Blizzard has seen World of
Warcraft subscriber numbers slide by millions in the past three
months, as players of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game leave
in their droves following the launch of the Warlords
of Draenor expansion.
The current number of subscribers now sits at a pretty hefty
7.1 million, but this is down 3 million from the 10 million achieved earlier
this year. World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor was clearly a massive hit when
it arrived, shifting 3.3 million copies in just 24 hours, but it’s struggled to
retain this player-base. Luckily Blizzard still has plenty of players there to
keep its coffers full, aided by the news more than 30 million players worldwide
are active in collectible card game Hearthstone:
Heroes of Warcraft.
"World of Warcraft's revenue performance at constant
FX has been more stable, driven by continued strong uptake on value added
services, and price increases in select regions, which partially offset
subscriber declines, particularly in the East," Blizzard wrote.
"World of Warcraft remains the No. 1 subscription-based MMORPG in the
world.”
It seems churlish to note WoW dropping to 7.1 million
monthly subscribers now, more than a decade after its launch, but the fear is
World of Warcraft’s appeal is drying up. Blizzard’s next plan is to release
expansion packs at a faster rate in order to keep players hooked in.
Onwards and upwards to that Hearthstone news though, which
has seen the F2P CCG amass 30 million players since its launch last year.
That’s not the only pie Blizzard’s got its fingers in either, the Diablo 3 beta
launched recently and already more than three million new players have signed
up.
Looking forward Blizzard’s got plenty more to keep fans
happy, with theHearthstone:
Blackrock Mountain expansion, the imminent Heroes of the
Storm launch, StarCraft 2’s Legacy
of the Void expansion pack, and of course Overwatch coming
soon.
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