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Blizzard loses 11M players in 3 years

JCK75

Member
I still play and love Overwatch despite all of it's stupid nonsense wokeness..
it's playerbase IMO has grown it feels like.
I'd say about 4-5 months ago if you encounted someone level 20 or lower it was someone trying to smurf
today you will find about 4-5 people of that level in a game and it quickly becomes painfully obvious they actually are that new.
 

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
This seems the appropriate thread for my post: I decided to revisit Hearthstone after not playing it for a year or so. It has descended into a wasteland of pay to win card decks to a point that it's really not even recognizable to the game it once was. People now merely purchase decks that completely, utterly nullify regular decks (I.E. those earned from gameplay and not paying $500+ dollars).

It's so sad how far Blizzard has fallen. They're now just like any other free to play slot machine peddler.
 
New patch for WoW looks like ass, complete disaster for Blizzard. Mass exodus to FF14 and just other games in general.

Yup Thats Right GIF by Katelyn Tarver
 
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Heimdall_Xtreme

Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member

anthony2690

Banned
I'm going to imagine overwatch is the main reason.

People that were playing it have most likely moved onto other big shooter games now.

Overwatch was huge at one point for quite a long time too.
 

Freeman76

Member
The latest expansion is the only one since WoW released that I havent bothered with. Its finally run its course for me, wonder how many others are the same....
 

Varteras

Gold Member
I'm going to imagine overwatch is the main reason.

People that were playing it have most likely moved onto other big shooter games now.

Overwatch was huge at one point for quite a long time too.
It's a problem across all of their games at this point. Starcraft 2 is no longer receiving updates and word is that the execs have refused to greenlight a proper sequel multiple times. One of the reasons why some left to form Frost Giant Studio to make RTS games. Apparently there was a spin-off game in the works that got cancelled, too.

Heroes of the Storm had its e-sports league abandoned by the company unceremoniously and the updates have now occurred at a snail's pace. I believe the last time they added a new character was 6 or 7 months ago.

Diablo 3 is already 9 years old and has largely relied on grindy updates of the same old content to keep it relevant. We have no idea when to expect Diablo 4 as updates on that game have been few and far between. Diablo Immortal is a topic I don't even think I need to touch.

Warcraft 3 Reforged was a joke to many people and World of Warcraft has just been failing. Its most recent expansion, Shadowlands, looked like it was going to get the game back on track but it has just gone through the absolute longest period of lacking a content update. The new systems they've added have been a balancing mess and largely boring. The content on offer at launch got stale quickly. Not helping the matter were the stumbles they took into the release of The Burning Crusade Classic. WoW was already on a decline since Cataclysm in 2010 but that was greatly accelerated by poor expansion offerings with Warlords of Draenor, Battle for Azeroth, and now it's looking like Shadowlands could be the next one as well. That would be three of the last four expansions.

Some have accused Hearthstone of turning into a Pay-2-Win game anymore.

Overwatch has basically been set aside for development on its sequel which has apparently been rough. Now its director, Jeff Kaplan, left the company. That alone was another huge sign that something is wrong at the Blizzard offices. That guy was a big face and core leader of the company who clearly loved what he did and his community.

It really is at a point where people should accept that the old Blizzard is dead and what remains is just a shambling corpse. The only reason they continue to have any significant amount of player engagement is due to a lot of attachment to these franchises. I personally have made friends in WoW and we keep playing regardless of how shit we feel it has become because we've already invested so much time into it and it brought us together.

If someone is looking for that old Blizzard magic, the best chance they have with that is looking to those companies the talent moved to. Dreamhaven is one example and probably anyone's best bet of seeing the soul of Blizzard reborn.
 

Kenpachii

Member
It's a problem across all of their games at this point. Starcraft 2 is no longer receiving updates and word is that the execs have refused to greenlight a proper sequel multiple times. One of the reasons why some left to form Frost Giant Studio to make RTS games. Apparently there was a spin-off game in the works that got cancelled, too.

