Blizzard's managed to revive its player base within a matter of weeks with Mists of Pandaria. But how long will that last?
It's been a bit of a slow year for MMOs all around. Even MMO powerhouse World of Warcraft hasn't been immune, losing over 1 million subscribers in the past three months. Then again, the fact that WoW could lose what's essentially the size of the player base of most other MMOs without going into panic mode is a testament of its success.
And it looks like Blizzard has nothing to worry about in terms of player base. After Mists of Pandaria, WoW's latest expansion pack, released, it seems like Blizzard's managed to grab all of those subscriptions right back. Though Pandaria has only been out for over a week, Blizzard's managed to snatch up over 1 million subscriptions during that time, putting WoW comfortably back over the 10 million subscribers mark.
The only concern now is how quickly veteran players, who re-subscribed only for the new content, will burn through Mists of Pandaria. Will Blizzard manage to trot out something new when the player base begins dropping out once again next year?
What is the current subscribers? 10 million? That's four hundred million dollars.
What is the current subscribers? 10 million? That's four hundred million dollars.
At least, good and all, I won't be going back to it. Guild Wars 2 is quite the ride so far.
Cheers!
Fair enough. Still want to see what subs are at come November.
But they said subscribers, does it include the free trials you mentioned?
The 7 days trial is to people that used to have the subscription, so they just add that as "7 day trial" for people that used to play it and they do count it as "subscribers". Though... 1 Mill is very low if you ask me. They used to have 10M+ subscribers. Too bad Acticrap took command of the WoW operations (AFAIK).
Cheers!
This. I skipped over Cata altogether after leaving at the end of Wrath. All I really have to say that I can understand why it looks ridiculous from the outside (Pandas!?) but the implementation is better than any expansion to date. Instances and raids alike feel refreshed instead of rehashed, and the new PVP system means I don't have to play 40+ hours a week just to have a fair chance.
PS: I played GW2 through to lvl 80. Hands down the best leveling experience I have had in an MMO to date, however there is a complete lack of end game which is a massive deal breaker.
1 million subs came back. But still if it's only one million that isn't a lot. I remember Cata where it was all over the news how much it sold and how quickly. Now all the news is how it's back over 10 million again. And not even by much.
I definitely like MoP better than Cata.
The new dungeons look fun enough, lots of AoE, more tactics.
Pandaria quest grinding is a joy.
The only thing I regret is spending 108k on that Grand Yak mount... runs like a rabbit.
Personal pref:
#1 TBC
#2 WotLK
#3 MoP
#4 Cata
People on trials have never been included in the subs for wow unless you actually buy game time.
~former wow player who grew up and graduated to eve online