Originally posted by templarga

Originally posted by supbro

Originally posted by templarga

Originally posted by arthen999

Originally posted by templarga

Just to make it official:

1. On December 23, 2008, we have the last official count of WOW sub numbers released by Blizzard. The official count of subs was at 11.5 million. Link: http://eu.blizzard.com/en/press/081223.html

2. In June 2009, Blizzard got the Guinness World Record for most popular MMO. The award was for 11.6 million players. Link: http://www.wegame.com/forums/General_Gaming_Discussion/New_gaming_Guiness_world_records/

3. When the data was gathered for the award is not known that I can find. My guess would be April-May of this year. The reason I say this is that, in the article, it mentions XBox Live data as of May. So that is my best guess.

4. In December, the numbers were 11.5 million. By June, we do not know when exactly, it was 11.6 million. That is a NET increase of 110k subscribers during the first few months of the year.

unfortunatly that does not really go along way towards letting us know what the current subscriber base to warcraft is . the thing is we dont know how the data is confirmed . xbox live data maybe easier to confirm than a large mmorpg that is popular in many different countrys . so it does not automatically mean WoW had 11.6 million subs in april/may . also guiness only notes the peak not the current level. that peak could have been anytime between last december and now . so in itself guiness offers us only the insite that sometime after the december statement that subs rose from 11.5 to 11.6 million subs . from my understanding the problem in china did not occur untill after april so it does not automatically explain the lack of a quarterly statement in march of this year .

There was a quarterly statement, but it did not contain sub numbers to the best of my knowledge or that I can tell.

Of course there are no official numbers for the most recent quarter. There can only be one reason for that, they have decreased by so much they rather hide it from the public .... this is "good" business after all. So in conclusion the numbers zondoff is quoting are completely inaccurate and hold no factual substance, pure lies. I predict we will not hear the official numbers for a while, with better upcoming games being released ...

 

I figured it was easy to understand but I guess since most of you lack any business sense, I guess it needs more details.

With the situation in China, it is absolutely unclear and unknown how many subscribers will come back to WOW. Some will leave. Some have left. Some have moved on to other server regions (Taiwan for example). Some will come back. Many new players will come to the game as well as a result of the WOTLK launching.

So in other words, and follow me here, there is no way to tell how many subscribers there are currently (and by currently I mean during the quarter with China offline).

The LAST thing a company wants to do is report incomplete data and that includes sub numbers. And that is what it would be if Blizzard put subscription numbers in this Quarterly report. They could only GUESS at how many players they will have when the whole China issue is settled. And you do not put guesses in Quarterly reports unless they are asked for (and they are called predictions). Subscriptions numbers are not predictions because you are reflecting the current state of the game...so you are not predicting anything, you are reporting it.

Had Blizzard reported sub numbers, all of you WOW trolls would be here saying "How do they know?!?!", "it isn't true", "Blizzard lied"..... so it is really a no win situation with you.

The REASON the numbers aren't there is because they are not official and there is NO WAY to make them official until the servers come back online in China.

It is business, and it is smart business. Let's say I had a company and I made up sub numbers and put it in a Quarterly report for my investors. When asked for my data proving these numbers, I just tell them I guessed......you want to know what would happen? I would get fired. Simple as that.

And yes, to the other poster, I am bitter because all we get is the same troll threads over and over again. It's sad really.

I think you have made it clear you think you have buisness sence but i have seen no proof of it . In fact i have seen no proof of common sence or even a sence of humour .

Its not a troll thread . I genuinly could not find any information on warcrafts recent subscription numbers . It came after reading reports on gaming sites that Warcaft had lost vast numbers of subscribers . I thought i would check the facts unfortunatly i was unable to find anything online so i started this topic . If you actually took the time to read my opening message you would see i said i may have missed something and it was framed as a question not a statement .

That is not trolling you just hav not absorbed what was written and made an assumption .

I think we can asertain that Blizzard are not releasing the numbers because there has been a downturn that goes beyond the situation in China . That is the most likly reason . However it is just a guess maybe in a month or two we shall have a statement from Blizzard putting it at around the 11 million mark still . If so all well and good . If not then Blizzard will have to look at ways to bring people back .

 Ofcourse you are trolling, it's just that you are smarter than the average troll.  