Heroes of the Storm had its e-sports league abandoned by the company unceremoniously and the updates have now occurred at a snail's pace. I believe the last time they added a new character was 6 or 7 months ago.

Diablo 3 is already 9 years old and has largely relied on grindy updates of the same old content to keep it relevant. We have no idea when to expect Diablo 4 as updates on that game have been few and far between. Diablo Immortal is a topic I don't even think I need to touch.

Warcraft 3 Reforged was a joke to many people and World of Warcraft has just been failing. Its most recent expansion, Shadowlands, looked like it was going to get the game back on track but it has just gone through the absolute longest period of lacking a content update. The new systems they've added have been a balancing mess and largely boring. The content on offer at launch got stale quickly. Not helping the matter were the stumbles they took into the release of The Burning Crusade Classic. WoW was already on a decline since Cataclysm in 2010 but that was greatly accelerated by poor expansion offerings with Warlords of Draenor, Battle for Azeroth, and now it's looking like Shadowlands could be the next one as well. That would be three of the last four expansions.

Some have accused Hearthstone of turning into a Pay-2-Win game anymore.

Overwatch has basically been set aside for development on its sequel which has apparently been rough. Now its director, Jeff Kaplan, left the company. That alone was another huge sign that something is wrong at the Blizzard offices. That guy was a big face and core leader of the company who clearly loved what he did and his community.

It really is at a point where people should accept that the old Blizzard is dead and what remains is just a shambling corpse. The only reason they continue to have any significant amount of player engagement is due to a lot of attachment to these franchises. I personally have made friends in WoW and we keep playing regardless of how shit we feel it has become because we've already invested so much time into it and it brought us together.

If someone is looking for that old Blizzard magic, the best chance they have with that is looking to those companies the talent moved to. Dreamhaven is one example and probably anyone's best bet of seeing the soul of Blizzard reborn.

Perfectly summoned it up.
 

Shubh_C63

Member
It would be more, but WoW players have a sort of collective Stockholm syndrome.

There is no bigger fan base on the planet that will endlessly whine about how shit a game is while paying monthly to play it than WoW fans.
So true.
Games are targeting our brains more and more. All these Warframes and Destiny have a running joke of nobody liking the game but being addicted to it, including me.

It's a problem across all of their games at this point. Starcraft 2 is no longer receiving updates and word is that the execs have refused to greenlight a proper sequel multiple times. One of the reasons why some left to form Frost Giant Studio to make RTS games. Apparently there was a spin-off game in the works that got cancelled, too.
I am trying not to play devils advocate but just my two cents.

SC2 is dead. Korea GSL hardly anyone comes to watch. A Proper sequel to an RTS where they have to shift all the Multiplayer meta would had set them back even further in transitioning people from SC2 to SC3. hell they couldn't do it from Broodwar to SC2. ASL is still so strong and more people come to watch and enjoy it.
If I was the CEO I couldn't justify infusing more money on this game or in a new entry in traditional mineral gathering RTS genre.

Heroes of the Storm had its e-sports league abandoned by the company unceremoniously and the updates have now occurred at a snail's pace. I believe the last time they added a new character was 6 or 7 months ago.
I really see no point in chasing Moba tourney anymore against GIANTS like Dota2 and LoL. That ship has sailed, industry cannot maintain high skill level player on more than 2-3 moba games to justify tournaments. And I have seen videos where they are making HotS just a casual fun game rather than a competitive one which to me was the right choice.

Diablo 3 is already 9 years old and has largely relied on grindy updates of the same old content to keep it relevant. We have no idea when to expect Diablo 4 as updates on that game have been few and far between. Diablo Immortal is a topic I don't even think I need to touch.
I have no idea why people are pissed about Diablo Immortal other than...extremely bad timing. D3 was meh, D4 looks amazing.
After Diablo-3 they greenlit 2 Diablo projects. My brain says its a win.

