Activision Blizzard admitted in early November that the number of subscribers to the game World of Warcraft has shrunk by 10% since March, and now stands at “only” 10.3 million. At its best, the number of WoW players was more than 12 million people. Analytical company Lazard Capital Markets notes that Activision Blizzard is unlikely to be able to overcome the negative trend, so the forecast for the company’s shares has changed from “Buy” to “Neutral”.
A further outflow of 900 thousand – 1.6 million people is also predicted in December this year. Star Wars: The Old Republic is just about to be released, and analysts expect that the outflow will be quite significant. Perhaps even significant for Activision-Blizzard.
Lazard Capital Markets conducted a study of the World of Warcraft audience, interviewing 381 online game players in detail along the way (a drop in the bucket, frankly). According to survey results, it turns out that 57% of former WoW players left the game after getting to the top content – and they were simply bored with the game. The remaining 43% went to other games after their friends.
At the same time, 50% of former Warcraft players surveyed admitted that they were going to return to the game as soon as the new expansion, Mists of Pandaria, was released. Judging by the World of Warcraft forums, however, current players have predominantly negative emotions towards Pandaria, so by bringing back some of the former players, the game threatens to lose much more of the current ones.
On the other hand, an imminent crisis for the game has been predicted for several years, but it still won’t come: World of Warcraft is still the most populous MMORPG subscription.
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