In some news that’s anything but normal and somewhat unexpected for so early in an expansion pack; Activision Blizzard announced in an earning call yesterday that subscriptions for WoW were down to 11.4 million. It was noted that the subscription base in WoW tends to change based on the consumption of current content. Thus, the theory at the moment is that a chunk of the player based either finished or became worn out with the current content.
Given the two year gap from 11 to 12 million subscribers (October 2008- October 2010) we were already seeing signs of slowing down for the MMO behemoth considering it hit 11 million in the four years prior. So while Activision Blizzard is playing it off like it’s not as big a deal as it seems, the recent trend seem to hint otherwise. Very few people have currently finished all the content available at heroic difficulty, which means worn out is the likely culprit. Perhaps players are simply getting tired of WoW after six and a half years? If this trend continues, will we see an even larger subscription loss with the future releases of Guild Wars 2 and The Old Republic? Your thoughts!
That’s the thing, the subscription base tends to do that. It’s expected. And the game is 6 years old, so yes some people will get stale on it – but others will pick it up. I imagine it will fluctuate around 11 million for a while(afterall, there are only so many people interested in MMO’s) and eventually it will start to decline in another several years.
But no, the game is a lot harder than it used to be on a lot of levels, which deters some people; and the game has a bit higher of a graphics requirement, deterring a few more people; and last but not least, Blizzard hasn’t taken any steps to address the growing faction imbalances on many realms(not OVERALL as many say, but many realms have 20/80 or 80/20 alliance/horde ratios) which leads people growing discouraged.
The above factors definitely are contributing to the decline, but I doubt it will be permanent. I already know two of the people who were a part of those 600 thousand who have already reactivated…
It seems like a lot of people have moved to Rift, but I’m sure a lot of people are just getting tired of playing.