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Activision Blizzard Earnings Report 1Q15: 7.1 mln WoW Subscribers

MorlewenMorlewen Member UncommonPosts: 45
in World of Warcraft

According to the most recent earnings report the number of WoW subscribers decreased to 7.1 mln. A very drastic loss in my eyes.

 

http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ACTI/3161773894x0x827026/99DDFB5F-D14E-43C4-9F96-F47621DE188A/Q1_2015_ATVI_Earnings_Press_Release.pdf

Comments

  • tawesstawess Member EpicPosts: 4,227

    Not really. It is about thr same curve as usual. 

     

    Actually i thought they would be back down at low 6 again. 

    This have been a good conversation

  • reeereeereeereee Member UncommonPosts: 1,636

    Looks like all the people who came back for the expansion have had more than enough time to see everything the expansion had to offer and are gone again. 

     

    Garrisons were awesome for the first few weeks then you slowly start to see through the cracks at the sad daily grind underneath and they're a pathetic excuse for player housing. 

     

    This is only really concerning if they keep dropping at that rate.  Given that 7 million or so subscribers stuck with the game though a year of no new content I have a hard time believing they'll jump ship now.

  • NanfoodleNanfoodle Member LegendaryPosts: 10,617
    Ouch! 
  • Pongo_Pongo_ Member UncommonPosts: 38

    if you look at the numbers, it's the worse first months of a expansion, in WoW's history.

    Vanilla

    Dec. 2004  to  March 2005         400k  to 1.5m   +1.1

    B.C.

    Dec. 2006  to  March 2007        7.7m  to  8.5m   +800k

    Wrath

    Dec. 2008  to  March 2009        11.5m  to  11.5m   no gain/loss

    Cata

    Dec. 2010  to  March  2011       12m    to  11.4     -600k

    Mists

    Dec. 2012  to  March  2013       9.6m   to   8.3     -1.3m

    WoD

    Dec. 2014  to  March 2015        10m  to  7.1m     -2.9m

  • LoktofeitLoktofeit Member RarePosts: 14,247
    I'm still blown away by the fact that over a decade later an MMO still has seven million subscribers.

    There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
    "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre

  • plyrofmmoplyrofmmo Member UncommonPosts: 25
    Originally posted by Loktofeit
    I'm still blown away by the fact that over a decade later an MMO still has seven million subscribers.

    This is what you have to look at.

    When WOW has 50,000 subs over a few months then I would say the game is having population issues.

    And as was mentioned by a locked post below, a lot of people leave and come back on a regular basis.

    I am probably going to resub after a year off.

  • bcbullybcbully Member EpicPosts: 11,838
    This is by far the worst 3 month loss. What is it another year or so for the expansion? By the time one does come we may very well be looking 4 mill "subscribers" with more tha half being in the east. Leaving western WoW "with less than 2 mill.
    "We see fundamentals and we ape in"
  • MukeMuke Member RarePosts: 2,614
    Originally posted by plyrofmmo
    Originally posted by Loktofeit
    I'm still blown away by the fact that over a decade later an MMO still has seven million subscribers.

    This is what you have to look at.

    When WOW has 50,000 subs over a few months then I would say the game is having population issues.

    And as was mentioned by a locked post below, a lot of people leave and come back on a regular basis.

    I am probably going to resub after a year off.

    As long as they can fill 1 full server they should be ok.

     

    "going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"

  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441
    Originally posted by Pongo_

    if you look at the numbers, it's the worse first months of a expansion, in WoW's history.

    Vanilla

    Dec. 2004  to  March 2005         400k  to 1.5m   +1.1

    B.C.

    Dec. 2006  to  March 2007        7.7m  to  8.5m   +800k

    Wrath

    Dec. 2008  to  March 2009        11.5m  to  11.5m   no gain/loss

    Cata

    Dec. 2010  to  March  2011       12m    to  11.4     -600k

    Mists

    Dec. 2012  to  March  2013       9.6m   to   8.3     -1.3m

    WoD

    Dec. 2014  to  March 2015        10m  to  7.1m     -2.9m

    That doesn't work, you also need to look on the numbers the months before the expansion.

