Videos
(124)Screenshots
(278)Cheats and Walkthroughs
Videos
(78)Screenshots
(27)Cheats and Walkthroughs
Videos
(215)Screenshots
(206)Cheats and Walkthroughs
Videos
(80)Screenshots
(35)Cheats and Walkthroughs
World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment's massively multiplayer online role playing game, has become a household name over the last six years. Last October WoW may have hit its peak at over 12 million worldwide subscribers. This is following the successful launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the game's third expansion pack that sold 3.3 million copies worldwide in its first 24 hours. Today during Activision Blizzard's latest financial call, they confirmed that impressive amount of players has gone down to 11.4 million subscribers. A miniscule number, really. Could it be that the MMO behemoth is finally losing steam?
The answer, according to Blizzard Co-Found Mike Morhaime, is not really. Morhaime has said in the past that WoW's subscriber base generally hovers around the 11.5 subscriber mark, so 11.4 million seems to be right on track. Morhaime also mentioned that as of March subscribership returned to pre-Cataclysm levels and that Blizzard plans to continue delivering new content faster than ever before, something that's somewhat of a step away from how the "slow and steady wins the race" developer usually creates content.
Morhaime also acknowledged new competitor MMOs stealing World of Warcraft's subscribers, the main one right now being RIFT and probably Star Wars: The Old Republic in the future. He said even though new games and competitors are surfacing, Blizzard is used to their players leaving for a time period to try the new games out and then coming back to World of Warcraft, "So far, there is nothing to indicate that this is any different," he said.
Morhaime also noted that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm isn't even out yet in China, a region where millions of players currently reside, so when the expansion hits over there it might bring even more gamers back to Azeroth.
In any event, yes WoW might have hit the peak amount of players that are interested in a MMORPG, but that doesn't mean it's losing steam or interest with its core players, all 11 million of them. What do you think? Have you moved on from World of Warcraft, or do you plan on moving on when new MMOs come out like The Old Republic or Guild Wars 2?
Have something to share? You can find me on Twitter!
Comments are Closed
Comments
Displaying 21–39 of 39
112
cardinalsfan1122
WOW isn't done yet i think after a while it will reduce to about 7-8 million because i don't think it will stay forever. It's not done yet it's still got plenty of years left. It will fluctuate for the next few years then all MMORPG's will dip to a sustainable niche level.
WildfireFox
They only have 11.4 million users? Oh no! This is a real emergency!
westraz
so slow news day G-4? lol you know I love you but 1.5 1.4 m really? who cares lol lit me know if it drops by %50 that be news
Severnik
I believe that World of Warcraft will need to seriously change up its gameplay in the near future if it wants to stay at the top. However they risk alienating the fans who are already playing. They're at a crossroads that needs to be treaded carefully.
CatulusFati
I was never able to get in to WoW. It just didn't keep me interested, I tried it and was done within a month. The only MMO that has been able to truly keep me interested is Dark Age of Camelot, and that was a damn long time ago. Close seconds are the disappointments that were FFXI and SWG...
Luck702
Im just happy a huge ip like this is in the hands of a developer i like, like blizzard. Seeing activision proper or ea make this much more money would kill me.
KilledFirst
[Click][Click][Click][Click][C lick][Click][Click][Click][Cli ck][Click][Click][Click][Click ][Click][Click][Click][Click][ Click][Click][Click][Click][Cl ick][Click][Click][Click][Clic k][Click][Click][Click][Click] [Click][Click]
Lycos go get it. Good boy here's an item for you clicking away for the past hour.
Now just repeat that process over and over again.
Blizzard you can't drop new content and expect the formula of the game to be new to the subscribers. You are stuck in the formula and the only answer to regain your audience is to put out a new FORMULA to the game. Having your character stand in one spot for a boss battle while you click on icons to perform actions gets mundane. Figure out how to change the formula to the game.
KilledFirst
[Click][Click][Click][Click][C lick][Click][Click][Click][Cli ck][Click][Click][Click][Click ][Click][Click][Click][Click][ Click][Click][Click][Click][Cl ick][Click][Click][Click][Clic k][Click][Click][Click][Click] [Click][Click]
Lycos go get it. Good boy here's an item for you clicking away for the past hour.
