observer, I imagine the number of subscribers jumped when WoD was released, and this is the predictable result of players (who returned for WoD) losing interest again and unsubscribing. Can you link me to the article where you read the information?
I just performed a quick search and the timeline on this chart seems to corroborate my assumption.
Except it wasn't predictable. They never thought they would lose 3 million in one quarter. That was unheard of in WoW. The most they ever lost was around 1 million between quarters and expansions.
I'm not saying flying was the sole reason for the exodus, but it was one of many.
The bump from MoP was about 1 million subs. MoP in 9 months lost 3 to 3.5 million subs...that is about 2.5 million excluding the bump. WoD started at a little over 7 million and rose to just over 10 million. In 6 months WoD fell to 6.8 million. Excluding the bump that is about .5 million people opposed to 2.5 in 9 months in MoP.
So not unheard of.
Yes it is unheard of. I posted the numbers previously but obviously need to do so again - the link above has them.
Q2 '12 - 9.1M pre-Mop
Q3 '12 - 10M so MoP jump was 0.9M
Q4 '12 - 9.6M, a 1 quarter drop of 0.4 compared to WoD's 1 quarter drop of 0.4M.
Q1 '13 - 8.3M
Q2 '13 - 7.7M so a 3 quarter drop of 2.3M, not the 3 to 3.5M you mention.
Q3 '13 - 7.6M
Q4 '13 - 7.8M
Q1 '14 - 7.6M
Q2 '14 - 6.8M
Q3 '14 - 7.4M
Q4 '14 - 10M so a jump of 2.6M
Q1 '15 - 7.1M, a drop of 2.9M. Subs post MoP eventually dropped 3.2M - after 7 quarters.
So the "excluding the bump" numbers after 1 quarter are:
MoP higher by 0.5M
WoD lower by 0.3M.
And that is all we can do; that is the like for like comparison. A 1 quarter change compared to a 1 quarter change. Doing anything else would be like comparing WoD's 2.6M jump with MoP's 8.5M jump for example; suggesting MoP was far superior. OK you have to go back to Q1 '05 to get that jump but if timescales don't matter ......
WoW subs 1 quarter after WoD are 300k lower than they were 1 quarter before WoD.
If you are excluding the bumps the numbers are not "unheard of". You are assuming that people that come back to a game for an expansion are going to stay subbed. The only numbers that matter is number before and number after excluding the bump. According to the number the people pre WoD liked the game better than people pre MoP. Less of the pre expansion numbers left WoD as left MoP. To say it is unheard of is only because of the large numbers you see, but when you put it into percentages the numbers are not much larger than many games on the market.
More people liked WoW pre-WoD than pre-MoP? No. More people played WoW pre-MoP than played pre-WoD. The number are clear.
Expressed a a percentage? Nope. 45% of the MoP gain left; 112% of the WoD gain left. And 112% is equivalent to e.g. Wildstar losing all its population within 3 months of launch. Even MOBA games tend to have a small percentage hanging on.
No I am not making any assumptions about people who come back to the game are going to stay subbed. I am not making any assumptions. The numbers are in the financial reports. It is just a matter of maths.
The loss of 2.9M in a single quarter has never happened before. Or over 100% if you want to express it as a %. However if you want to use bumps it wasn't quite as bad as Cat.
As I said you are not comparing like with like. You are assuming that WoD was responsible for the rise in WoW subs for 2 quarters before it launched; and then comparing 1 quarters fall post WoD with 3 quarters fall post MoP. Just go to the graph in the link and you can see it by eye.
You have no way of proving that the drop in subs has anything to do with the no flying controversy. There is no point to even bring up sub numbers in this conversation.
The way I see it, if no flying was one of the big reasons people quit playing wow, they would have said so in the survey they ask you to fill out when you unsub. If the numbers were enough, Blizzard more than likely would have taken action to rectify the situation.
Comments
More people liked WoW pre-WoD than pre-MoP? No. More people played WoW pre-MoP than played pre-WoD. The number are clear.
Expressed a a percentage? Nope. 45% of the MoP gain left; 112% of the WoD gain left. And 112% is equivalent to e.g. Wildstar losing all its population within 3 months of launch. Even MOBA games tend to have a small percentage hanging on.
No I am not making any assumptions about people who come back to the game are going to stay subbed. I am not making any assumptions. The numbers are in the financial reports. It is just a matter of maths.
The loss of 2.9M in a single quarter has never happened before. Or over 100% if you want to express it as a %. However if you want to use bumps it wasn't quite as bad as Cat.
As I said you are not comparing like with like. You are assuming that WoD was responsible for the rise in WoW subs for 2 quarters before it launched; and then comparing 1 quarters fall post WoD with 3 quarters fall post MoP. Just go to the graph in the link and you can see it by eye.
You have no way of proving that the drop in subs has anything to do with the no flying controversy. There is no point to even bring up sub numbers in this conversation.
The way I see it, if no flying was one of the big reasons people quit playing wow, they would have said so in the survey they ask you to fill out when you unsub. If the numbers were enough, Blizzard more than likely would have taken action to rectify the situation.