WoW Classic is causing a surge for the Warcraft franchise. Especially the Chinese have received an extremely high number of realms.
World of Warcraft is currently doing splendidly. One doesn’t just have to look at the many headlines about queues in WoW Classic, usually a glance at the friends list on Battle.net suffices. Numerous players, who have not been online for years, are currently plunging back into Azeroth for a second time and reliving their “Vanilla” world just like it was almost 15 years ago. The Chinese, in particular, seem to be crazy about WoW, as they have received an extremely high number of realms.
This also brings Blizzard substantial earnings from additional subscription revenue. At least that’s what Superdata Research claims. According to them, WoW has risen from 7th to 3rd place in revenue.
What is being said? SuperData Research publishes analyses on the gaming market every few months. The analysts estimate the earnings of various games based on different factors. It is assumed that in August, the revenue from WoW subscriptions increased by a whopping 223% compared to July.
However, that does not mean that the player count has increased by this value. If a player, for example, subscribes for 3 or even 6 months, then they carry a proportionally greater weight in this calculation.
Data should be taken with caution: However, one should always view SuperData’s statements with skepticism. After all, the data does not officially come from Blizzard Activision, which tends to keep a low profile on such statements. For years no official subscription numbers have been released anymore.
Furthermore, WoW has long not only been earning its money through subscriptions but also through additional services in the shop, such as purchasable mounts, pets, or character services.
The hype is even greater in China: Something that has slipped out of the European and American perspective is how successful World of Warcraft Classic is in China. While Europe and America together have a little over 80 realms, there are a proud 65 realms solely in China, all of which have at least a medium occupancy.
Also interesting: Only 5 of the realms are PvE realms (one of them RP), all others are PvP realms (one of them RP-PvP). Apparently, players in China love PvP and enjoy competing with other players in battles.
The hype even led to a DDoS attacker – a suspect has been arrested.
Can the hype remain? Regardless of the accuracy of Superdata’s data, it seems beyond question that WoW Classic has given the franchise a notable boost that is still ongoing. How long players will stay remains to be seen in the coming weeks, when the first 1-month subscriptions of returnees expire. How many will extend their subscriptions again is yet to be determined.
Do you believe the data from SuperData? Does the estimate correspond with the presence of old friends in WoW Classic? Or is that massively overstated?
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