Expansion popularity

[Brotchen-the-venture-co]

@Jito-turalyon

It comes from Blizzard’s game data APIs, which allows us to – for example – see how many recently-active accounts have acquired an achievement for completing a Delve or reached level 80 on a character.
And from that we can deduct that however many that is, is equal to the number of recently-active players in The War Within (minus China).
And that number is ~500.000 players.

Ok, but walk us through this a little bit more
We do then have data on how many people hit level 80 during a period? If yes. where can it be accessed?

[Jito-turalyon (Jito)]

Dataforazeroth.com is a good place for that kind of information. But extracting data from the API is the same that wowprogress.com and warcraftlogs.com does (among other). And from that data you can of course infer some conclusions about the playerbase.

[Brotchen-the-venture-co]

but wait, is that data for the whole playerbase or just a limited segment of the playerbase?
because i click level 80 in the first link and i get 100k results only
I also thought, that you only get in warlogs, if u use them?

[Jito-turalyon (Jito)]

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

but wait, is that data for the whole playerbase or just a limited segment of the playerbase?

It is a somewhat-close-to-accurate data set of the number of accounts that have been recently-active in retail, outside of China.

Given a relatively small margin of error, you could call that the retail playerbase – minus China.

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

because i click level 80 in the first link and i get 100k results only

Statistics | Data for Azeroth | World of Warcraft Leaderboards for Collectors
We’ll use All Characters. It’s 3.320.177.
Statistics | Data for Azeroth | World of Warcraft Leaderboards for Collectors
22.1% are level 80.

3.320.177 * 0,221 = 733.759 characters at level 80.

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

I also thought, that you only get in warlogs, if u use them?

Yes. Using it means uploading your data set, i.e. extracting from the APIs.
I just used it and other sites as an example to say that Blizzard’s APIs are used in various places for various purposes.

[Brotchen-the-venture-co]

@Jito-turalyon

It is a somewhat-close-to-accurate data set of the number of accounts that have been recently-active in retail, outside of China.

Given a relatively small margin of error, you could call that the retail playerbase – minus China.

wait, so for those like me that did not look into APIs
Is it possible to say, what number of accounts in what period received at least one achievement?

@Jito-turalyon

Statistics | Data for Azeroth | World of Warcraft Leaderboards for Collectors
We’ll use All Characters. It’s 3.320.177.
Statistics | Data for Azeroth | World of Warcraft Leaderboards for Collectors
22.1% are level 80.

3.320.177 * 0,221 = 733.759 characters at level 80.

but why does it say ~1150k accounts. are all other accounts chinese?
and then adjacent question basically asking the same: what does this statement from the page mean " All statistics are computed across the full Data for Azeroth database, which may not be an accurate reflection of the overall WoW population."

also wanted to ask, why do you think 20% of characters are at max level, not more or not less?

@Jito-turalyon

Yes. Using it means uploading your data set, i.e. extracting from the APIs.
I just used it and other sites as an example to say that Blizzard’s APIs are used in various places for various purposes.

ah ok i see
so then basically warlogs are an example of an API, but if i want better data on overall population i should use your other links right

[Jito-turalyon (Jito)]

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

Is it possible to say, what number of accounts in what period received at least one achievement?

Can you check to see how many players received Insane in the Membrane during the Christmas holidays of 2018? No.

Or well, no one has tried to present that kind of information, and I don’t know if Blizzard allows such specific data to be extracted.

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

but why does it say ~1150 accounts. are all other accounts chinese?

1.150.028 accounts. Those are all the accounts found through the API, ergo all the recently-active retail accounts, outside of China, found through the API.
So yes, the accounts not included (generally speaking) are those in China, because NetEase operates WoW in China and not Blizzard.

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

and then adjacent question basically asking the same: what does this statement from the page mean " All statistics are computed across the full Data for Azeroth database, which may not be an accurate reflection of the overall WoW population."

Well it means what it says.

If you’re asking why the data isn’t an accurate reflection of the overall WoW population, then it would be because it’s not verifiable as such. It’s only Blizzard who ultimately know how many people paid a monthly subscription this month.
Like I said initially, then the data set is just data, and you can infer conclusions from it, but they’re not verifiable conclusions.

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

also wanted to ask, why do you think 20% of characters are at max level, not more or not less?

I don’t know. I guess people have alts they don’t level up. I have a dozen or so alts, and they’re all stuck around level 60 because I don’t care to play them anymore.
I’d say 20% is a pretty high number. It basically means that 1 out of 5 characters created ends up at max level. That speaks to a pretty high commitment per character I’d say, all things considered.

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

so then basically warlogs are an example of an API, but if i want better data on overall population i should use your other links right

Right.

[Nim-steamwheedle-cartel]

I don’t really care about it. Am I able to play it? Yes? Then happy days. Not everyone is going to play the same game for 20 years, not everyone has the time or money to play the same game for 20 years. As long as I enjoy the game and it’s still going, I don’t care what other people do.

