I don’t think this is a surprise to anyone about sub drops after a few months of release of an expansion, but I think this time around some issues are fundementally wrong with SL. From the “you think you don’t want it but you do” to “you don’t want it but you don’t feedback” of all the systems, blizzard seems trying to shift the blame to playerbase if the systems in SL will not turn better (by a way of saying like "we want to put them out their and see players feedbacks in the Q&A)
This is also only by end Jan 2021. I believe the playerbase will continue to drop until April and reach a “stable” phase, but if what we have seen for 9.0.5 so far is only we will get, I expect Blizzard may want to get TBC classic out asap to save their revenue losses, but well they still have the gold coin there for boost
World of Warcraft player numbers fell back to normal levels as the excitement around November’s Shadowlands expansion subsided. From November to January, revenue fell by 61% and user numbers declined by 41% (these figures do not include China). This roughly matches the pattern seen for the past several expansions, though Shadowlands had a bigger launch. Blizzard does appear to have found a way to increase how often expansions are able to boost earnings. The publisher recently announced that it will be adding the 2007 Burning Crusade expansion into World of Warcraft: Classic this year. Alternating between releasing all-new and classic expansions could cause WoW revenue to spike annually for the near future, instead of every two years (the typical development time for the title’s expansions).
as to be expected really. it’s not like this is a unique case now a days. people play a game for for days - few months and then move on. cyperpunk has lost 80% of its player base and that was weeks a go.
it does makes you wonder a little though. is this expansion bleeding subs faster than others? or does WOD still hold the crown for that
I think Blizzard and us know this pattern. It’s well established and predictable and its not going to change.
I don’t trust that revenue number though, how do they arrive at that? Companies in the US disclose earnings quarterly, theres no way Jan revenue would be reported by now outside of the organisation so that means they are modelling it (read guessing)?
Well its basic knowledge at this point? There will be always super hype spikes at launch then declines to it eventually stabilizes at some point. Even in FFXIV(judging what people write on social media) a lot of peps just hop in, do the next chapters of the story then leave until the next patch hits. A lot less peps play it at hardcore level to clear savage stuff and etc.
Prime example BFA: Obviously the quality of the expansion can be… a different story (an lets leave it at that. Enough discussions about it already) yet it made record sales on launch day*
It’s in their best interests not to put different WoW versions up against each other. It’s always going to be at a lul in Retail. It’s best for us all.
And here come the “my pet peeves” brigade with their “my pet peeve resulted in a huge revenue loss for Blizz and if theyd just fixed it they have not lost subs”
Sure, all of these things are in the mix, I’m not denying that but the bottom line is people dip in to see the new stuff and they dip out again.