WOW Classic - Not 4.5 million

Kyleran · November 2019

So looking at the numbers presented over in MassivelyOPs article about Activision Blizzards 3rd quarter results the number of players return for Classic was likely more in the range of 2 to 2.5 M.

True, it was the largest surge in subs in 15 years however MAUs were still down tremendously since Jan 2018, apparently a high water mark of sorts.

Its difficult to tell how many persons resubbed before launch, certainly doesnt appear to set any overall MAU records though it is characterized as

"Kotick said WoW Classic “brought millions of players” back to the game. If he means “millions” literally, it sounds as if other Blizzard properties lost players (to make the MAU count work out)'

The monthly MAU in the 3rd quarter went up marginally despite the "record setting" increase in subs.

"While World of Warcraft subs were up ahead of the launch of WoW Classic as expected, monthly active users (MAUs) for Blizz were down from 38M in Q1 of 2018 to 32M in Q2 of 2019."

And

"Blizzard’s MAUs added another 1M players in the quarter, increasing from 32M to 33M."

While Classic certainly had a huge positive impact (just imagine how low the overall MAU might have been without it) I'm thinking the total numbers are more around the near side of 2M based on the way the CEO presented it.

I invite you to read the full article on MOP, presents a sobering outlook for the future including a statement from the CEO how they are banking on future mobile game sales to pull them out of the slide.

https://massivelyop.com/2019/11/07/activision-blizzards-q3-2019-revenues-sink-for-the-third-quarter-in-a-row/

Of course, all of the above comes from an armchair financial analyst, but it will be interesting to see how the 4th quarter turns out in light of the HK fiasco.

Aenghas · November 2019

Whatever the number was it will certainly drop off. Source: me not renewing my sub this week lol.

I wasn't going to go back for Classic but did about a fortnight after launch for various reasons.
It was fun for a while but it is getting quieter now. With no interesting news at Blizzcon about plans for it past Naxxramas (which is tediously far away given the content release trickle) I can't justify investing time into it.

Kyleran · November 2019

My guess is their emphasis won't be on overall MAU numbers on the 4th Qtr report.

Utinni · November 2019

So people are still guessing at what the sub number is. Who really cares?

Kyleran · November 2019

Utinni said:

So people are still guessing at what the sub number is. Who really cares?

Do you really not grasp the concept of a game discussion forum?

People who don't care probably wouldn't respond either I'm thinking.

Mikeha · November 2019

I played it for about a week.

btdt · November 2019

Problem is the same subscription that is used to play retail WoW is also used to play classic. From an accounting standpoint, it doesn't matter if they are playing one or the other, the subscription is only counted once.

Keep in mind that a number of players subsidized their game time with in-game gold from their long dormant retail accounts. So the profits weren't nearly as high as they could have been if no such system were in the place at the time.

Reality is, Blizzard makes more money off of micro transactions these days than actual subscriptions. It's not about having 4 billion players, its about finding 1 million suckers who can't live without the latest mount, pet, et al. Remember, they've been getting paid from recurring subscriptions for years from players that likely only log in once a month if that often. These people can't be bothered to cancel a subscription and Blizzard just loves that mentality.

IceAge · November 2019

2 or 2.5 mil players for Classic is far less if we take into consideration that WoW along brought almost $300 mil this quarter. Yes, down YoY because BfA sold 3.4 mil copies at a far higher price then a Classic subscription.

From that $300 mil , no way in hell Classic would bring only..$30-37.5 mil if your .. 2/2.5 mil * $15 / month sub is correct.

Comments such as

"That’s thanks to WoW Classic, which the company says “drove the biggest quarterly increase to subscription plans in franchise history, in both the West and East.”

&

The company had a big launch of World of Warcraft Classic during the quarter, and that helped drive the audience much higher in both Asia and the West, the company said.

..would be useless, unless you believe in conspiracy theories that they made such comments to make people believe Classic is a success.

If you still think that Classic only had 2 or 2.5 mil subs at his highest peak, then it seems you believe that WoW alone ( without Classic ) is bringing $1 billion ( $250 mil x 4 quarters ) in revenue each year for Blizzard, which .. that's impossible since many years ago.

Q2 2019 Blizzard Revenues were around $380 mil . That includes all their games.

Now, tell me again, how World of Warcraft alone have come up with almost $300 mil this quarter.

Utinni · November 2019

Kyleran said:

Utinni said:

So people are still guessing at what the sub number is. Who really cares?

Do you really not grasp the concept of a game discussion forum?

People who don't care probably wouldn't respond either I'm thinking.

You just keep trying to tell people classic isnt as popular as someone said. It's a weird obsession.

IceAge · November 2019

Utinni said:

Kyleran said:

Utinni said:

So people are still guessing at what the sub number is. Who really cares?

Do you really not grasp the concept of a game discussion forum?

People who don't care probably wouldn't respond either I'm thinking.