[Brotchen-the-venture-co]

@Jito-turalyon

1.150.028 accounts. Those are all the accounts found through the API, ergo all the recently-active retail accounts, outside of China, found through the API.
So yes, the accounts not included (generally speaking) are those in China, because NetEase operates WoW in China and not Blizzard.

ok,so we have approximately 1,150k non-chinese accounts? that’s it?
all other wow accounts are chinese? am i understanding this correctly?
because it would explain a lot

[Jito-turalyon (Jito)]

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

ok,so we have approximately 1,150k non-chinese accounts? that’s it?

Recently-active non-Chinese retail accounts, yes.

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

all other wow accounts are chinese? am i understanding this correctly?

All other accounts are Classic and Chinese (both retail and Classic).

[Sawator-mazrigos]

I dont care about sub numbers, i care about playing the game i enjoy, doesn’t matter to me if the game has 10k subs or 10m subs, im not gonna interact with 99.99% of them anyway.

[Souldefiler-blades-edge (Souldefíler)]

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

new and old blizzard graphs to GPT

Which is what IcyVeins did or at least the person they copied did.

[Brotchen-the-venture-co]

So that means, that starting with the relaunch of classic, the majority of subscribers are either chinese or are playing classic not retail or both (chinese only classic players)?

[Jito-turalyon (Jito)]

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

So that means, that starting with the relaunch of classic, the majority of subscribers are either chinese or are playing classic not retail or both (chinese only classic players)?

We don’t know. We don’t have any data for Classic or China, so we don’t know if there’s 100.000 people playing Classic or 10 million. And we don’t know if there’s 2 guys in China playing WoW or if there’s 1 million, and we don’t know if they’re playing Retail or Classic.

You can guess, and you can make some reasonable guesses I think, but there’s nothing but vague indication that give support to those guesses.

But I think it’s a reasonable guess to say that roughly half the people who play WoW are from China, and that Retail and Classic are roughly of the same size over a period of time.

[Brotchen-the-venture-co]

@Jito-turalyon

We don’t know. We don’t have any data for Classic or China, so we don’t know if there’s 100.000 people playing Classic or 10 million. And we don’t know if there’s 2 guys in China playing WoW or if there’s 1 million, and we don’t know if they’re playing Retail or Classic.

You can guess, and you can make some reasonable guesses I think, but there’s nothing but vague indication that give support to those guesses.

But I think it’s a reasonable guess to say that roughly half the people who play WoW are from China, and that Retail and Classic are roughly of the same size over a period of time.

But can’t we go
GENERAL AMOUNT OF SUBSCRIBERS-AMOUNT OF NON-CHINESE RETAIL PLAYERS=AMOUNT OF NON-CHINESE CLASSIC PLAYERS+CHINESE RETAIL AND CLASSIC PLAYERS
?

[Richardhuntr-silvermoon]

While this could be interesting if the numbers are real, they aren’t so it is harder to see what value this discussion has.

However the take I offer is a little different: If you are enjoying the game, does it matter how big it is? Some of the games I play are retro and probably have a few 100 players at most, doesn’t stop me having fun in them.

[Brotchen-the-venture-co]

@Richardhuntr-silvermoon

While this could be interesting if the numbers are real, they aren’t so it is harder to see what value this discussion has

So what do you say exactly, when you say the subscription numbers are not real? do you mean, people subscribe without playing or?

@Richardhuntr-silvermoon

However the take I offer is a little different: If you are enjoying the game, does it matter how big it is? Some of the games I play are retro and probably have a few 100 players at most, doesn’t stop me having fun in them.

i am just interested to get some hard data on general wow population
so yes, there is introspection, but another question is what about other people

[Jito-turalyon (Jito)]

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

But can’t we go
GENERAL AMOUNT OF SUBSCRIBERS-AMOUNT OF NON-CHINESE RETAIL PLAYERS=AMOUNT OF NON-CHINESE CLASSIC PLAYERS+CHINESE RETAIL AND CLASSIC PLAYERS
?

No.

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

AMOUNT OF NON-CHINESE RETAIL PLAYERS

That’s the only one we can put a number on.

So you have 1 known and 3 unknowns. Can’t solve that equation.

Like I said earlier, all we can say is how many recently-active retail accounts there are outside of China. And then we can say how many recently-active accounts own The War Within. Those numbers are ~1 million and ~500.000, respectively.
The rest are guesstimates.

[Brotchen-the-venture-co]

@Jito-turalyon

That’s the only one we can put a number on.

but dont we know GENERAL AMOUNT OF SUBSCRIBERS from the blizzard graph?
Since we know this, and than we know the AMOUNT OF NON-CHINESE RETAIL PLAYERS, thats 2 knowns 2 unknowns right?

[Jito-turalyon (Jito)]

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

but dont we know GENERAL AMOUNT OF SUBSCRIBERS from the blizzard graph?

No, because that graph ends around early 2024, and to my awareness then it’s 2025 in a couple of weeks.
There’s no basis for assuming that the amount of subscribers has remained the same for close to a year, when the graph would otherwise indicate that the amount of subscribers goes constantly up and down depending on game releases.

[Richardhuntr-silvermoon]

@Brotchen-the-venture-co

So what do you say exactly, when you say the subscription numbers are not real? do you mean, people subscribe without playing or?

I’m saying we’ve had no official Blizzard numbers for some of those expansions, so the data isn’t real.

If you can link to a source that shows the sub numbers from an official source, I’ll take back my post.