World of Warcraft Drops Below 10 Million Players in Latest Financial Report

Post by Eorl @ 12:33pm 03/08/12 | 18 Comments

It seems even the leviathan MMO that Blizzard has created is not immune to a decline in subscriber numbers, with new reports from the latest 2012 second quarter financial report showcasing a subscriber drop to 9.1 million players worldwide, down from 10.2 million reported in February.

The large drop in subscriber numbers - the first time World of Warcraft has actually been under 10 million players since 2008 - could be due a number of factors, however the most common cause is likely many players are awaiting the release of the next expansion, Mists of Pandaria. While obviously a large drop in numbers isn't a pretty sight for investors and players, World of Warcraft still obtains the number one spot in the MMO ladder, a feat many would love to take.

You can read the full second quarter financial report over on the official page, as well as the chance to listen in to the conference call which is available here.

blizzard mists of pandaria world of warcraft subscriber drop 9.1 million financial

Latest Comments

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ravn0s
Posted 12:47pm 03/8/12

that's a massive drop. they will probably get them all back when mists of pandaria is released though.

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XaartaX
Posted 01:05pm 03/8/12

They'll probably lose some more when Guild Wars 2 releases later this month though.

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Khel
Posted 02:29pm 03/8/12

Apparently most of the subscriptions they lost were from the east (Korea, China, Taiwan), would be interesting to see the actual split though.

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Mives
Posted 02:31pm 03/8/12

Not having any real content patches for 12 months will do that. Getting pretty sick and tired of Dragon Soul.

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Khel
Posted 03:01pm 03/8/12

Well, Dragon Soul came out in December didn't it? So more like 8 months, but yeah, still a long time, not suprising. To a degree it happens before every expansion, but overall the numbers are in steady decline. Still, thats also not suprising for an almost 8 year old game. MMO Champion had this look at subscription declines each quarter:

Q1 2011 - 600,000 subscribers lost
Q2 2011 - 300,000 subscribers lost
Q3 2011 - 800,000 subscribers lost
Q4 2011 - 100,000 subscribers lost.
Q1 2012 - 0 subscribers lost.
Q2 2012 - 1,100,000 subscribers lost.

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tommoz
Posted 11:20am 05/8/12

first world problems for blizzard

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Reverend Evil�
Posted 11:34am 05/8/12

The panda's will get people back. How could you not love a cuddly bear?

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Mosfx
Posted 11:50am 05/8/12

Meh I just can't get back into WoW, my annual sub ends in October then that will be it for me, I will not be buying MoP

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Taipan
Posted 12:06pm 05/8/12

I haven't met a single person who has shown any interest at all in MoP and I can't really say I am suprised.

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Crakaveli
Posted 12:50pm 05/8/12

I've thought about getting back into WoW after a 2 year break but all of my friends have moved on. I hate playing by myself.

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Khel
Posted 01:34pm 05/8/12

I'll probably go back to WoW for a bit when MoP comes out, it actually looks really good imo. Better than Cataclysm ever did.

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thermite
Posted 10:36am 06/8/12

still not bad for a game that is 8 years old.

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Taipan
Posted 03:25pm 06/8/12

I understand what you are saying thermite. But saying it's doing good for a game thats 8 years old really isn't that great of an indication to how good or bad the game is compared to all games as a whole. Wow has a cruch most other games don't nore never will have in that is has masses of players that simply will not move because they can't stand the idea of giving up the time they have invested in it.

The reality is wow could be the biggest pile of s*** on the market today but with a player base that has shown they are slaves to their own investment of time it'll be a while before wow sinks back into the pack. Is this a good game, or one that just did a good job of making suckers out of some many people?

There is no doubt Wow is good at something but I don't see that being the fact its a great game but more because it taps into something very basic about some players. Crack addicts know crack is s*** but they still keep doing it.

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Jim
Posted 03:48pm 06/8/12

I don't care at all about losing the time I've invested in it - I still haven't played wow as much as I played daoc and I moved on from that just fine. If there was another mmo with the same long-term commitment to raiding/pvp content and was also good enough to get all the good guilds to stick with it for longer than 2 months you'd find a large chunk of us would be playing that instead of wow

so yes, it is a good game in spite of it's flaws.
you're completely delusional if you think it's a pile of s*** at all, let alone the biggest pile of s*** on the market

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fpot
Posted 03:49pm 06/8/12

Obes must have cancelled some of his accounts.

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dais
Posted 08:37pm 06/8/12

Is this a good game, or one that just did a good job of making suckers out of some many people?

I played one of those 14 day trials and really enjoyed it. But I didn't subscribe because I instantly recognised what an addictive time-vacuum it was.

Quake III Arena is the game I have spent the most time on, I played it and CS regularly for years but I never touch either game now because I am just sick to death of them.

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Lithium
Posted 01:37am 07/8/12

So instead o making eleventy billion dollars per month, they are making a fraction less. Tough times.

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Taipan
Posted 05:31am 07/8/12

I didnt say it was the biggest pile of s*** Jim i said it could be and it would still have a massive player base. Id class rune scape as a pile of crap but evrn after all these years it still has a huge following, hell some people still play MUDs.

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