A Closer Look at WoW’s Subscriber Loss | GKick Network

May 9th, 2011 by Steve Perry

During the Activision Blizzard conference call on Monday, one of the more interesting announcements made came from Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime who pointed out that World of Warcraft’s subscriber numbers had fallen back to pre-Cataclysm figures of 11.4 million, down from it’s peak of 12 million announced shortly after Cataclysm’s release.

Morhaime went on to explain the decline, attributing it to how quickly players are completing content and that Cataclysm’s content has been completed faster than any previous expansion before it. The 600,000 subscriber dip was as of March, a good four months after the expansions release and without any new content during that time.

However, the point that makes this announcement even more interesting is that the company’s overall profit has increased, meaning that the company is making more money with a smaller subscriber base. While losing a substantial amount of customers due to content stagnation (or the launch of RIFT, which occurred in March, around the time these numbers were taken) is never good, the fact is is that it costs Blizzard less to manage the accounts and activities of those individuals, so making more money with over half a million fewer customers is a move in a positive direction.

In addition to it all, 11.4 million customers still puts WoW eons ahead of any other MMO on the market, so a dent like that will likely have little effect, as the company hasn’t lost any money due to it. Now, when players return, it only increases the company’s bottom line further.

So if you panicked when you heard WoW lost 600,000 customers, don’t. They’re even better off than they were before.

Jakey Bee

We weren’t panicking. We were hoping it would help them change their ways. And hopefully, they still will. Once you’ve peered into the master blueprints behind the game, and realize the formula behind WoW, it’s really hard to ever play it again. Because in the end, it’s all about who has the highest bloody numbers, and spending at least 3-4 months performing remedial, boring ass tasks.
- Shawn
  
  Wait so in your worldview, if you put time and effort into something, you should get any reward? I think you need to stop freeloading off of welfare and go back to playing pewpew Halo.
- Steve Perry
  
  While I can kinda see your point, this is the gist of many MMOs out there, and when they’ve found a formula that works either 12 million times or only 11.4 million times, it sure as hell isn’t going to change anytime soon.
  
  The appeal of WoW for most people isn’t just the grind, or the leveling or the raiding or the PVP or whatever it is they do, but it’s the community. People play WoW – and keep playing WoW – because they enjoy playing with the people they play with. Sure, there are plenty of folks out there who are only in it for the next shiny purple or another HK, but I think the people who play the longest find that community of like-minded people to play with.