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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWoW subscriber numbers still increasing, multi-boxers trivial
by Adam Holisky 
Apr 6th 2009 at 3:00PM
There has been a long thread about WoW and the philosophical changes and approaches over the past four years, and in particular to some of the larger design decisions made recently (dual specs). In it Ghostcrawler makes an offhand remark about WoW's subscriber numbers:"Wrath of the Lich King is still selling very well and our subscribers are increasing."
Now I want to be clear that this was made off-hand and is not from an official earnings statement. But that doesn't discount it from being full of truthiness; and nonetheless, this is rather significant in that it's been a while since we last heard any indication of current subscriber numbers. To some this news won't be very surprising, given that Wrath of the Lich King has been a huge hit. But others might raise an eyebrow that after five months of Wrath things are still up-ticking.
He also mentions the ever hot topic of multi-boxers:
"The number of multi-boxers is trivial. If you are a hardcore player you may know several of them, but in the grand scheme there are very few people really doing that."
Now what is trivial when your subscriber numbers are approaching 12 million? 100,000 might be trivial. So might be 50,000. That's still a lot – but even if there are 100,000 multi-boxers, it's still less than 1% of the total population.
This is all quite timely for me, as I've recently been pondering the longevity of the World of Warcraft, or at least the point where subscriber numbers begin to decrease. My personal thought is that it will remain on an upswing or at least not decrease significantly for a couple more years. And then the decrease will be very gradual for quite a long time (and I pray this means job security for me, but that's another subject).
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Codexx Apr 9th 2009 12:13AM
With Battle.net Accounts allowing you to link up more than one account, this should give more accurate numbers regarding subscribers.
Sure, you can just choose not to opt-in, but all the people who DO opt-in will be balancing the numbers out. Basically, the argument that "oh, WoW only has 2 million players who all have 5 accounts each" is rather moot. Yes, that was greatly exaggerated, but I've heard that argument before dozens of times.
With such a larger operation running, it can't help but increase. Other MMOs seem to lose as many subscribers as they gain. Few ever shut down completely, usually only those whose development cost for new content outweighs how much income they are making, server cost almost never seems to be considered(although I'm sure those beancounters are keeping an eye on it). If Ultima Online can go more than a decade, when it hasn't been fun to play after it's second expansion hit(2 years into it's lifespan, forever cursing future MMOs to only have 2 year lifespans until WoW) then WoW should be able to hang on for longer, although I could see blizzard pulling the plug if it become an "unsatisfactory experience". They've always been known for quality control, and while they can't kill most games after release, an MMO can still be taken down if Blizzard feels it isn't fun anymore. I wouldn't put it past them to say "it's no more fun, sorry". At least with a WoW 2(if they ever make one) people will have somewhere to go, should that happen.
Bossy Apr 6th 2009 4:48PM
Of course they are increasing.
After having suffered those other releases in 2008, there is no doubt Wow is here to stay for a very long run.
Nobody wants to pay more for far less fun.
WotLK is a great expansion (better than TBC) and the journey has only now begun with patch 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 ... to follow and dual specs and a new BG and a new server world event and ...
I play this game for 3.5 years now and I can't even keep up with the many options I still need to do.
Like playing that mage or rogue or doing the PvP server run with that power druid.
I didn't even start playing "that other side" seriously and - God forbid - I didn't even create a Death Knight.
Next 3.5 years - no doubt - here I come !!!! together with friends and family :)
To all those Wow haters I would say: eat your heart out. To me the best years are even still to come/
Let's attack those Horde !!!!
Bossy Apr 6th 2009 4:53PM
The problem is ....
hear those whiners.
You know what the problem is ? There is NO game like Wow on the market.
Just look at the pathetic trials: those duds want to have a GO at your money. With what ?
Unpolished clunky gameplay. No way Sir.
I would rather feed the dogs with my money than playing complete crappy things like War, Aoc and Lotro.
Those games are NOT made for playing, but for you paying.
zappo Apr 6th 2009 4:58PM
I think it's already leveled off myself. I've seen a lot of long time players just suddenly drop the game. More to the point, I'm seeing a LOT of people who aren't logging in right now. They still have accounts, but they just aren't on anymore. Maybe that's just the three servers I happen to be on, but others I've talked to on different realms tend to be seeing the same thing. So my theory is that Uldar will probably be the last big gasp. Things will level off for a bit, then start to slowly taper.
Keep in mind that the next patch offers virtually nothing to people who don't raid. So you have to wonder what exactly these people are going to do in World of Warcraft at some point.
Lyraat Apr 6th 2009 5:05PM
Good to hear members are still being added. Always a positive sign.
And honestly, who cares about multiboxers? Someone wants to pay an extra $15/mo? Fine. Go ahead. Their presence does not interfere nor subtract from my game play experience. My wife and I play. Two different accounts, one household. Gonna bash us for multiboxing?
Thander Apr 6th 2009 5:26PM
That's not mutliboxing. I guess the name is not accurate. Multiboxing is having multiple computers (usually) or one souped up system and lots of accounts. One person controls all of it through out of game and ingame macros. So one keyboard is linked to multiple computers. Hitting one of their hotkeys may cause the "followers" in their group to use their main nuke. Another hotkey may cast heals with the ingame ToT used to tell followers what to cast them on.
