'World of Warcraft' falls below 10 million subscriptions

It may still be the king of subscription-based video games, but Activision Blizzard's massively multiplayer World of Warcraft is now back below 10 million subscribers.

[pompombrum]

Hardly surprising, they made the game far too casual. It used to be awesome in vanilla and even in TBC but since wrath, it's gone down hill.

[hellvaguy]

This is the common misconception and popular excuse for those who quit a few years ago is go roll with this rationale. Also for those living in the past syndrome fit in thier too. However, raids (excluding lfr ques) normal modes and herioc modes are still as tough as ever.

Warcraft did add some things to appeal to casuals like battlepets and normal mode dungeons are pretty easy. It just comes down to if your a glass half empty (and focus on negativity) or half full type of a person. Your never going to win with half empty types. They will be all pist about paying taxes after winning a 10 million dollar lottery. Its just the way they are.

[edgeofsins]

It comes down to quality and worth. There are free MMO's with much more solid combat and tons of expanding content and less repetitive quests.

[Mainsqueeze]

From what i hear the game is just as challenging as its ever been if you do heroic raids. The game is like what 8 or 9 years old or something lol I mean its still pretty amazing that even 1 million people are still playing, thats pretty great numbers considering. I used to play but i got burnt out and it looks like a lot of other people are too. But tons of people still love wow which is great for them.
And @edgeofsins i have to disagree the matter of combat is personal preference and i don't think i have played an mmo with any where near the balance that wow has in combat and useful fun abilities, and i have played alot of mmos. Same with quests, i think 90% of mmos out their try to copy wows questing system any ways and like the 10% that do make their own questing system have it turn out to be repetitive anyways like GW2. (GW2 is also a good mmo).

[zeal0us]

WoW population bound to fall lower(by lower I don't mean millions of players leaving) this year with all the mmos that are coming out.

Elder Scrolls Online, Phantasy Star Online 2, FF14 Realm: Reborn, WildStar and etc

Tera just went F2P a few days I'm sure that lured away a few players. Its probably only a matter of time before Rift goes f2p.

I doubt WoW will die anytime soon. I would give it another 5-10yrs+ unless Blizzard release a WoW 2 within the next 5yrs. That would probably the only thing that could put the nail in the coffin.

[Treian]

What are you talking about? Wrath was easily the best expansion. MoP is good as well.

[FanboyPunisher]

MOP is a money grab.

Gear, content, all locked behind dalies.
Blizz is trying to keep subs committed and playing a grind. Its bad for fun and gameplay.

I dont want to do a solid month of dalies to get raid level gear; or enchants or mats for crafting. LFR is just sacks of gold, really lame loot this time around.

Lame design is lame, I see how greedy blizzard is. MOP is the beginning of the end for wow.

MOP content feels cheap and lackluster; it has some of the worst replay value (raids, heroics).

[user3915800]

No, I believe they have too much competition which are free 2 play. The mmo its great, but after so many years people do tend to get bored no matter the updates, its still the same game. I played it for 2 years then got bored, now im playing guild wars 2.

[ATi_Elite]

WoW still makes Blizzard like around a billion dollars yearly so no big deal.

Actually this is GREAT news cause it means Games like Rift, Tera Online, and the awesome Guild Wars 2 have brought in new MMO gamers and also cut into WoW's share.

The WoW clone wars are over and Devs have finally decided to make MMO's unique and it's showing.

Rift and SW:Tor are the last two big WoW clones and Rift is stable and turning a nice profit while SW:Tor is a complete mess!

looking forward to ArcheAge and Elder Scrolls Online and to see if they can take more gamers away from WoW.

for me I hate WoW, it's not my type of game. I prefer Tera and GW2!

[RememberThe357]

Isn't that still like $100 million a month for Blizzard? For a game that old, thats pretty impressive.

[BLAKHOODe]

I'm proud to say I've never played it. Saw it on sale a few weeks ago after I got my new laptop and thought about getting it, but I thought about all the bad "addiction" stories I've heard over the years and didn't want to subject myself to that kind of possibility.

[Treian]

Those are from people who get addicted to anything easily. Just some extreme cases. Most of the players are casual and don't get addicted.

[Mainsqueeze]

Most of the people that play that game are addicted and don't realize it.

[FanboyPunisher]

If your in a guild, clearing raid content.
You are addicted.

Hell half of the top guilds have an 'addicted' requirement to even get in.
3-4 days a week, its almost like a second job.

[sdozzo]

GW2

[worldwidegaming]

I was addicted and quit. The best thing that happened in my gaming life. I have so much more free time to play OTHER games. but, still WOW was a lot of fun.

[jameson14]

I think they will solve that with that: http://warcraft4beta.com