Originally posted by arthen999

Originally posted by templarga

Originally posted by supbro

Originally posted by templarga

Originally posted by arthen999

Originally posted by templarga

Just to make it official:

1. On December 23, 2008, we have the last official count of WOW sub numbers released by Blizzard. The official count of subs was at 11.5 million. Link: http://eu.blizzard.com/en/press/081223.html

2. In June 2009, Blizzard got the Guinness World Record for most popular MMO. The award was for 11.6 million players. Link: http://www.wegame.com/forums/General_Gaming_Discussion/New_gaming_Guiness_world_records/

3. When the data was gathered for the award is not known that I can find. My guess would be April-May of this year. The reason I say this is that, in the article, it mentions XBox Live data as of May. So that is my best guess.

4. In December, the numbers were 11.5 million. By June, we do not know when exactly, it was 11.6 million. That is a NET increase of 110k subscribers during the first few months of the year.

unfortunatly that does not really go along way towards letting us know what the current subscriber base to warcraft is . the thing is we dont know how the data is confirmed . xbox live data maybe easier to confirm than a large mmorpg that is popular in many different countrys . so it does not automatically mean WoW had 11.6 million subs in april/may . also guiness only notes the peak not the current level. that peak could have been anytime between last december and now . so in itself guiness offers us only the insite that sometime after the december statement that subs rose from 11.5 to 11.6 million subs . from my understanding the problem in china did not occur untill after april so it does not automatically explain the lack of a quarterly statement in march of this year .

There was a quarterly statement, but it did not contain sub numbers to the best of my knowledge or that I can tell.

Of course there are no official numbers for the most recent quarter. There can only be one reason for that, they have decreased by so much they rather hide it from the public .... this is "good" business after all. So in conclusion the numbers zondoff is quoting are completely inaccurate and hold no factual substance, pure lies. I predict we will not hear the official numbers for a while, with better upcoming games being released ...

 

I figured it was easy to understand but I guess since most of you lack any business sense, I guess it needs more details.

With the situation in China, it is absolutely unclear and unknown how many subscribers will come back to WOW. Some will leave. Some have left. Some have moved on to other server regions (Taiwan for example). Some will come back. Many new players will come to the game as well as a result of the WOTLK launching.

So in other words, and follow me here, there is no way to tell how many subscribers there are currently (and by currently I mean during the quarter with China offline).

The LAST thing a company wants to do is report incomplete data and that includes sub numbers. And that is what it would be if Blizzard put subscription numbers in this Quarterly report. They could only GUESS at how many players they will have when the whole China issue is settled. And you do not put guesses in Quarterly reports unless they are asked for (and they are called predictions). Subscriptions numbers are not predictions because you are reflecting the current state of the game...so you are not predicting anything, you are reporting it.

Had Blizzard reported sub numbers, all of you WOW trolls would be here saying "How do they know?!?!", "it isn't true", "Blizzard lied"..... so it is really a no win situation with you.

The REASON the numbers aren't there is because they are not official and there is NO WAY to make them official until the servers come back online in China.

It is business, and it is smart business. Let's say I had a company and I made up sub numbers and put it in a Quarterly report for my investors. When asked for my data proving these numbers, I just tell them I guessed......you want to know what would happen? I would get fired. Simple as that.

And yes, to the other poster, I am bitter because all we get is the same troll threads over and over again. It's sad really.

 

I think you have made it clear you think you have buisness sence but i have seen no proof of it . In fact i have seen no proof of common sence or even a sence of humour .

Its not a troll thread . I genuinly could not find any information on warcrafts recent subscription numbers . It came after reading reports on gaming sites that Warcaft had lost vast numbers of subscribers . I thought i would check the facts unfortunatly i was unable to find anything online so i started this topic . If you actually took the time to read my opening message you would see i said i may have missed something and it was framed as a question not a statement .

That is not trolling you just hav not absorbed what was written and made an assumption .

I think we can asertain that Blizzard are not releasing the numbers because there has been a downturn that goes beyond the situation in China . That is the most likly reason . However it is just a guess maybe in a month or two we shall have a statement from Blizzard putting it at around the 11 million mark still . If so all well and good . If not then Blizzard will have to look at ways to bring people back .

