World of Warcraft is still the biggest deal in the MMO world, but subscription numbers have dropped quite significantly in the period since latest expansion Warlords of Draenor launched last October.
The brief bump in subs after Draenor pushed the player count up past 10 million in November, but since then it’s slid back down to ‘just’ 7.1 million. That’s still a huge number, but it’s a big drop-off for Blizzard.
The firm revealed the numbers as part of its first quarter financials for 2015, which you can download and check out here if you have real hankering for dry lists of numbers and dates.
“As expected and consistent with our experience following prior expansions,” Blizzard writes, “we saw a decline in the World of Warcraft subscriber number. Subscribers ended the quarter at 7.1 million.”
This comes nowhere near to pushing WoW off its pedestal as the premier subscription model MMO out there of course, but it’s sure to have Blizzard a little wary. No game lasts forever. That said, there’s still plenty for the company to feel positive about, with the addition of a raft of new in-game purchases and payment options still bringing in dragon-sized hoards of cash.
“World of Warcraft’s revenue performance at constant FX has been more stable,” the company continues, “driven by continued strong uptake on value added services, and price increases in select regions, which partially offset subscriber declines, particularly in the East. World of Warcraft remains the No. 1 subscription‐based MMORPG in the world.”
