Actually, World of Warcraft currently has a lot to offer. Nevertheless, one of the most important endgame contents is at a low point. Players suspect this is due to Diablo 4, but also find other reasons for the waning interest.
What about WoW?
- Since May 3rd, the latest Patch 10.1 “Neltharion’s Fate” with many new contents is live. On May 10th, Season 2 also started with new dungeons for Mythic+.
- The innovations seem to be paying off. MyMMO demon Cortyn says, World of Warcraft hasn’t felt this good in years.
- Nevertheless, the numbers of Mythic+ dungeon completions are allegedly dropping, with which many active players would normally improve their gear. A graph shows: less than one million dungeons are completed per week (via Reddit):
Is WoW really losing players? The graph shows that the number of completed dungeons drops significantly around week 3 of Season 2 and then remains at a low level. This also happened according to statistics in Season 1, but to a much lesser extent.
The creator obtained the numbers according to a previous comment directly from Blizzard’s APIs.
Players in the respective thread are nonetheless sure that this could very well be true. They say they also have less fun in the dungeons now. And a major factor for this is primarily a new game: Diablo 4.
Diablo, Zelda, Final Fantasy, and problems lead to less interest
The third week of the season coincides exactly with the release of Diablo 4. According to the graph, the strongest decline can be observed here. In hundreds of comments, players agree that Diablo 4 has either caused their friends or them to take a break from WoW.
Diablo 4 is incredibly well received, even if after the first weeks initial criticism emerges, especially regarding endgame content. The first major patch has already brought improvements, and Season 1 is also just around the corner:
However, the community argues that it is not solely Diablo 4 that is to blame for the waning interest in WoW or at least in Mythic+ dungeon runs. Several factors come together:
- with Season 2, healers were heavily nerfed, which causes a lot of frustration. Healers are less inclined to play; all others have to wait longer for a healer.
- the dungeons are quite “unbalanced” and partly too exhausting to play
- it’s summer, and traditionally, video games could simply engage and retain players less
- besides Diablo 4, games like Final Fantasy 16 and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have also been released around the same time, demanding players’ time
Moreover, players all seem to be somewhat tense. No one is really having fun in the dungeons anymore; everyone is constantly stressed, and it occurs more often that the group disbands than that one finishes a key.
However, fans are confident that this state will not remain forever. Once Diablo, Zelda, and Final Fantasy lose their appeal, and summer ends, players will return. Besides, a new content patch is coming to WoW soon with the first support specialization ever:
WoW: Patch 10.1.5 is huge, bringing mega-dungeon, new caller specialization, and mage rework