I was not referring to you about trolling, just others. I know you had a legitimate question and the answer is there isn't one. You are assuming its because things have taken a "downturn" with the numbers. My argument is that it doesn't matter because the lack of a clear answer is why there haven't been numbers released. It is common sense to be honest not to release public data that you are not sure of and by releasing incomplete data, you would only raise more questions than answers. Seriously if Blizzard reported numbers from the past quarter people would be screaming in these forums that they can't do that given the state of the situation in China (as I mentioned). It is a no win situation - don't release the data, you are hiding something. Release the data and its full of lies. See, people who hate WOW will never be satisfied.

The only reports I have seen are from select players who obviously hate WOW anyway or are upset for any reason or another. There is no indication that WOW is doing horribly or losing players outside of the regular numbers and how it fluctuates patch to patch (as I detailed in another post).

Originally posted by arthen999

I think we can asertain that Blizzard are not releasing the numbers because there has been a downturn that goes beyond the situation in China . That is the most likly reason . However it is just a guess maybe in a month or two we shall have a statement from Blizzard putting it at around the 11 million mark still . If so all well and good . If not then Blizzard will have to look at ways to bring people back .

Well you know Mark Jacobs used to always write crap about how they could only release subscription numbers due to certain events etc... So if that was one of the few true things he ever said that could be why.

You can guess what may or may not be going on all you want.

You know what the easy thing to do is?  Wait for the next quarterly financial release and see how it has changed compared to the last few.  If its the same for the gaming division most likely the subscriber base is the same.  If its dropped.... subs probably dropped... if it goes up.. they got a bailout (at least this forum would say that).

You didn't say this but I used to see so many post here about how they counted non paying accounts.. trials etc.. but nobody could explain why the profits kept going up on those non-existant subscribers.

It is probably the easiest thing to watch and their financial statements have been pretty easy to find ...

I havn't noticed a drop in population at all, even if they did drop to 5 million that is still more than tripple any other MMO's numbers, the next highest is about 1 million (Linage I think) according to the latest stats.

Quite funny how Blizzard now have the power to rally so many people to their cause in China by simply turning their servers off :P

Originally posted by NasherUK

I havn't noticed a drop in population at all, even if they did drop to 5 million that is still more than tripple any other MMO's numbers (I think the next highest is at about 800-900K subscribers).

Quite funny how Blizzard now have the power to rally so many people to their cause in China by simply turning their servers off :P

They should continue to hold the servers hostage until they agree to allow Panderen into the game. 

Aion doesn't need to kill WoW, everyone's saying WAR will kill WoW so it will.  Mark my words - WoW will die a few days after WAR is released.

So just because people have a different opinion of the game or any issue concerning WOW they are considered trolls ?  I'm sorry but all of us aren't led by the nose and are made to believe what game developers or media personnel say. We don't look through rose colored glasses everyday.

Originally posted by NasherUK

Quite funny how Blizzard now have the power to rally so many people to their cause in China by simply turning their servers off :P

I find it even more funny that blizzard refuse to release any quarterly subs figures since ~AION~ has gone live in Asia. Considering how happy they were to talk about the sub numbers before.... A little korean game like Aion has really shut blizzard up, its really funny

Originally posted by SaintViktor

So just because people have a different opinion of the game or any issue concerning WOW they are considered trolls ?  I'm sorry but all of us aren't led by the nose and are made to believe what game developers or media personnel say. We don't look through rose colored glasses everyday.

Not necessarily different, just some.

Originally posted by supbro

Originally posted by NasherUK

Quite funny how Blizzard now have the power to rally so many people to their cause in China by simply turning their servers off :P

 

I find it even more funny that blizzard refuse to release any quarterly subs figures since ~AION~ has gone live in Asia. Considering how happy they were to talk about the sub numbers before.... A little korean game like Aion has really shut blizzard up, its really funny

What is funny is that people were saying the same things about War, AOC and darkfall.  They were all going to hurt WOW.

Aion is nothing special.  it is very similar to WOW without the content.

If you want to delude yourself with your conspiracy theory, go ahead.  The fact is that WOW can't release subscription numbers becauset he china servers are still down.  They have accountability to their shareholders.  It would be stupid for them to say "we are down to 6M subscribers" and then a week later say "we are back up to 11.6M".   The SEC would probably be all over them.

