For more than 14 years, the record of more than twelve million subscribers to World of Warcraft stood over Blizzard and the entire MMORPG genre. Now there are signs that WoW is being played by even more people for the first time.
Where do these signs come from? Kihra, the person behind websites like warcraftlogs.com, fflogs.com, and esologs.com, has suggested on X that there are currently more players than ever playing World of Warcraft. She bases her assumption on the following data:
- Currently, the number of Chinese players in WoW: Wrath of the Lich King Classic alone corresponds to the highest player numbers of Retail WoW measured since the founding of warcraftlogs.com.
- On September 9, 2024, there were about Ulduar-logs for 11 million different characters.
- These numbers, of course, also need to include WoW: The War Within, the Season of Discoveries, WoW Classic Hardcore, and WoW Cataclysm Classic.
Concrete numbers for The War Within will be available in the coming days when the first Season starts in all regions. Nevertheless, Kihra is confident that the previous player record of more than twelve million players from the last months of 2010 has likely been surpassed.
Does Wrath of the Lich King set a player record again? Here is the Classic trailer:
The Return of China Pays Off
Why are the Chinese playing WotLK Classic? After Blizzard and the Chinese publisher NetEase could not agree on a contract extension, WoW, Overwatch, and more were unplayable in China for 18 months.
The comeback for modern World of Warcraft only occurred on August 1, 2024. The servers for Wrath of the Lich King Classic went online a bit earlier, allowing Chinese players to catch up on the Northrend adventure during a heavily supported (and shortened) phase and land in Cataclysm Classic in a timely manner. And this version is currently very well received among the Chinese players.
How have player numbers evolved over the years? As is well known, Blizzard officials last revealed official subscriber numbers in 2015. At that time, the count was 5.5 million WoW subscriptions worldwide. The peak occurred, as previously mentioned, at the end of 2010, with just over 12 million subscribers.
At GDC 2024, however, some Blizzard officials showed an interesting slide, on which a graph illustrated the development of player numbers from Legion to Dragonflight. The key takeaways from the graphic:
- The lowest level of subscription numbers might have been about 4 million players in Battle for Azeroth.
- During Shadowlands, the low point was around 4.5 million active players.
- It is assumed that subscription numbers have risen so significantly with the current Season of Discoveries that about 7.25 million players could have been playing WoW in March 2024.
- At the launch of WoW Classic, approximately 8.27 million players likely had a subscription. This aligns with the corresponding financial report (more than twice as many players as at the low point of Battle for Azeroth).
Adding to this the returning community from China starting in August as well as all the players currently trying out The War Within, it seems quite likely that Kihra is correct in her assumption. Or what do you think? More information from the GDC panel: The first time in 9 years there are current updates on WoW’s subscriptions – then the MMORPG was particularly unpopular.
