For the first time, World of Warcraft subscriptions have dipped below the ten million mark. According to Blizzard-Activision's latest financial report, the subscriber base currently sits at 9.1M.

As of June 30, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft remains the #1 subscription-based MMORPG and had approximately 9.1 million subscribers⁴

Part of the reason for the decline, according to Mike Morhaime, came at the hands of Blizzard's other huge title Diablo III:

"Historically we have seen usage decline towards the end of an expansion cycle. We saw a similar drop in subscribers in the months before Cataclysm, followed by a substantial return of players around the Cataclysm launch. We're also seeing that a number of players took a break from WoW to play Diablo III," Mike Morhaime explained to investors in the most recent financial conference call. Source

Check out Blizzard financial reports.

I'm sure this hurts them so bad...

9.100.000users x 13€ = 118.300.000€ per month...

poor bastards ^^

Originally posted by angzt

9.100.000users x 13€ = 118.300.000€ per month...

poor bastards ^^

Not actually...

It is more of 3-4 million who pay monthly subs (NA & EU); the other 6-7 million pay hourly (Asia - mainly China). Blizzard announced that the majority of the subs lost were from their eastern market; has anyone seen any offical graphs detailing WOW subs after the dip to 9.1 million?

Originally posted by thamighty213
The thing is though its not 9.1m subscribers it's probably around 3m subs and 6.1m in the asian model of things where a subscriber is simply a user who has logged in within a 60 day period.

That's the thing... how exactly does Blizzard count, and for how long, the players in Asia (mainly China) who pay hourly?

bottom line:

The company reported an operating profit of $371 million, up 175% from a year ago.

Originally posted by angzt

9.100.000users x 13€ = 118.300.000€ per month...

 

poor bastards ^^

Good that blizzard hasnt to pay any taxes for their sales...

Originally posted by Praetalus
Bottom line... There is still a shit load of players. Never understood why some of you care so much about blizzards financials. Wait til mop hits and everyone goes back lol. Happens every time. 

Not everyone. Since WOW maxed out at 12 million subs, they've only been going down. I can't speak for others, I myself do not care much for Blizzard's finances, but as a company who's game (wow) I played for several years, i guess I do like to stay in touch.

As for MoP, you are right, it will be interesting how WOW does with it's newest expansion. Some call for feast or famine, I call for me of a continual steady decline; having said that, I do believe that MoP will be the worst selling wow expansion since Vanila.

I'm amazed that this game still has that many subscribers. I mean it's going on it's 8th anniversary this november....

There will never be another game like this in the mmorpg market that's for sure.

Originally posted by sammandar

how exactly does Blizzard count, and for how long, the players in Asia (mainly China) who pay hourly?

no idea - from Blizzard press release

http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/company/press/pressreleases.html?id=2443926

 Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers.

This game is dying. Guild Wars 2 is going to beat them in subscriptions. etc. etc.

Originally posted by Mari2k

Originally posted by angzt

9.100.000users x 13€ = 118.300.000€ per month...

 

poor bastards ^^

Good that blizzard hasnt to pay any taxes for their sales...

I'm assuming (hope) you were being sarcastic right? lol

Originally posted by DiSpLiFF

I'm amazed that this game still has that many subscribers. I mean it's going on it's 8th anniversary this november....

There will never be another game like this in the mmorpg market that's for sure.

I'm sure that's what EQ players said.

Originally posted by AzurePrower

This game is dying. Guild Wars 2 is going to beat them in subscriptions. etc. etc.

Well, GW2 has no subs (as in P2P), so there would be no way to compare the two. The only way to compare them would be to match up both games' active playerbase.

They are losing subs because they are lazy and complacent. I remember when they announced 4mil subs and 5 mil subs and so on. In those days, content was actually being put out for the players. In the 2 years leading up to BC, they released, what 12 content patches? Not all were "huge", I understand. But these days of releasing bigger patches less often is not working, especially for the locusts.

/two cents