Originally posted by Alandora

Originally posted by supbro

Originally posted by NasherUK

Quite funny how Blizzard now have the power to rally so many people to their cause in China by simply turning their servers off :P

I find it even more funny that blizzard refuse to release any quarterly subs figures since ~AION~ has gone live in Asia. Considering how happy they were to talk about the sub numbers before.... A little korean game like Aion has really shut blizzard up, its really funny

 

What is funny is that people were saying the same things about War, AOC and darkfall.  They were all going to hurt WOW.

Aion is nothing special.  it is very similar to WOW without the content.

If you want to delude yourself with your conspiracy theory, go ahead.  The fact is that WOW can't release subscription numbers becauset he china servers are still down.  They have accountability to their shareholders.  It would be stupid for them to say "we are down to 6M subscribers" and then a week later say "we are back up to 11.6M".   The SEC would probably be all over them.

Yeah someone who gets it!!

I am glad someone understands. I find it funny that he thinks Blizzard won't release sub numbers because of Aion when it actuality it is mostly due to business/legal issues. It is unbelievable that it is that difficult for some people to understand such a simple fact.

Originally posted by supbro

Originally posted by NasherUK

Quite funny how Blizzard now have the power to rally so many people to their cause in China by simply turning their servers off :P

 

I find it even more funny that blizzard refuse to release any quarterly subs figures since ~AION~ has gone live in Asia. Considering how happy they were to talk about the sub numbers before.... A little korean game like Aion has really shut blizzard up, its really funny

YES you are right:

1. yes, aion had tremendous impact on the release of subscrition numbers
2. yes, there has never been a moon landing, all has been filmed by the CIA in a filmstudio
3. yes, still they keep those aliens imprisoned in area 51
4. yes, sliced bread is a korean invention

---------------------------

let

   sarcasm = 0

in

  sarcasm

end

I don't see how you can compare number between Aion and WoW considering WoW was released in 2004 and Aion will be released in September of this year.

Who cares anyway? Many games have 100k to 500k players and still do well.
As for the people saying the sub numbers in Korea/China are low, it's because a majority of them are already with WoW.
Plus, I don't remember WoW doing that well within their first year or so on release and so far Aion is doing quite well pre-release.

Nothing I said is out of spite towards Blizzard/WoW ((I was a WoW fanboy up until about 3 months ago... until I found the greener side of the pasture.) because they did have a great game. But in the past year or so it has just gone downhill and personally don't see it getting much better for them.

 

I will add to this "discussion" that it doesnt matter if you have a million subscribers in Korea and China or a billion, if the money you make from those subscribers is meager at best then theres really no point to gloat.

Lets have a little comparison.

In the first quarter of 2009 WoW by itself made $281 million
(by the way, thats after operating costs but before taxes)

Alternatively, boosted by a strong performance from Aion, NCSoft as a whole made a whopping $46 million

So, while Aion was racking up millions of subscribers in Korea and China, WoW by itself still made more than 6 times more money than every game that NCSoft has.

So, Aion can lay claim to however many millions of subscribers they want and Blizzard will laugh themselves stupid all the way to the bank.

Originally posted by Xiaoki

I will add to this "discussion" that it doesnt matter if you have a million subscribers in Korea and China or a billion, if the money you make from those subscribers is meager at best then theres really no point to gloat.

Lets have a little comparison.

In the first quarter of 2009 WoW by itself made $281 million
(by the way, thats after operating costs but before taxes)

Alternatively, boosted by a strong performance from Aion, NCSoft as a whole made a whopping $46 million

So, while Aion was racking up millions of subscribers in Korea and China, WoW by itself still made more than 6 times more money than every game that NCSoft has.

So, Aion can lay claim to however many millions of subscribers they want and Blizzard will laugh themselves stupid all the way to the bank.

Correction here: NCSoft official figures for Aion ... are still at 1.5 M "internet cafés subs" .... (not "millions of").

And as long as Xfire stats show trends (ask Gauge and Mark Jacobs about them) I only see growth for Wow these days...

http://www.xfire.com/games/wow/World_of_Warcraft/

MUCH growth :)))

Subscriptions in Western based mmorpg's with monthly fees are so much harder to gather.

Certainly 3 months after the hyped launch. :))))

 BTW I love the PIE Chart : http://www.xfire.com/genre/mmo/massively_multiplayer_online/

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by Xiaoki

I will add to this "discussion" that it doesnt matter if you have a million subscribers in Korea and China or a billion, if the money you make from those subscribers is meager at best then theres really no point to gloat.

