For the first time in 9 years there is current information about WoW subscriptions

earthpressnews

At the Game Developers Conference 2024, Blizzard officials showed a graph showing the development of World of Warcraft subscribers over the past ten years. The developers also explained why the Shadowlands expansion was disappointing.

Why is the subscription information special? Blizzard officials last published official information about World of Warcraft’s monthly paying subscribers in 2015. At the time, the clock stood at 5.5 million WoW subscriptions worldwide.

After that, the quarterly reports only contained information about the MAUs, i.e. the monthly active users, for all Blizzard games. It was no longer possible to draw conclusions about the number of players in the MMORPG.

What’s currently going on in WoW? Now, battle royale fun:

WoW: Plunderstorm – this is how the battle royale mode works

More videos

What does the graph from GDC 2024 reveal? The slide shown during a panel covers the expansions Legion through Dragonflight. Unfortunately, you cannot see how the number of subscribers to Legion and Co. compares to the previous addons or how high the number of subscribers actually is in the period shown.

But what we can read from the graph:

  • Legion was able to gain more subscribers at launch than the subsequent expansion, Battle for Azeroth (which set a record for the fastest-selling expansion).
  • Not surprisingly, after the launch of Battle for Azeroth, subscription numbers fell faster than during the Legion expansion period, reaching their lowest level in the past eight years.
  • However, with the launch of WoW Classic, Blizzard managed to bring subscription numbers to their highest level since at least 2016.
  • The release of Shadowlands provided the next high, but the number of subscribers plummeted drastically afterwards. The developers speak of a “historically high churn” – despite Burning Crusade Classic and Wrath of the Lich King Classic.
  • The slide shows that Blizzard expected a significantly weaker drop in subscription numbers after Shadowlands due to the two classic versions.
  • With Dragonflight there was an increase again, but the graph ends at a significantly lower level than was the case with the previous launch phases of expansions.

    • Recommended editorial content

    At this point you will find external content from Reddit that complements the article.

    View Reddit content

    I agree to external content being displayed to me. Personal data may be transmitted to third-party platforms. Read more about our privacy policy.

    Are there really no clues about the exact numbers? In the financial report for the first quarter of 2017, Blizzard officials stated that Legion’s player numbers were slightly higher than the previous expansion’s numbers (via Bellular).

    This could result in the following conclusions:

  • The lowest level of subscription numbers in Battle for Azeroth may have been around 4 million players.
  • During Shadowlands the low point was around 4.5 million active players.
  • Bellular assumes that subscription numbers have increased so much with the current season of discovery that 7.25 million players could currently play WoW.
  • At the start of WoW Classic, around 8.27 million players are likely to have had a subscription. This corresponds to the corresponding financial report (more than twice as many players as at Battle for Azeroth’s low point).

    • The reasons for Shadowlands failure

    In another slide, the developers analyze where the construction sites of the Shadowlands expansion were. They identified a problem with the story and the setting. The Shadowlands were intangible as a location for players, and the new antagonist was poorly constructed. Popular heroes faded into the background.

    Those responsible also identified weaknesses in the gameplay. The systems did not meet the expectations of the players and there was another development in character strength that is not relevant for the future (Borrowed Power). There was also a lack of variety in the content.

    Last but not least, the communication with the players was not good. The community felt unheard and the developers weren’t transparent enough. There were too long phases without new content.

    How do you rate Blizzard’s graph, numbers and Shadowlands analysis? Tell us in the comments!

    There is currently reason for heated discussions in WoW:

    “Stop being so negative” – Big WoW streamer complains about players who criticize Plunderstorm

    mmod-game