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World of Warcraft Subscriptions Fall Again

News

by Matt Helgeson on August 06, 2011 at 06:01 PM

32,077 Views

120

After a drop of over 500,000 subscribers back in May following the aftermath of the Cataclysm expansion, Blizzard's MMO phenomenon World of Warcraft has experienced another significant decline.

After fall in May from a high of 12 million worldwide subscribers to 11.4 million, from May to July the game's base further declined to 11.1 million -- a loss of 300,000 subscribers.In a report on Develop, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaine attributed the loss to players getting through the Cateclysm expansion more quickly than the company expected.

Morhaine said, "As our players have become more experienced playing World of Warcraft over many years, they have become much better and much faster at consuming content. I think with Cataclysm they were able to consume the content faster than with previous expansions, but that's why we're working on developing more content."

Blizzard also instituted an "unlimited free trial" for new WoW players at the end of June in an attempt to garner interest from gamers who hadn't tried an MMO before. The Unlimited Free Trial allows players to level characters until level 20, and replaced the previous 10 and 12-day trials.

Email the author Matt Helgeson, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.

Filed under: News, Blizzard, Activision, world of warcraft, Cataclysm, mmorpg, mmos

Comments

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by JakeDaGr8 Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 06:14 PM

oohh.. i tried WoW but it got boring fast. i do like Blizzard thoguh so i hope it turns around for them :)
by The Red-Crested Garflesnark Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 06:15 PM

What about all those gold farmers?
by Sora358 Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 06:16 PM

I don't play world of Warcraft never can get into an mmo at all but have always tracked news on them and almost might get old republic however i didn't know that there was an unlimited trial so i may try and check it out sometime
by MasterShepard117 Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 06:16 PM

I guess The Old Republic really does have a chance now :D That is unfortunate though for Blizzard. I wonder why people think it's getting worse and quitting.
by chiefslayer Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 06:19 PM

Good. The world finally coming to its senses?
by chiefslayer Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 06:20 PM

Good. The world finally coming to its senses?
by ninjaskilling Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 06:20 PM

I thought that WoW was a life-time commitment. Never played it but I hear about it all the time. Even from the non-gamer crowd.
by Lancehead255 Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 06:41 PM

I think these subscription spikes and dips are nothing new to MMO games. However, to paraphrase Brenda Brathwaite (she's a game desinger), Minecraft might've had something to do with WoW's recent decline in subscription numbers.
by Joseph Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 06:45 PM

Yea, I found out about this a few days on PC Gamer and did the math with the estimated average sub price (since its less if you buy more game time at a time) they've lost about 11.9 million in revenue which is nothing to scoff at unless they start consolidating servers and shut some down to make room when they lay people off to even the maintenance workload *is a nerd* Anyway the last quarter is probably correlated to things like GW2 and SWTOR on the horizon,plus the fact the game is just...lacking
by frokid Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 06:47 PM

played for like a year or so, then it got boring
by Arithin Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 06:51 PM

I still play, but am thinking of quitting too. Once you get tired of raiding there really is nothing much going on with the game. Requiring at least 9 other people to be on at the same time to get anything new and fun done gets old quick. Hope they rethink the model or I'm probably done with MMORPGs forever.
by Abertix24 Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 06:55 PM

Well, I think I was one of the people who left, but that was back in March. WoW is a very fun and addicting game, and I would happily return to it, but for the moment I'm concentrated on console gaming and finishing my backlog before this winter. But by that time, I'll be playing ToR (hopefully).
by specter520 Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 06:56 PM

I liked it but i canceled my sub so i could get tor when it comes out
by Di5a5terp13ce Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 07:01 PM

As new MMo's come into existence, people are gonna try something new. especially if these new MMo's are free.
by dietrick gault Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 07:09 PM

how about people are actually coming to reality and probably can't afford monthly subscriptions...in my opinion, nothing against MMO's, but i shouldn't have to pay a subscription to play a game that i JUST BOUGHT... that's just my opinion..
by Evanesco Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 07:13 PM

Someone needs to proofread this article.
by karadom Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 07:20 PM

Anybody who has ever wanted to play/try WoW already has.
by A7X Scarecrow Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 07:31 PM

Who the hell is going to want to play this warCRAP for the rest of their lives. Jesus, just move on to something better.
by Conman315 Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 07:31 PM

Uh oh
by Conman315 Saturday, August 06, 2011 at 07:31 PM

Uh oh