    MMOs in general tend to get back many old players whenever a new expansion hit but those players just stay for a few weeks or in best case 2-3 months. Wow went back to the numbers before the expansion again, nothing strange about that.

    Sure, Wow ain't doing as great now as it did 7 years ago but the game is on it's eleventh year. That it still have more than a million players is just amazing.

    It is however clear that no mere expansion will get Wow back to peak numbers again And the garrisions might have gotten some people addicted but it is not what Blizzard needs if they want to stop the subs from dropping.

    I would say that the only thing that would get those peak numbers back would be a total revamp of the entire game and upgrading it to Wow 2.

  • herculeshercules Member UncommonPosts: 4,924
    no matter how you look at it a decade old mmorpg still has 7m subs which is a feat!
  • stevebombsquadstevebombsquad Member UncommonPosts: 884
    This. Name one western MMO that is even in the ballpark. You would be hard pressed to find one with even a million active players and that is including games that are F2P and B2P. This has a subscription. Sure it isn't doing as well as it used to do, but it is eleven years old and still top dog.

    James T. Kirk: All she's got isn't good enough! What else ya got?

  • VorpalChicken28VorpalChicken28 Member UncommonPosts: 348

    SWTOR was quoted as having 1 million players logging in each month (back in August 2014)

    http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/14/6001503/star-wars-the-old-republic-2014-players-ea-bioware

    “Nevertheless, the human brain, which survives by hoping from one second to another, will always endeavor to put off the moment of truth. Moist” 
    ― Terry Pratchett, Making Money
  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,905

    My complaint with Blizzard has been that they never really increased what they were giving players after they pulled in so many more players and money.  And these days they've drastically reduced the rate at which they release new content.  They are great at polishing the content they release but horrible at taking games to the next level or being innovative. 

     

    They've lost a LOT of great talent over the last ten years and seem to have missed the boat with newer releases (other than Hearthstone).

  • PepeqPepeq Member UncommonPosts: 1,977
    Originally posted by ReallyNow10
    But ... putting out a new WOW 2 and giving folks legacy or heirloom rewards for their old high level efforts in WOW 1 would make sense.

    Hate to burst your bubble but there is not going to be a WoW 2... ever.  They have said so on more than one occasion.  So long as people continue to play WoW, there will continue to be expansions.  You've had 10 years of WoW 2 already... branding it as "WoW 2" doesn't make it any more or less WoW.

  • DistopiaDistopia Member EpicPosts: 21,183
    Originally posted by ReallyNow10

    The problem with people who don't get that losing 3 million customers in a quarter is a very bad thing, is that they tend to see just the revenue of the remaining customers and think of that all as profit.  They're thinking 7 million remaining customers x $15/mo. as free and clear cash.

    Reality.  It's not all profit, never was.  I don't know what WOW's expenses are, but I have to imagine they are quite sizable.  If WOW is "in the black" at this moment, then they truly did just lost 3 million customers worth of "profit".  Painful, even if your company is staying afloat.  If they are "in the red", then this is very, very bad.

    And do not assume the trend cannot continue to drive down, especially on an older game like WOW.

    Well there's another reality as well, whether they expect such a loss or not... That really means the difference between a "oh sh^t" and a "shrug".

    At this point I'd assume they'd expect it as it is the usual trend we see in this genre. While it's a shitton of a loss in revenue, it's only problematic if they're counting on that revenue going forward, considering they've been at lower points, that is up for debate.

    For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson


  • gervaise1gervaise1 Member EpicPosts: 6,919
    Originally posted by donger56
    This is why they started offering tokens so that they can try to slow the fall of this game. That will allow them to claim higher sub numbers when really it is just fewer paying customers paying more per month. From a business standpoint that is fine for blizzard because fewer people paying more still leads to higher profits. At the end of the day though it is hard to see this game going anywhere but down. Blizzard has other things to look to like Overwatch.

    Disagree; I don't believe they said (something like) "WoD is going to tank we had better get a token system up and running".

    I do agree however that the token system won't harm / could help the sub number (allowing some who might have unsubbed to convert ingame gold for time etc.). How many? No idea. But yes without it the sub number could be worse.   

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