GDC: See How WoW Subscriber Numbers Performed Since Legion Expansion

WoW subscriber numbers after Legion

During a Games Developer Conference (GDC), Senior Vice President and Warcraft Franchise General Manager John Hight took to the stage to share the WoW subscriber numbers from the Legion to Dragonflight expansions.

The presentation from Hight showed that with each expansion released, subscriber counts spiked for WoW before inevitably dropping again until the following expansion. Most notably, though, it also highlighted a significant drop in players after World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth and WoW: Shadowlands.

The Shadowlands drop in subscribers is ongoing as players have not returned in the numbers expected with Dragonflight, showing that many are possibly feeling fatigued from the game or a lack of interest in the current direction of the fantasy MMO.

In many ways, the drop in subscribers for WoW is probably expected. Many of the older players will always go back to playing the game they loved, but with everything done and seen, many will stop playing until new content. Newer players may be put off by an MMO that is decades old at this point, and others will not want to play a game that requires a subscription, particularly when free-to-play models grow more popular due to the cost of living crisis.

Blizzard did see growth with the release of World of Warcraft Classic, but in the long term, pay-to-play in MMOs is not the way forward. What could help WoW subscriber numbers grow exponentially, even if it is short term, is if Microsoft were to make it available on the Xbox Game Pass. That could again put the game back as the undisputed MMO champion.

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