WoW Xfire hours played drops 18 percent in September
by Mike Schramm 
Oct 9th 2007 at 3:30PM
Gamesindustry.biz is reporting a huge drop in /played time over the past month for World of Warcraft players. From August to September, Xfire users played WoW 18 percent less than the previous month.But it's likely not necessarily because of the oft-delayed 2.2.2-- the drop is probably just the difference between students out of school and in school. Over the summer, students were obviously able to play a lot more with all the freetime they had, but as school starts up again in September, there's more homework and less rep grinding to do. Still, 18 percent is a huge drop-- while school starting up is definitely a big part of it, I wouldn't be surprised if the slowdown in patch releases (even though it's since picked back up again) also had a hand in it.
Though it can't be that big a difference-- both Guild Wars and Silkroad Online (the other two big MMO titles on Xfire) saw similar drops. It'll be interesting to see what happens next month. I wonder if Brewfest (and soon, Hallow's End and 2.3) was able to convince students to take their homework breaks in Azeroth.
[ via Incgamers ]
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sanmiguel Oct 9th 2007 3:40PM
Halo 3 imo.
nate Oct 9th 2007 3:41PM
Seriously? This is news? I like that you indicated that it's likely students, but then say IT HAS TO BE PATCH TOO!, and THEN continue on to point out that other MMOs have similar drop-offs.
*slow clap 80s style* Bravo, Wow Insider, bravo.
braydn Oct 9th 2007 3:52PM
let's not forget that Halo 3 just came out too, so many people probly saved up money for that and stopped playing wow temporarily, i don't care about Halo so it doesn't have any effect on me, but with Halo 3 coming out and school starting back up, of course the numbers are dropping, nothing out of the ordinary at all, totally expected, and it is better for the servers with less people hogging them up causing lag....
Cougar3429 Oct 9th 2007 3:48PM
#1 exactly. It is DIRECTLY because of Halo 3. Not a debate.
token Oct 9th 2007 3:50PM
What would make this more worthwhile is to compare the datae to the same month of last year.
I will admit, I am lazy and din't read the original article, but comparing data from last year seems a lot more useful then comparing current numbers to last months.
My opinion anyway...
Ahoni Oct 9th 2007 4:00PM
OMG, a meaningless statistic.
Quick, lets attach some meaning to it.
Its the end of the world. Ooooohhhh nooooooo!
Other reasons for why it dropped 18% ...
The weather was nice.
People went on vacation.
People went back to school.
3 hardcore raiders got laid.
People started new jobs.
Halo3.
Long periods of extended maintenence for all realms.
Patch day crashes.
Need to re-create UI/mods due to patch.
Azhural Oct 9th 2007 4:21PM
As for me, I am pretty burned out from gaming...I still play, but not as dedicated. Also I sometimes forget to turn on Xfire^^
brett Oct 9th 2007 4:23PM
halo3
Arras Oct 9th 2007 4:27PM
where is this data coming from? Could it be that they're getting their data from people who aren't running xfire before they run WoW?
and yeah, school work, etc
nailPuppy Oct 9th 2007 4:29PM
These are xfire rankings... Thats like webmasters using their Alexa ranking to show how many people visit their website. In a word, pointless.
Nails Oct 9th 2007 4:32PM
people still play CoD2 that much?
man, i love that game. havent played it in a few months though
Mike Oct 9th 2007 4:48PM
My playing time dropped 100%... Just got burned out on it. Buddy of mine plays about half as much now (as a result of me stopping), now his other buddy is playing less as well.... and so on and so on.
So it's really my fault, I just didn't feel like playing anymore, sorry.
brent Oct 9th 2007 4:52PM
what is xfire?
rob.thomas Oct 9th 2007 4:53PM
Absolutely Halo 3. Rly? Rly.
RogueJedi86 Oct 9th 2007 5:26PM
I play WoW just as much as before. I just stopped using XFire and went to windowed mode + AIM.
Freehugz Oct 9th 2007 5:31PM
People that use xfire are usually the ones that play alot of different games. There's no real point to having it if you just play wow.
Jason Oct 9th 2007 6:17PM
All the kiddies went back to school. It's as simple as that.
Chris Oct 14th 2007 1:49PM
I agree with the Halo3 comment. Blizz better pull the old head out of the arse before their fan base diminishes to 0%.
roran Oct 9th 2007 6:51PM
wow i cant belive warcraft 3 is up there to althogh i still play it from time to time
Pook Oct 9th 2007 7:17PM
hmm how about this, 18% of the ppl who play WOW; that had xfire (for god knows what reason) realised it was pointless and no longer run it... hmm that would be the same stats.