Mists of Pandaria Brings 1 Million Subscribers Back to WoW

News
By Catherine Cai
published

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?

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Catherine Cai
35 Comments Comment from the forums
  • acasel
    dont listen to this. they just want more players back =p

    Reply
  • edogawa
    Revolving door, they come in, they go out.

    What is the current subscribers? 10 million? That's four hundred million dollars.
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    I'm sure that's thanks to the usual 7 free day for 99.9% of lvl 85 to 86 to taste Pandaria.

    At least, good and all, I won't be going back to it. Guild Wars 2 is quite the ride so far.

    Cheers!
    Reply
  • clivene09
    I think they are going to start having serious erosion over the next few months as those 1 million ask 'WTF was I thinking?' and many others that subscribed for a year to get free Diablo 3 finally are free of a locked in sub.
    Reply
  • 1337RPG
    If you havn't played MoP you shouldn't be saying anything. The fact is that it has more raid content than any other expansion. The fact is that it has the best leveling questing since Wrath of the Lich king. Cataclysm was the worst expansion ever, ask any hardcore player.
    Reply
  • clivene09
    1337RPGIf you havn't played MoP you shouldn't be saying anything. The fact is that it has more raid content than any other expansion. The fact is that it has the best leveling questing since Wrath of the Lich king. Cataclysm was the worst expansion ever, ask any hardcore player.
    Fair enough. Still want to see what subs are at come November.
    Reply
  • aggroboy
    YukaI'm sure that's thanks to the usual 7 free day for 99.9% of lvl 85 to 86 to taste Pandaria.At least, good and all, I won't be going back to it. Guild Wars 2 is quite the ride so far.Cheers!But they said subscribers, does it include the free trials you mentioned?
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    aggroboyBut 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!
    Reply
  • magnetite
    WoW lost subs when Warhammer Online came out in 2008, but they probably all came back. Like with any WoW's expansions, there's usually a drop in subs during the last major patch, but then the subs rise again when the new expansion is released.
    Reply
  • Mr_Assist
    1337RPGIf you havn't played MoP you shouldn't be saying anything. The fact is that it has more raid content than any other expansion. The fact is that it has the best leveling questing since Wrath of the Lich king. Cataclysm was the worst expansion ever, ask any hardcore player.
    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.
    Reply