Warcraft 3 Reforged was a joke to many people and World of Warcraft has just been failing.
No defending that Wc3 Reforged crap. I am still pissed.

Overwatch has basically been set aside for development on its sequel which has apparently been rough.
Diablo-4 and Immortal is going to be a success but Overwatch 2 is going to make or break this company future.
OW2 seems to have potential to rival all other GaaS products that are going to come seeing the Ubisoft and Sony shift.
Or OW2 is just new skins and voice line for winston.


I guess what my problem with Blizzard is they're not greenlighting new IPs if their existing tentpoles like WC, SC are dead in the waters. HotS is just me too.
As a company you're relying on Diablo and WoW for how long?, and Overwatch.
 
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Varteras

Gold Member
So true.
Games are targeting our brains more and more. All these Warframes and Destiny have a running joke of nobody liking the game but being addicted to it, including me.


I am trying not to play devils advocate but just my two cents.

SC2 is dead. Korea GSL hardly anyone comes to watch. A Proper sequel to an RTS where they have to shift all the Multiplayer meta would had set them back even further in transitioning people from SC2 to SC3. hell they couldn't do it from Broodwar to SC2. ASL is still so strong and more people come to watch and enjoy it.
If I was the CEO I couldn't justify infusing more money on this game or in a new entry in traditional mineral gathering RTS genre.


I really see no point in chasing Moba tourney anymore against GIANTS like Dota2 and LoL. That ship has sailed, industry cannot maintain high skill level player on more than 2-3 moba games to justify tournaments. And I have seen videos where they are making HotS just a casual fun game rather than a competitive one which to me was the right choice.


I have no idea why people are pissed about Diablo Immortal other than...extremely bad timing. D3 was meh, D4 looks amazing.
After Diablo-3 they greenlit 2 Diablo projects. My brain says its a win.


No defending that Wc3 Reforged crap. I am still pissed.


Diablo-4 and Immortal is going to be a success but Overwatch 2 is going to make or break this company future.
OW2 seems to have potential to rival all other GaaS products that are going to come seeing the Ubisoft and Sony shift.
Or OW2 is just new skins and voice line for winston.


I guess what my problem with Blizzard is they're not greenlighting new IPs if their existing tentpoles like WC, SC are dead in the waters. HotS is just me too.
As a company you're relying on Diablo and WoW for how long?, and Overwatch.
The problem people have is that old Blizzard wouldn't have cared that tournament scenes weren't there or that there were challenges. They would have respected the fact that they have plenty of people who love Starcraft and would love a sequel. That is an issue that Mike Morhaime more or less addressed in his statement about what Dreamhaven would be. A company that values making the games they want over short-term financial gains. Something that Activision Blizzard is all about these days. Even IGN wrote an article where current and former employees said the culture there has changed to one where pennies are pinched over implementing fun ideas that might make not make much money. At least not immediately or apparently.

The Heroes of the Storm situation was more about how shitty it was that Blizzard did not properly communicate their intent at all. They literally waited until the last second to tell everyone, including the tournament organizers and competitive teams, that they weren't supporting the scene anymore. They blindsided them all. This was followed up by Blizzard dragging content updates to a crawl.

With Diablo, the issue is how long Diablo 3 was around before something new came out. Diablo 4 might end up being amazing but we really don't know enough about that to confidently state that it will be and we've already seen how Blizzard can muck things up. Like Heroes of the Storm, Diablo Immortal is more about the bad image it gave Blizzard for how they handled it. People can and often do make purchasing decisions on impressions and Blizzard has been punching itself in the dick in that regard.

I have serious doubts that Overwatch 2 will revive interest in the franchise long-term. Its development has already been reportedly slow and they lost its director. I just can't help but feel it was a flash in the pan and now it's out of the hands of the guy who steered it into the direction it went in that made it a success in the first place.
 
So they lost 11 million players but the revenue is up ? How the fucks thats possible
The mtx must be through the roof isn't it a win for them ? Fewer player base and more revenue ?
 

