Significant Decrease in World of Warcraft Subscribers

By Matthew Bennett, Associate Editor
Posted on November 9, 2011 AT 05:56am

THE BUZZ: Actvision announced a massive increase in profits over their third quarter ending September 20, however the ”lone blemish on the quarter was a significant decline in World of Warcraft subscribers.”

“In its Q3:F11 earnings conference call Activision Blizzard reported that worldwide active subscribers to World of Warcraft finished the September quarter at 10.3MM, a decrease of 800K during the quarter,” said Doug Creutz, an analyst at Cowen and Company, in a recent research note. ”They further specified that a majority of the decline in active accounts was ‘coming from the East’, i.e. mostly from China.”

Blizzard recently announced a fourth expansion pack for the game known as Mists of Pandaria.

EGM’s TAKE: The drop in subscribers is understandable with new MMOs such as Rift and The Old Republic entering the arena. It seems World of Warcraft’s monopoly is slowly fading.

Do you still play WoW? Leave a comment below.

Matthew Bennett has only been covering the gaming world for a short while, but he’s eager to make his mark. An ability to go many hours without sleep and a quick wit make him ideal for his role as associate editor at EGMNOW.com. He often thinks back to the days when the very idea of this career seemed like nothing but an impossible dream. Follow him on Twitter @mattyjb89. Meet the rest of the crew.

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