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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWorld of Warcraft dips to a mere 11.4 million subscribers
by Alex Ziebart 
May 9th 2011 at 7:00PM
During the call, CEO of Blizzard Entertainment Mike Morhaime pointed out that World of Warcraft had fallen again to pre-Cataclysm subscriber levels -- 11.4 million subscribers at the end of March, down from its peak of 12 million. Subscriber levels do not decline linearly, he pointed out, stating that they fluctuate based on how quickly players consume and complete content. Players are consuming Cataclysm's content faster than any expansion before it, so subscriber levels started to drop off more quickly than they have previously.
11.4 million subscribers still puts World of Warcraft quite far above and beyond any of its competition, and it should be noted that the numbers stated in the call came during a slow point in the expansion -- Cataclysm launched in early December, putting the end of March a good four months out. You can only expect players to consume the same content for so long, and four months is a pretty long time. If this were a single-player game and not an MMO, no developer could reasonably expect a player to consume the same content for four months. That's one-third of a year with no additions to the game, and we've only just received a content patch at the end of April. It's actually surprising to me personally that four months is faster than previous expansions.
The month of March may also have just been a bad month to poll, as competition such as RIFT launched that month. Even if the majority of the players that left World of Warcraft for RIFT eventually find their way back, the damage has been done for the month of March.
Though subscribers numbers have fallen back down to 11.4 million, overall profit has risen so far this year -- the details of which you can find in the official press release.
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 12)
MusedMoose May 9th 2011 7:36PM
Hey, things that don't exist speak to me all the time!
ObiChad May 9th 2011 8:05PM
I think this was the risk from spending the time to redo the old world. Many veteran players just do not care about low level content regardless if it is new or not, but those same people would do literally anything if it was max level.
DarkWalker May 9th 2011 11:00PM
@ObiChad:
I do believe redoing the old world content was an attempt to increase WoW's dismal success at retaining new players (as in that old quote about 70% of trial players not even bothering to get to level 10).
At the same time, I do think this rework should not have been done in an expansion, or at least should never have been pegged as part of the expansion's features. Because it isn't. It's been incorporated into the base game. Using it to justify less new content is plainly wrong and dishonest.
Skarn May 9th 2011 11:29PM
Darkwalker,
Redoing the old world could only have been done as part of an expansion, due to how massive an undertaking it was. In fact, it was necessary for Cataclysm to function properly. Imagine having flight enabled in Twilight Highlands, but disabled just next door in the Wetlands. Being unable to fly from Uldum into Tanaris, Hyjal to Winterspring. They needed to redo things to make the expansion work.
"Using it to justify less new content is plainly wrong and dishonest."
No, it's not dishonest at all. Why did Cataclysm have less end-game content than previous expansions? Because Blizzard put a lot of work into the early leveling content. That is the reason. It's not a lie. It's not deceptive. It's true. You are free to say that the expansion needed more post-80 leveling content and, in fact, I agree with you. The reason content was consumed so quickly is because there wasn't enough of it. Also, it was flat out designed to be faster. Blizzard should have stuck with a slower leveling process, not the easy path to 85 that Cataclysm has. Though it obviously would have required more time, they needed to add more zones too. I don't think anyone finished ALL the zones in BC or Wrath by max level, but it's a common thing in Cataclysm.
ObiChad May 9th 2011 11:57PM
Of the low level content I have done/redone it has been fantastic and I get why they are doing it to hold on to new players. It makes sense. But that development time has to come from somewhere as the person above said. My educated guess, and it's just a guess, is that the number of new people who have stuck around due to the improved low level content is less than the number of people lost due to having less post 80 content. It's probably good for the game in the long run, so good on them for thinking long term, but for those of us at 85 looking for solo content right now, there just feels to be less of it.
Al May 10th 2011 1:37AM
I exist, therefore I am
Noyou May 10th 2011 1:51AM
We got a new race on each side. If not revamping the old content now then when? After people already leveled up 2-3 worgen/goblins? Not to mention the new race/class combinations. To say now would "not be the time" to revamp 1-60 is plain silly. If you ask me it was perfect timing. There are 2 major types of players out there. Those who want to get the most out of their game and those who don't. Maybe you get the most out of raiding/dungeons/PvP but if you haven't seen the new 1-60 quests then you are missing a HUGE chunk of what cata has to offer. That's no one's fault but yours. If you are one of those "can't be bothered" to go thru the leveling process again, I would say why not? So much has changed in quest mechanics it might not even feel like the same thing. Especially if you leveled 1-60 pre-Lich King. With all the new FPs and mounts at 20 and streamlined questing it really moves a lot faster than it ever did.
Noyou May 10th 2011 2:01AM
@Obichad
I don't think you fully grasp the man hours and what they had to do to revamp basically every quest from 1-60. So yeah if it sucked a little content out of the max level questing process oh well. If you area a person that plays one max level toon you would have had what? An extra week of content? I'm at the other end of the spectrum. I have 7 lvl 85's and 3 more on the way. I'm still finding new quests. I didn't even do Deepholm til I was running thru on my 3rd or 4th toon. The only zone I did all the quests was is Hyjal. The content is out there. It really is. WIth firelands they will be adding a bunch more quests to Hyjal. Guess what. You will probably have to be 80% done with the zone (or more) so you might wanna go back and do that (if you haven't) or you will be one of those people QQing that it is so dumb you actually have to complete a zone to unlock more content. I have a feeling you will be QQing either way. So that's just a heads up.
