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World of Warcraft up to 7.8 million subscribers
According to the press release of the Activision-Blizzard earnings call taking place today, World of Warcraft has seen a rise in subscription numbers, up from 7.6 million as reported in November, to 7.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. A rise of subscriber numbers is almost to be expected following big events like BlizzCon, and big announcements like the upcoming expansion Warlords of Draenor. It's a small bump, but the number is still higher than even the 7.7 million subscribers reported in the second quarter of 2013. Subscriber numbers seem to have leveled off entirely in 2013, with the one dramatic drop for the year being the 1.3 million lost in the first quarter of 2013. With a new expansion on the horizon, a free level 90 to those that pre-order said expansion, and pre-orders set to become available soon, we may see another rise at the next earnings call. New expansions have a tendency to lure back old players, and garner the interest of new players as well. We'll have to wait and see how the game performs in 2014.
World of Warcraft down 100k subscribers to 7.6M
According to the press release of the Activision-Blizzard earnings call that will take place later today, World of Warcraft is down 100,000 subscribers to 7.6 million. This is a drop from the 7.7M reported for the second quarter of 2013. This represents a continued decline from the 12 million subscribers reached at the height of WoW's popularity in late 2010. However the most recent subscription decline is a fraction of what previous quarters have seen. For the first quarter of 2013, WoW lost 1.3M subscribers, landing at 8.3M. The second quarter of 2013 lost 600k subscribers. It would appear, at least from the limited data we have been given, that the subscriber losses are leveling off. Much of WoW's future growth and/or continued life rests upon the back of Blizzard this weekend at BlizzCon 2013, when it is expected they will announce the game's fifth expansion.
World of Warcraft population swells over 10 million, Mists of Pandaria sells 2.7 million
Blizzard has seen overall subscription numbers increase to 10 million with the successful launch of Mists of Pandaria last week, which itself has sold 2.7 million copies already. It is important to note that these numbers do not include the impact from the China release of the game, which just happened on October 2. The partial (and important part) of Blizzard's press release is as follows: Blizzard Entertainment ALLIANCE AND HORDE ARMIES GROW WITH LAUNCH OF MISTS OF PANDARIA™ New World of Warcraft® expansion sells 2.7 million copies in first week -- global subscriber base passes 10 million PARIS, France -- October 4, 2012 -- Following the September 25 global rollout of World of Warcraft®: Mists of Pandaria™, the new expansion to the world's #1 subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that millions of players have already joined the fight for Pandaria. During the first week of launch, prior to the release in China on October 2, the expansion had already sold through approximately 2.7 million copies and the game's global player base passed 10 million subscribers, with growth across all major regions.* "With Mists of Pandaria, we set out to expand on the sense of fun and discovery that's always been at the heart of World of Warcraft -- in addition to adding a huge variety of new content and features to the game," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "It's been gratifying to see the results of all of the work we put into this expansion and to hear all of the positive feedback from players so far." The World of Warcraft development team is already hard at work on the first major post-launch content update. Further details, including features and release timing, will be provided in the weeks ahead. source
World of Warcraft subscriber numbers remain at 10.2 million
Blizzard announced today in the investors call that the World of Warcraft population remains stable at 10.2 million subscribers. This is after the announced dip to 10.2 million in February 2012. Activision-Blizzard Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft® Remains #1 Subscription-Based MMORPG with Approximately 10.2 Million Subscribers as of 3/31/12 source In other WoW news from the call, Blizzard has renewed its license with NetEase for China distribution: "On March 20, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment announced that they renewed their license with NetEase for the distribution of World of Warcraft in mainland China. The new license will continue for an additional three years following the expiration of the current license agreement." There is no indication of specific North American / European numbers, nor is there any specific indication of when Mists will release. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
WoW subscriber numbers still increasing, multi-boxers trivial
There has been a long thread about WoW and the philosophical changes and approaches over the past four years, and in particular to some of the larger design decisions made recently (dual specs). In it Ghostcrawler makes an offhand remark about WoW's subscriber numbers:"Wrath of the Lich King is still selling very well and our subscribers are increasing."Now I want to be clear that this was made off-hand and is not from an official earnings statement. But that doesn't discount it from being full of truthiness; and nonetheless, this is rather significant in that it's been a while since we last heard any indication of current subscriber numbers. To some this news won't be very surprising, given that Wrath of the Lich King has been a huge hit. But others might raise an eyebrow that after five months of Wrath things are still up-ticking.He also mentions the ever hot topic of multi-boxers:
