Putting World of Warcraft expansions to one side, it has been nearly 5 years now since Blizzard Entertainment released anything new. Well, unless you include Warcraft 3 Reforged (which I wouldn’t since it was technically an outsourced remaster). Yes, by and large, the last game they officially created and released was Overwatch. I think we can all agree that while still amazingly popular and still bloody good, the only comparisons you could make to Blizzard in the gaming sense at the moment would be Konami.
Following a report via Eurogamer, however, while Blizzard may have just confirmed that they lost around 2 million players in just the last quarter, I can’t pretend I’m overly shocked!
Blizzard Loses 2 Million Gamers!
As part of their quarterly earnings report, Blizzard has confirmed that their games had 27 million active users over the last quarter. And just in case you are struggling with the maths, that means that when compared to the prior quarter when they had 29 million users, they are basically confirming that 2 million gamers have decided to either give Blizzard a break or to move on entirely!
Why would that happen though? Well, I have more than a few ideas.
What Do We Think?
Blizzard no longer publishes public figures regarding their World of Warcraft subscribers. As such, it’s hard to determine exactly where this huge drop-off has come from. My best guess, though, would probably be WoW Classic. At the same time, though, with their only other major titles currently being Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, and Overwatch, I don’t think it takes a genius to see that, while all excellent titles, all three have continuingly diminishing relevancy. Overall it’s the key reason why their active player count figure has dropped nearly 30% in just the last 3 years!
Put simply, Blizzard needs to start releasing more new games. And while we know that Diablo 2 Remastered, Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 are on the way, they need to get them finished sooner rather than later if this trend continues. A factor that potentially doesn’t bode well for their overall quality.
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
WOW Classic is finished with no more phases, players are bored and played out, Lockdowns are easing and attendance in the office is increasing.
I would bet the lost 2 million subscribers will start to find their way back when TBC drops.
Having said that, I’s be happy with 27 Million people paying me £9 every month.