Thander Apr 6th 2009 5:29PM
I agree with some others have been saying. There's just no better PvE experience out there right now. Sure, there are plenty of alternatives maybe about equal quality, but not better. The other ones are only different. That's why we see some people leave to try out the other games when there's not much content in WoW. I think subscriptions will slowly taper off after the Lich King is finally downed but there's still many years left and another expansion or two.
Moonduh Apr 6th 2009 5:36PM
100,000 people is less than 1% of the WoW population. Think about how many people 1,000 is. Now think about that 10 times over. Now think about that being 1% of a larger group.
Holy crap a lot of people play this game.
WoWJuju Apr 6th 2009 5:59PM
3.1 wont bring to many things to casual players and we shall see what will happen to the subscribers number...
On the other hand the new content wont be suitable for hardcore players either.
I guess Blizzard needs a new attraction when you hit level 80, but what?
Tzivya Apr 6th 2009 7:58PM
From what I can tell, the true endgame after you hit 80 is logging into blogs and whining. Seems to be what most people do.
WoWJuju Apr 7th 2009 1:36AM
I'm not whining rly. I play the game since 2005 and I do not plan to quit playing it. I just wanted to point out some facts about the subscribers number. ;)
Alternator Apr 6th 2009 11:06PM
I get so much entertainment from the people claiming that WoW is on it's last leg because it is:
Too easy, Too hard, Too PvE, Too PvP, not enough this, not enough that, the next patch will be the last gasp, the new mmo is going to steal all the wow gamers (aoc, lotro, war, dado...), etc, etc...
You guys are great! seriously, keep it up :-)
Ugkul Apr 6th 2009 10:28PM
With more localized versions of WOW I'm sure the customer base is increasing. And the Chinese version of WotLK isn't even released yet...
I think WoW will likely reach the peak when 3.2 comes because a lot of people want to see what the outcome of the Arthas storyline is.
Charlie Apr 7th 2009 1:03AM
I think blizzard is planning WoW's own demise.
SCII will make a slight decrease in numbers, DIII will make a larger one*, and MMO will show a mass migration, at least for awhile. Everyone will want to try out Blizzard's next great MMO.
I think the biggest difference in WoW's decline will be what type of game their new MMO will be. Will it be more like warhammer and PvP oriented? Will it be Darkfall, completley open-ended, or more like a WoW2 in a different world, mainly PvE oriented.
If it's like WoW2, we will see a mass migration to the new world. If its a different type of game, we might see alot of people come back to wow, seeing they don't like the playstyle (even if its good).
Zach Apr 7th 2009 3:05AM
@Charlie - I'm not so sure. People like to play different games. D3 and SC2 will take people's time away from WoW, but it won't necessarily make them stop playing it. It's an MMO. Unlike other games which have finite endings or repeatable but non-progressive scenarios like RTS maps, an MMO grows. Players like to grow with the game.
While I'm sure some people will quit simply because they won't have enough time to play all games, a lot of people will keep their subscription on and return to WoW when they're done playing D3 or SC2 for a few hours.
Now when they release their 'next-gen MMO'... THEN you can probably say WoW is nearing its end. As much as I think players like to play different games, I don't think too many like to play more than one MMO.
Zach Apr 7th 2009 2:59AM
@Tony - You, my friend, have just been pwnt.
Tott Apr 7th 2009 5:49AM
I think WoW has a few more years, and another expansion (possibly 2) left in it, and numbers will increase at least until that point, however market saturation means they will increase at a much slower rate than previously seen. basically, everyone that's likely to buy WoW, already has.
When WoW does start to decline it will be because its been upstaged by a bigger/better game. one that takes advantage of later technology, fresh ideas and fashionable game design - and lets face its, Blizzard, as market leaders, have a good chance to be the ones behind that game. if WoW does 'die' its a sensible bet its because WoW2 killed it!
Realitycheck Apr 7th 2009 8:44AM
http://www.warcraftrealms.com/weeklyactivity.php
FYI
Played hours are going down and never been even RESEMBLING to the numbers BC bought. Most of the classes play less and 1 month into the expansion people are losing interest and just dont log on as much anymore.
Success my ass
Toucan Apr 7th 2009 11:10AM
The idea that WoW one day will start declining is sound.
The idea that this is a problem is not. If I start declining from 250k subs to 50k, then I would would have to decide how much money to put into development and expansions and support.
If WoW though were declining even from a soon achieved peak of 12m subs to say 8m or even 6m, this seems like a catastrophic crash, but it remains a level of demand still beyond every other game out there. It is not like this game is going to be shut down any time soon.
I don't think we even have to discuss this in the next 5 years. It is a successful revenue stream and it is going to be maintained and supported for some time to come.
Andrew Apr 13th 2009 9:25AM
It's hilarious how people think they can disagree with GC's statement and actually have a leg to stand on.
It doesn't matter what anecdotal arguement you try to make, a Blizzard developer said that subscribers are still increasing, that trumps everything you have to say unless you have evidence to the contrary.
FYI, this BS about how "WoW has reached it peak" and "I predict it'll start to decline soon" was thrown around at the release of TBC too. WoW really declined since then huh?