You just keep trying to tell people classic isnt as popular as someone said. It's a weird obsession.

He's even wrong. Classic IS a massive success.

Based on the $300 mil WoW ( together ) have bring this quarter, I am more inclined to believe that the subs for Classic alone are ( or have been ) higher then 5 mil .

IceAge · November 2019

DMKano said:

That 4mil+ number was obviously way off because there would be a ton more servers stood up to handle that many players

There were servers handling more then 20k players at a given time PLUS the insane thousands of other people waiting in que. Yes, that's only on 1 server.

We know you have that lovely crystal ball, but .. wash a bit. Seems he gives you some..errors "lately".

Kyleran · November 2019

IceAge said:

2 or 2.5 mil players for Classic is far less if we take into consideration that WoW along brought almost $300 mil this quarter. Yes, down YoY because BfA sold 3.4 mil copies at a far higher price then a Classic subscription.

From that $300 mil , no way in hell Classic would bring only..$30-37.5 mil if your .. 2/2.5 mil * $15 / month sub is correct.

Comments such as

"That’s thanks to WoW Classic, which the company says “drove the biggest quarterly increase to subscription plans in franchise history, in both the West and East.”

&

The company had a big launch of World of Warcraft Classic during the quarter, and that helped drive the audience much higher in both Asia and the West, the company said.

..would be useless, unless you believe in conspiracy theories that they made such comments to make people believe Classic is a success.

If you still think that Classic only had 2 or 2.5 mil subs at his highest peak, then it seems you believe that WoW alone ( without Classic ) is bringing $1 billion ( $250 mil x 4 quarters ) in revenue each year for Blizzard, which .. that's impossible since many years ago.

Q2 2019 Blizzard Revenues were around $380 mil . That includes all their games.

Now, tell me again, how World of Warcraft alone have come up with almost $300 mil this quarter.

I'm not sure I'm taking your point.

If you are saying the revenues generated are too low vs the guesstimated 2.5M figure I think others pointed out it is possible to play Classic for free on their existing retail sub acct as well as spend accumulated in game gold (coins?) so neither would increase revenues, just push up the MAU counts. (Maybe)

Kyleran · November 2019

DMKano said:

IceAge said:

DMKano said:

That 4mil+ number was obviously way off because there would be a ton more servers stood up to handle that many players

There were servers handling more then 20k players at a given time PLUS the insane thousands of other people waiting in que. Yes, that's only on 1 server.

We know you have that lovely crystal ball, but .. wash a bit. Seems he gives you some..errors "lately".

How many WoW classic servers are there?

4.5mil players = 20k people per server = 225 servers.

Oops- guess I was not wrong

Maybe there were a few million waiting in the queues?

IceAge · November 2019

Kyleran said:

IceAge said:

2 or 2.5 mil players for Classic is far less if we take into consideration that WoW along brought almost $300 mil this quarter. Yes, down YoY because BfA sold 3.4 mil copies at a far higher price then a Classic subscription.

From that $300 mil , no way in hell Classic would bring only..$30-37.5 mil if your .. 2/2.5 mil * $15 / month sub is correct.

Comments such as

"That’s thanks to WoW Classic, which the company says “drove the biggest quarterly increase to subscription plans in franchise history, in both the West and East.”

&

The company had a big launch of World of Warcraft Classic during the quarter, and that helped drive the audience much higher in both Asia and the West, the company said.

..would be useless, unless you believe in conspiracy theories that they made such comments to make people believe Classic is a success.

If you still think that Classic only had 2 or 2.5 mil subs at his highest peak, then it seems you believe that WoW alone ( without Classic ) is bringing $1 billion ( $250 mil x 4 quarters ) in revenue each year for Blizzard, which .. that's impossible since many years ago.

Q2 2019 Blizzard Revenues were around $380 mil . That includes all their games.

Now, tell me again, how World of Warcraft alone have come up with almost $300 mil this quarter.

I'm not sure I'm taking your point.

If you are saying the revenues generated are too low vs the guesstimated 2.5M figure I think others pointed out it is possible to play Classic for free on their existing retail sub acct as well as spend accumulated in game gold (coins?) so neither would increase revenues, just push up the MAU counts. (Maybe)

What?

No, I'm saying the revenues this quarter WoW alone has bring to Blizzard, is almost the entire revenue of Blizzard in Q2 2019. That happened only because of Classic.

How can you come up with $300 mil revenues vs I don't know, $150 mil the previous quarter if not because of Classic? Saying the same people which plays retail, added to that $300 mil ( minus the 2.5 mil players which is around $40 mil ) , it's delusional.

If you still believe Classic has bring only around $40 mil for this quarter, shake hands with Kano and .. move along

IceAge · November 2019

DMKano said:

IceAge said:

DMKano said:

That 4mil+ number was obviously way off because there would be a ton more servers stood up to handle that many players

There were servers handling more then 20k players at a given time PLUS the insane thousands of other people waiting in que. Yes, that's only on 1 server.