Lets have a little comparison.

In the first quarter of 2009 WoW by itself made $281 million
(by the way, thats after operating costs but before taxes)

Alternatively, boosted by a strong performance from Aion, NCSoft as a whole made a whopping $46 million

So, while Aion was racking up millions of subscribers in Korea and China, WoW by itself still made more than 6 times more money than every game that NCSoft has.

So, Aion can lay claim to however many millions of subscribers they want and Blizzard will laugh themselves stupid all the way to the bank.

 

Correction here: NCSoft official figures for Aion ... are still at 1.5 M "internet cafés subs" .... (not "millions of").

And as long as Xfire stats show trends (ask Gauge and Mark Jacobs about them) I only see growth for Wow these days...

http://www.xfire.com/games/wow/World_of_Warcraft/

MUCH growth :)))

Subscriptions in Western based mmorpg's with monthly fees are so much harder to gather.

Certainly 3 months after the hyped launch. :))))

 BTW I love the PIE Chart : http://www.xfire.com/genre/mmo/massively_multiplayer_online/

 

I had a look at those pages dont they only pertain to xfire users ? Also the pie chart does not appear to be dated . It can only be an older model given the situation in China if it is indeed ment to be indicative of WoW worldwide subscription status .

Really only an statement from Blizzard would solve the question .Unfortunatly there has not been one forth coming in the last 8 months .If they miss another that will be the third quarterly statement they have missed . I m sure we will get one sooner or later and it is more than likly going to show a drop in subscriptions . I just wonder how large that drop will be .

Originally posted by arthen999

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by Xiaoki

I will add to this "discussion" that it doesnt matter if you have a million subscribers in Korea and China or a billion, if the money you make from those subscribers is meager at best then theres really no point to gloat.

Lets have a little comparison.

In the first quarter of 2009 WoW by itself made $281 million
(by the way, thats after operating costs but before taxes)

Alternatively, boosted by a strong performance from Aion, NCSoft as a whole made a whopping $46 million

So, while Aion was racking up millions of subscribers in Korea and China, WoW by itself still made more than 6 times more money than every game that NCSoft has.

So, Aion can lay claim to however many millions of subscribers they want and Blizzard will laugh themselves stupid all the way to the bank.

 

Correction here: NCSoft official figures for Aion ... are still at 1.5 M "internet cafés subs" .... (not "millions of").

And as long as Xfire stats show trends (ask Gauge and Mark Jacobs about them) I only see growth for Wow these days...

http://www.xfire.com/games/wow/World_of_Warcraft/

MUCH growth :)))

Subscriptions in Western based mmorpg's with monthly fees are so much harder to gather.

Certainly 3 months after the hyped launch. :))))

 BTW I love the PIE Chart : http://www.xfire.com/genre/mmo/massively_multiplayer_online/

 

 

I had a look at those pages dont they only pertain to xfire users ? Also the pie chart does not appear to be dated . It can only be an older model given the situation in China if it is indeed ment to be indicative of WoW worldwide subscription status .

Really only an statement from Blizzard would solve the question .Unfortunatly there has not been one forth coming in the last 8 months .If they miss another that will be the third quarterly statement they have missed . I m sure we will get one sooner or later and it is more than likly going to show a drop in subscriptions . I just wonder how large that drop will be .

Wrong, they issued statements, just not statements with sub numbers which they do not have to do.

And why they haven't released sub numbers has been explained multiple times in this thread.

E3 2009: Blizzard accepts Guinness World Record Awards

http://www.blizzplanet.com/blog/comments/e3_2009_blizzard_accepts_guinness_world_record_awards/

11.6 million subscriptions.

Date June 05th 2009.

As the Guiness book of world record is only working with accredited official appointed laywers.

Who still wants to have more proof of the 2nd quarter????

Third quarter end on Sep 30th btw.

PS. The downtime in mainland China (not Taiwan) was from June 7th to July 28th and was not even on a full monthly basis.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

E3 2009: Blizzard accepts Guinness World Record Awards

http://www.blizzplanet.com/blog/comments/e3_2009_blizzard_accepts_guinness_world_record_awards/

11.6 million subscriptions.

Date June 05th 2009.

As the Guiness book of world record is only working with accredited official appointed laywers.

Who still wants to have more proof of the 2nd quarter????

Third quarter end on Sep 30th btw.