ObiChad May 10th 2011 3:52AM
@Noyou
I'm not QQing, far from it. I happen to like the low level content and have very much enjoyed going back and playing it. I was loremaster before because I love questing so this is a great expansion for me due to all the new quests. I've done all the Cata questing but have just begun to do/redo all the old world stuff.
But as you point out, adding all those quests and revamping all those zones took a ton of man hours. Many people I know have shown no interest in the low level stuff. Clearly not a scientific poll, but I've never claimed otherwise. The point is, that time could have been spent on other stuff, possibly higher level stuff. And my suggestion is that maybe that would have kept more people happy.
Getting away from making up how I play the game and then critiquing it, why do you think there are less players now than before? and how do you think spending development time on lower level content vs post 80 content affects subscriber numbers?
DarkWalker May 10th 2011 10:58AM
@Skarn:
Let me rephrase it then:
Making Cataclysm buyers pay full price for roughly half the content usually delivered in WoW's expansions, while using the other half of the content, delivered for free to all players of the game, to justify it was plainly wrong and dishonest.
The rest of the content was given to every Wow player. Cataclysm buyers paid $40, the full expansion price, and only got roughly half what BC or WotLK buyers got when they purchased those expansions.
I don't find this acceptable in any way. If Blizzard wanted to make content to "give" players that didn't buy the expansion, they shouldn't have used said content to justify a smaller, but still full price, expansion; they should have used part of their revenues from subscriptions to fund this revamp, instead of "stealing" from Cataclysm buyers, and released a full size expansion together with the revamped content. If Blizzard wanted to go ahead with a half sized expansion, they should have priced it at half price too.
Besides, Blizzard really needed to revamp the content. The low level stuff - i.e., the content new players will be playing while they decide if they want to stick with the game or not - was really dated, it didn't reflect the newer game quality at all. This was effectively driving potential new players away - anyone who did only the trials for the most famous MMOs, before Cataclysm, would think of WoW as one of the worse MMOs out there, a dated and boring game, more so when comparing with either newer games, or games that had revamped their low level experiences. And a game that is not able to attract new players is fated to fade away, no matter how many players it have.
Given that need, it would be done, expansion or no expansion. The problem was clear enough even for outside parties (in part due to Blizzard itself enumerating it as a concern in a previous earning call); thus, Blizzard was bound to tackle it.
arawn.chernobog May 9th 2011 7:08PM
A 5% decrease? I didn't even think this would be something that needed to be pointed out |:
EarlGreyFrostDK May 9th 2011 7:52PM
Meh, it's just a debuff. It'll wear off over time.
VioletArrows May 9th 2011 8:07PM
In a game where numbers that small can be the difference between wiping and just eeking out a victory, getting sat out or put on the B team, topping dps charts, and selling vs relisting on the AH?
In other terms, that's SEVERAL HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE. Or several million dollah.
Even though Activision just posted they made over 500 million in profits last quarter, if it were me, I'd be wondering where the that extra chunk went. :/
DarkWalker May 9th 2011 11:00PM
Let me put this in another light:
WoW's player base have regressed to the same levels it was around WotLK's launch, almost two and half years ago.
Aruhgulah May 9th 2011 7:10PM
Oh noes! It's the post-expac Summertime blues!
Ankun May 9th 2011 7:18PM
I wonder if they can really simply blame the lack of content. Sure, that could be a big part, but the only content currently available feels like a chore to me and many people I know.
I myself have not canceled my account, but the 7 friends I play with have. :[
Skarn May 9th 2011 8:17PM
Of course they are going to sugarcoat the reasons. That's business. You don't come out and say exactly why something is going wrong, you make things sound better than they are to keep morale up and allow yourself time to fix things. (Note: In my opinion, Cataclysm is GREAT overall. There ARE some things that could be improved, but I'm enjoying the expansion. Obviously, some people feel differently. That's ok.)
On the other hand, you make it sound like people are leaving in droves. "I myself have not canceled my account, but the 7 friends I play with have." 7 out of every 8 people canceling is an 87.5% drop. Clearly, your anecdotal evidence is far, far off base. The naysayers would have us believe that the game is becoming a wasteland, yet the numbers clearly don't support this suggestion.
Ankun May 9th 2011 8:32PM
Apologies if my personal experience isn't good evidence. I never implied it was.
Skarn May 9th 2011 8:47PM
Sorry, you were a convenient example. Useful though. On what is currently page 4 of the comments, commenter Tyler says this: "only 5%? i thought it would've been more than that." The idea that TONS of people are leaving the game is the exact feeling I've gotten from posters over on the official WoW forums and even here at WoW Insider. I've seen several similar comments like your own of droves of people leaving. While true, 600,000 people are no longer playing, 11.4 million are still here.
There's not as many people quitting as people think.
matt May 9th 2011 10:52PM
If 5-man content (including heroics) is not puggable at launch, people will get bored and leave. if normal mode raids are not getting farmed by mediocre teams by the release of the next tier, people will get bored and leave. the heyday for subs was wrath, There was a good reason, in Wrath Blizz made a GAME, not an e-sport for elite sponsored guilds.
Also, call me chicken little but 5% sub loss is crushing and the stock-holders will get spooked if there is another conference call with news like this. How much market cap hit will Kotick take before he asks Blizzard to tune down WoW to wrath levels of casualness? My bet is that there are meetings going on to discuss this as I write. If firelands is not significantly easier than the 4.0 raids, I'll eat my hat.