Home Gaming Blizzard to stop sharing World of Warcraft subscriber numbers

Blizzard to stop sharing World of Warcraft subscriber numbers

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Yesterday, Geoff told you about the World of Warcraft subscriber numbers. Dropping to a nine year low of 5.5 million, many are preparing for the death cry of the game. Of course, 5.5 million is still a lot of players sinking their time (and money) into a ten-year-old title. I doubt they will can the MMO anytime soon, but it does make sense for them to stop bragging about their numbers.

According to Gamespot, following the reports from Activision-Blizzard, the company went on to say:

Note that this is the last quarter that we plan to provide subscriber numbers. There are other metrics that are better indicators of the overall Blizzard business performance.

Instead, the company will use other “engagement” metrics to talk about Wow’s health. While those haven’t been specified, I’ll bet that they include the number of hours played, raids completed and other numbers that show off the range of activities that players get up to, regardless of how many players are actually completing those activities. Most of those still playing the MMO aren’t the lone wolves of the game, but probably guild members of note, so perhaps they will share those kinds of metrics about guild memberships and activity.

It makes sense for the company to stop reporting subscriber numbers as they are always pointed to as a sign that the game is dying, even though it has more subscribers than MGSV was able to ship units. That’s still a whole lot of players; while the game isn’t as big as it once was, it’s still a bit early to write it off entirely. Let’s wait to do that after the next expansion.

Last Updated: November 4, 2015

21 Comments

  1. Ottokie

    November 4, 2015 at 09:33

    Rip out that parasite “Activision” and the players will return.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      November 4, 2015 at 09:42

      At least they’re focusing on Candy Crush for now.

      Reply

      • Ottokie

        November 4, 2015 at 09:43

        They were focusing on “Facebook games” in WoW from the first day of release in Draenor

        Reply

  2. Hammersteyn

    November 4, 2015 at 09:42

  3. Loftus

    November 4, 2015 at 09:47

    Come June 2016 and the WoW movie comes out and people go and play the game again, lets see them not share the rise in numbers!

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      November 4, 2015 at 09:48

      • Greylingad[CNFRMD]

        November 4, 2015 at 09:52

        HAHAHAHAHA!!! Aggenee man!

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          November 4, 2015 at 09:53

          XD

          Reply

  4. DragonSpirit009

    November 4, 2015 at 09:48

    I just can’t play it due to no internet at home at the moment

    Reply

  5. Lardus-For the Emperor!

    November 4, 2015 at 09:50

  6. HairyEwok

    November 4, 2015 at 09:50

    The people still playing WoW is honestly just loyal fans. Why would you keep paying a monthly subscription to play a game when the Free to Play scene has grown so much.

    Reply

  7. Lardus-For the Emperor!

    November 4, 2015 at 09:55

    WoW is/was a great game. I first stopped when my line was stolen (sob story is well documented in the Lazy Gamer comments), then when I could play again most of my friends had stopped. It was never the same again…darn cable thieves!

    Reply

  8. Pieter Kruger

    November 4, 2015 at 10:10

    Will play it again if it comes to Xbox One as F2P, don’t care how many people are still paying or not, I won’t.

    Reply

  9. b1nd3r

    November 4, 2015 at 11:18

    World of warcraft movie next year, Influx of subs and i bet blizzard will be showing off those numbers……

    Reply

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