PS. The downtime in mainland China (not Taiwan) was from June 7th to July 28th and was not even on a full monthly basis.

 

Then they dropped 6 million players.

whats that then 5.5.. 5.6 million left?

But if they are not able to match the old number they used to have i doubt they will ever bring it up again.

I don't think blizzard with say the numbers if they are under the 11.5M they advertised last, or else it would show a loss of players.

With Champions Online, Aion and other games on the way, that, more or less will attract players, plus the chinese fiasco, i dont believe Blizzard will anytime soon present sub numbers.

Originally posted by tryklon

I don't think blizzard with say the numbers if they are under the 11.5M they advertised last, or else it would show a loss of players.

With Champions Online, Aion and other games on the way, that, more or less will attract players, plus the chinese fiasco, i dont believe Blizzard will anytime soon present sub numbers.

Ok, let's go through this again.

Last year,  Age of Conan and Warhammer were both launched.   WOW grew by over 10% last year and picked up almost 2 million subscribers during the launch of those two competitors

Champions Online and Aion have are nothing compared to the hype of Warhammer and AOC.   Not only did WOW not decline last year, it GREW.  

Look at amazon.com or NPD, WOW battlechest is STILL in the top 20 of all game sales, which means a ton of people are still buying the game and just now starting to play.

Originally posted by Alandora

Originally posted by tryklon

I don't think blizzard with say the numbers if they are under the 11.5M they advertised last, or else it would show a loss of players.

With Champions Online, Aion and other games on the way, that, more or less will attract players, plus the chinese fiasco, i dont believe Blizzard will anytime soon present sub numbers.

 

Ok, let's go through this again.

Last year,  Age of Conan and Warhammer were both launched.   WOW grew by over 10% last year and picked up almost 2 million subscribers during the launch of those two competitors

Champions Online and Aion have are nothing compared to the hype of Warhammer and AOC.   Not only did WOW not decline last year, it GREW.  

Look at amazon.com or NPD, WOW battlechest is STILL in the top 20 of all game sales, which means a ton of people are still buying the game and just now starting to play.

We will see, when the numbers get out, if they ever do...

Originally posted by Alandora

Originally posted by tryklon

I don't think blizzard with say the numbers if they are under the 11.5M they advertised last, or else it would show a loss of players.

With Champions Online, Aion and other games on the way, that, more or less will attract players, plus the chinese fiasco, i dont believe Blizzard will anytime soon present sub numbers.

 

Ok, let's go through this again.

Last year,  Age of Conan and Warhammer were both launched.   WOW grew by over 10% last year and picked up almost 2 million subscribers during the launch of those two competitors

Champions Online and Aion have are nothing compared to the hype of Warhammer and AOC.   Not only did WOW not decline last year, it GREW.  

Look at amazon.com or NPD, WOW battlechest is STILL in the top 20 of all game sales, which means a ton of people are still buying the game and just now starting to play.

http://www.xfire.com/games/wow/World_of_Warcraft/

The same trend is already showing with the Beta launches of those newest "competitors".

Ask Mark Jacobs how trustworthy the trends shown on Xfire really are.

Reason for this growth?

Patch 3.2 is launching next week, two weeks later there is Blizzcon and in December the final countdown with Arthas is programmed.

Shrug.Just see the graphs, last time this year Wow had around 82K on Xfire this year it is around 90K+.

Originally posted by Alandora

Originally posted by tryklon

I don't think blizzard with say the numbers if they are under the 11.5M they advertised last, or else it would show a loss of players.

With Champions Online, Aion and other games on the way, that, more or less will attract players, plus the chinese fiasco, i dont believe Blizzard will anytime soon present sub numbers.

 

Ok, let's go through this again.

Last year,  Age of Conan and Warhammer were both launched.   WOW grew by over 10% last year and picked up almost 2 million subscribers during the launch of those two competitors

Champions Online and Aion have are nothing compared to the hype of Warhammer and AOC.   Not only did WOW not decline last year, it GREW.  

Look at amazon.com or NPD, WOW battlechest is STILL in the top 20 of all game sales, which means a ton of people are still buying the game and just now starting to play.

So new games launching bring more subs to WOW? Could someone explain to me how that works? Or when someone quits WOW to sub to say Warhammer then comes back to WOW does Blizz count the returning player as a new sub? Somehow this just doesnt sound right.