Activision Blizzard’s latest financial call revealed a continual decline in World of Warcraft subscriptions.
Back in February the subscription numbers for Blizzard’s MMO were looking a little healthier at 9.6 million but since then the numbers have fallen again to 8.3 million. Despite the drop in subscriptions, WoW is still sitting atop the MMO pile but Blizzard may be a little concerned as they confirmed that numbers were falling on both the western and asian markets.
Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime stated in the call they were expecting a further drop in numbers and promised more resources for the MMO which is a comment he’s made in previous financial calls.
According to the financial call bullet points, Blizzard had two top-10 PC titles in both North America and Europe with StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm and Diablo III. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm sold 1.1 million copies to date.
If you’re really interested in what they were pleased about in the past quarter, here’s the bullets from the call.
- As of March 31, 2013, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft remains the #1 subscription-based MMORPG, with 8.3 million subscribers.
- For the first quarter, Blizzard Entertainment had two top-10 PC titles in both North America and Europe with Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm and Diablo III.
- As of March 31, 2013, in North America and Europe combined, Activision Publishing was the #1 publisher overall for the quarter, including accessory packs and figures, with the #1 and #2 best-selling franchises – Skylanders and Call of Duty.³
- In both North America and Europe, including accessory packs and figures, Activision Publishing’s Skylanders Giants™ was the #1 best-selling game overall in dollars for the first quarter of 2013.³
- For the quarter, in North America and Europe combined, Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty: Black Ops II was the #2 best-selling title in dollars.
- During the quarter, non-GAAP digital revenues from Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty franchise increased more than 100% year over year.
- On May 1, 2013, Activision Publishing announced that it will release its new Call of Duty game, Call of Duty: Ghosts, on November 5, 2013.
- On April 29, 2013, Blizzard Entertainment announced that it will release Diablo III for the Sony PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system later this year. As announced previously, Blizzard also plans to adapt the game for the Sony PlayStation 4.
- On March 22, 2013, Blizzard Entertainment announced Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, a new cross-platform free-to-play game for Windows, Macintosh, and iPad.
- On March 12, 2013, Blizzard Entertainment launched StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. As of the end of its first two days of sales, Heart of the Swarm had sold through approximately 1.1 million copies worldwide, including both retail and digital sales.
- On February 5, 2013, Activision Publishing announced Skylanders SWAP Force, the newest installment in the popular Skylanders franchise.
