.

Hehe, seems to happen every expansion! I catch myself doing it all the time.
"Oh I miss X, Y and Z, that was pretty dam cool" from nearly all previous expansions, dam those rosy glasses!

[AdamSavage]

I'm not saying it's not, but everything is unprecedented and unknown. This may just be wows new trend with massive number fluctuations (as the more fickle generations that now engage with it get bored, then interested, then bored and so forth at the drop of a hat). Also as others have stated, there are other factors like game coins (which about 50% of the people I know, even some playing from vanilla, are buying off the AH and using now) and the the games current expansion wrapping up.
But then it also may be a sign, and these numbers predicting the end is nigh.
It's fair to air concern, but it's impossible to know how justifiable it is unless there is a prior pattern/precident with a game of this age/status.

Game coins ? Not sure what you mean with that ? The sub numbers include subs paid with game tokens.

[Castile]

But this "it's getting old" excuse is.. well, also getting old. It's not bad to admit that Blizzard screwed the pooch. And no, I'm not saying that as someone who wants WoW to die or something. (people who visit this place would know that, I believe)

I don't disagree with that this expansion was no where near their finest work. Doing garrisons over and over again makes the game not very alt friendly at all and as someone else said I didn't care about the characters as much - the only questline that sticks is the Arakkoa questline stuff and thats mainly due to memories of Burning Crusade. Some of the rep grinds where very backwards (sha'tari being an example) and I think Tanaan Jungle and it's content came alittle too late to save alot of people from quitting. Not saying everything was bad - I do enjoy having a stable in my garrison, being grounded was a nice change and the multi-tag rares where a good inclusion. And speed lvling an alt to 100 at this point is not a bad thing imo.

But I stand by my comments on the age of the game. You can't say it isn't a factor in it's decline, no other mmo has lasted as long as wow nor has kept the kind of numbers it has but Wow isn't the shiny new toy anymore - not by a long shot. And as it's loyal player base ages and their priorities in life shift - the population of the game will shift too. They need to put the shine back in to attract a new "crowd" else the sub numbers may never see the levels of 2010 again.

As SB said - we are in unchartered territory now. We have no idea what will be around the next corner. It's just a waiting game until the next expansion is announced...and I hope for everyone who loves this game it's a good one!

P.S for the record...I always liked MoP...even when it wasn't cool

[pop]

When it comes to software or games, the idea wear and time is obsolete as because it is not something physical and it can always be renewed and made exciting. If Wow really is ut of date, then the number of sub for WOD wouldnt had jump to 10 mil. This shows WOW is still love but the dev should had develop a content that can retain the sub. For example, making immersion as an excuse instead of admitting that they are gating the content because they didn't develop a lot of content by not allowing fly or wasn't really a good idea.