On Twitter, an addon author published the subscription numbers of World of Warcraft. But are these numbers accurate?
For several years now, Blizzard has not released any data on how many active subscribers World of Warcraft actually has. Instead, they always list achievements in the “Earning Calls”, such as the fact that World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth sold 3.4 million copies by the launch day alone.
What happened? According to the Twitter account of WeakAuras, a very popular addon for WoW, Blizzard has released a new API that various users could interact with. Allegedly, savvy users were able to read the expiration date of all subscriptions for World of Warcraft. This led them to the current subscription numbers of WoW.
What does the “leak” say? According to the original information, World of Warcraft had 3.2 million active subscribers at the launch of Battle for Azeroth; now it is supposedly down to 1.7 million, of which 25% are secondary accounts. These figures do not include Chinese players, as they operate under a different subscription model. Generally, player numbers are a big secret in MMOs. The number roughly matches the sales of Battle for Azeroth up to launch (3.4 million).
For comparison: With “Warlords of Draenor”, WoW still had 5.5 million active players (including China).
Where did the information come from? The information was then spread by the Twitter channel of the addon “WeakAuras”. However, it is also emphasized there that the data should be treated with caution, as it could simply be “bullshit”.
How trustworthy is the information? In any case, the data should be viewed skeptically. Since the original source has been deleted, either because Blizzard intervened or because it was simply nonsense. Thus, the veracity cannot be verified in any way.
Whether the statements are trustworthy must be decided by each individual for themselves. An official statement from Blizzard will likely not be forthcoming. However, one should not treat the information as fact in any case.
Update October 15, 2018: Blizzard has since responded and revealed that the numbers are incorrect. It is therefore a fake.
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