We know you have that lovely crystal ball, but .. wash a bit. Seems he gives you some..errors "lately".

How many WoW classic servers are there?

4.5mil players = 20k people per server = 225 servers.

Oops- guess I was not wrong

Wow your ignorance is high LOL.

So you are counting just the people who log in at the same time? If a server is full with 20k people, that doesn't mean only 20k people are playing on that server.

I though you knew this, but oh well. "Long time MMO player"

Viper482 · November 2019

This is a hater discussion, nothing more. So many people on this site scoff at those of us who want a more classic (no pun intended) MMORPG experience, passing it off as nostalgia. When something like this is successful (subjective) it proves them wrong and they can't stand it. Simple as that in my book.

Panther2103 · November 2019

If we are just gauging it off of the MAU sure Blizzard didn't gain as many as they probably hoped for classic but at the same time I would probably say a good portion of classic players were probably already playing some form of Blizzard game. I was occasionally playing retail and playing Overwatch at least once a month. It's still retaining quite a few players though from what I can tell. I'm still playing it, and have about 3/4ths of the people I started with still playing which is interesting because they usually bounce off these types of rereleases.

IceAge · November 2019

DMKano said:

IceAge said:

DMKano said:

IceAge said:

DMKano said:

That 4mil+ number was obviously way off because there would be a ton more servers stood up to handle that many players

There were servers handling more then 20k players at a given time PLUS the insane thousands of other people waiting in que. Yes, that's only on 1 server.

We know you have that lovely crystal ball, but .. wash a bit. Seems he gives you some..errors "lately".

How many WoW classic servers are there?

4.5mil players = 20k people per server = 225 servers.

Oops- guess I was not wrong

Wow your ignorance is high LOL.

So you are counting just the people who log in at the same time? If a server is full with 20k people, that doesn't mean only 20k people are playing on that server.

I though you knew this, but oh well. "Long time MMO player"

How many accounts does Blizzard allow to be created on one WoW classic server?

What?

You mean characters? And again, it seems you believe that concurrent users = all users.

Please, if you want to troll, do it with style at least!

Amathe · November 2019

I am not surprised by this.

I remember logging back on to Everquest. For a couple of evenings I ran all over the place, checked out my old stomping grounds, listened to the music - all that. Then I was done. I didn't actually want to play Everquest. Just assured myself it was still there and traveled down memory lane.

I haven't played Classic WoW but I suspect it could be the same.

I would of course be up for a new game that is like Everquest, but that is different.

Albatroes · November 2019

They'll probably add lv60 boosts next year, cause ya know, Activision-Blizzard. Headless-chicken development and greed-goblin publishing.

Gdemami · November 2019

IceAge said:
WoW along brought almost $300 mil this quarter

...out of curiosity, where do you get that number from?

Dragnelus · November 2019

Aenghas said:

Whatever the number was it will certainly drop off. Source: me not renewing my sub this week lol.

I wasn't going to go back for Classic but did about a fortnight after launch for various reasons.
It was fun for a while but it is getting quieter now. With no interesting news at Blizzcon about plans for it past Naxxramas (which is tediously far away given the content release trickle) I can't justify investing time into it.

But I just subbed after not having subbed for some time so now its even again :O

kitarad · November 2019

I remember @IceAge supported Bless Online quite fervently, this time he picked a more viable product.

IceAge · November 2019

Gdemami said:

IceAge said:
WoW along brought almost $300 mil this quarter

...out of curiosity, where do you get that number from?

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/353605/CoD_and_WoW_push_Activision_Blizzard_to_betterthanexpected_Q3.php

DMKano said:

Gdemami said:

IceAge said:
WoW along brought almost $300 mil this quarter

...out of curiosity, where do you get that number from?

He stole my crystal ball apparently

Yours is a cheap crystal ball. I don't need that

kitarad said:

I remember @IceAge supported Bless Online quite fervently, this time he picked a more viable product.

Thanks!

Gdemami · November 2019

IceAge said:

Gdemami said:

IceAge said:
WoW along brought almost $300 mil this quarter

...out of curiosity, where do you get that number from?

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/353605/CoD_and_WoW_push_Activision_Blizzard_to_betterthanexpected_Q3.php

Seems to me gamasutra messed up the numbers there...

OrwellRand · November 2019

Not sure what you guys are talking about. I've been playing Classic since August and our server is packed. LFG channel is non-stop, Barrens is...Barrens. I'm Horde and we're only 30% of the population on our server, but every city is jammed with players. You might not like the game, all good. I can't stand most mmo's, but I like this one and ALOT of other people do too...regardless of the numbers.

Last time I thought about Retail WoW was in August...

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WOW Classic - Not 4.5 million

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WOW Classic - Not 4.5 million

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

Comments

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV