Since World of Warcraft‘s boost back up to 10 million subscribers following the release of Mists of Pandaria, it has been bleeding subscribers profusely.
Activision Blizzard has released its quarterly shareholder document which confirms that World of Warcraft is down to 7.7 million subscribers as of July 25th, 2013. That’s a reduction of 600,000 over the previous quarter and a full 3.3 million over Mists of Pandaria‘s release last year.
On one hand it’s apparent that World of Warcraft is in decline, while on the other it can be considered successful given its age. The game released in 2004 and has continued to dominate the MMORPG market, killing off many competitors in the process—sorry Warhammer Online! It’s one of the very few games in the genre to remain profitable with a subscription. Constant patches over its lengthy time span have kept players invested, while four expansions have given reason for players to come back and explore its new offerings.
At this point Mists of Pandaria isn’t enough to keep the game above the 8 million mark, but can its next expansion? Many have cited Blizzard’s Project Titan as the only potential WoW-killer, but that was recently delayed into 2016. Many speculate that the next World of Warcraft expansion will be focused on the Burning Legion, a major—and extremely interesting—part of Warcraft lore. Unlike Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria which dabble with side-story elements, a Burning Legion expansion would undoubtedly contain some of the most intimidating and important characters in the IP. Along with some character model improvements, it isn’t out of the question for Blizzard to boost the game back up beyond the double digits and keep it there like Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King did.