Now just repeat that process over and over again.
Blizzard you can't drop new content and expect the formula of the game to be new to the subscribers. You are stuck in the formula and the only answer to regain your audience is to put out a new FORMULA to the game. Having your character stand in one spot for a boss battle while you click on icons to perform actions gets mundane. Figure out how to change the formula to the game.
KilledFirst
[Click][Click][Click][Click][C lick][Click][Click][Click][Cli ck][Click][Click][Click][Click ][Click][Click][Click][Click][ Click][Click][Click][Click][Cl ick][Click][Click][Click][Clic k][Click][Click][Click][Click] [Click][Click]
Lycos go get it. Good boy here's an item for you clicking away for the past hour.
Now just repeat that process over and over again.
Blizzard you can't drop new content and expect the formula of the game to be new to the subscribers. You are stuck in the formula and the only answer to regain your audience is to put out a new FORMULA to the game. Having your character stand in one spot for a boss battle while you click on icons to perform actions gets mundane. Figure out how to change the formula to the game.
Ashley_Si
that's more than any 360 game, but I still don't get the appeal of all multiplayer games... do regular rpgs even have multiplayer, the ones I have don't
DrSprite
so....HOPEFULLY SW:TOR will have enough of a STORY that most(all) MMO's dont have that we wont have to resort to playing wow and grinding levels by boring quests!??? anyone? Thats my dream anyways....
DrowNoble
Peak? Looks like there has been a bit of a slide since previously Blizzard reported 12 million subs after Wrath released in China. Though I'm sure the release of Rift chipped away a bit too.
I've also received not one but 3 emails from Blizzard this year offering me a free week of gameplay to come back to WoW. Outside of a Scroll of Resurrection, that's never happened to me before.
Blizzard needs to do a few things. First is make battlenet secure. I had never been hacked UNTIL they forced the battlenet merge on me, then it happened less than a month later. I didn't have an authenticator at that time but I do have one now but still, no hacks for years then suddenly after I convert to battlenet my account gets compromised? Not a conincidence.
Second, Blizzard needs to stop recycling content and calling it "new" content. The new patch 4.1 is just ZA and ZG recycled. It's nice that there is new loots but its Same Dungeon, Different Drops is all. New class/race combos were recycled content, a priest is still a priest whether or not it's a gnome or whatever. Having 10 man, 25 man, heroic, hard modes, etc. is just recycling the same dungeon over and over, that's what is causing all the WoW burnout.
Blizzard better step it up. With their income they have NO excuse to be lacking in content and fixes. With TOR coming out later this year they need to do something or the sub bleeding will continue.
Farmhand21
Personally i feel like they are focusing on more of the hardcore players with this expansion which is why there are less players. For example last expansion just about anyone could get into a raid with no problem, but now there are much more restrictions and have made the game much harder for the casual player to play.
crocodilius
Part of the problem is Blizzard takes way too long to put patches out.
It seems to be slowing down and no matter how much they deny it everyone seems to agree they're losing development members to "TITAN".
Whereas RIFT is about to release a patch..tomorrow I think, their second in as many months.
It's good Blizzard likes to optomize their content or whatever by taking time but there becomes a period when that stops being a cute company slogan and becomes "wtf, ive got nothing to do".
bostonryan
I played wow for 6 years and recently moved to Rift at launch. I find it much more enjoyable and I really like Trion as a company
macross2012
This number is way lie. More like 7 million players at best. WOW is boring and done with.. Horrible last expansion and most of us are just waiting for SW to come out to jump ship forever
RPG-fan
Leah have negative news on WOW!?! The world is ending. LOL.
OBLIVIONxSPAWN
I've actually gone back to WoW recently. It's a fun game.
Cryptomaster420
well its blizz's damn problem maybe if i wasn't hacked while i didnt play for 2 months put on hold for 2.5 hours then get my account from perm ban to frozen then put on hold for 3 hours more just to find out that the account is then again perm banned while locked!!!!
i would still be playing and enjoying the game!!!
Displaying 21–39 of 39
112