Kenpachii

Member
So they lost 11 million players but the revenue is up ? How the fucks thats possible
The mtx must be through the roof isn't it a win for them ? Fewer player base and more revenue ?

Whales pretty much everybody i saw bought the deluxe 70 buck edition for TBC after any reviewer slammed it like a massive cash grab.

People spend in wow big time. Not to forget tokens, people drop 100's on those.
 
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jaysius

Banned
Why does Bobby have a job?

His decisions basically seem to be:
- Call of Duty
- Milk Blizzard fans

Unless I'm missing some big brain moves by the CEO literally anyone on this forum could do that same job.
Here is some reality flakes for you, the crazies on all the forums put together are now the minority, gaming belongs to the normies now, they typically don't understand anything as simple as framerate. This is why everything is the way it is. Sorry that your astute business advice is going unheard. This isn't the future of gaming this is the NOW of gaming.
reality can be such a bitch GIF by After The Reality
 

Vagswarm

Member
So they lost 11 million players but the revenue is up ? How the fucks thats possible
The mtx must be through the roof isn't it a win for them ? Fewer player base and more revenue ?
All of those in-game services that are way overpriced (like name changes). You can also buy unique mounts and pets that are only available through the store. When I was deep into WoW, I bought a handful of mounts and pets. Then they also have the expansion exclusive items since the beginning of time that are available to purchase. Who knows what other pay-for services are available for their other games.

This is all revenue. As are boxed / digital sales from the actual games.
 
Why does Bobby have a job?

His decisions basically seem to be:
- Call of Duty
- Milk Blizzard fans

Unless I'm missing some big brain moves by the CEO literally anyone on this forum could do that same job.
Doesnt he own a beefy amount of shares. Since he basically saved the company.
 
Well, they'd have lost even more if they'd not releases Classic. Roughly 1.75 million people are playing Classic (TBC) currently and almost all those probably wouldn't do Retail if given the choice.

It all boils down to lack of new IP's not being developed and sequels to existing products either not being released or even developed at all. WoW's dev team is so horrible about creating content and that even people who used to believe their lies of "It's because of CoViD!" are now starting to call them out on it when they realize there's just no "push" from them to create.

So people are leaving because they're bored. You figure that Acti-Blizz would've gone on a mass hiring spree the moment they realized that WoW wasn't going to make them a billion dollars a year anymore.
 
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Valt7786

Member
Doesn't help there's been what...8-9 months now with no new content since Shadowlands launched? The content it did launch with was shit as well. Torghast and The Maw were fucking terrible, levelling alts is just a complete slog and not fun to do.
And now the new patch is only just about to come out and its full of the SHITTIEST ideas I've ever seen them come up with. The "publically viewed mythic dungeon ranking" is the last straw for me personally. Just something else they've added to continue the toxic nature of its community now.
WoW began to die when they started merging servers and added LFG raids.
 

Tg89

Member
Well, WoW has been on a decline since Wrath. SCII was an okay attempt but somewhat mishandled and a dying genre. Overwatch/HotS = zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Diablo:RoS was solid but no where near as good/having the longevity of 2.
 

CitizenZ

Banned
5 million paying $15 mo, i think they will be fine for a veryyyyyyyyyyyyy long time.
 
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Arsic

Member
Overwatch numbers fell.
WoW numbers fell.
Heroes of the storm nose divided.
Diablo 3 was never big.
Starcraft 2 was murdered.
Warcraft 3 is worse off.
Hearthstone seems the same ?

Yeah I mean they ran everything into the ground except Hearth it looks like.
 
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lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
Overwatch numbers fell.
WoW numbers fell.
Heroes of the storm nose divided.
Diablo 3 was never big.
Starcraft 2 was murdered.
Warcraft 3 is worse off.
Hearthstone seems the same ?

Yeah I mean they ran everything into the ground except Hearth it looks like.
D3 past 30 mil on sales lifetime as at 2015.
I personally thinks that SC2 and WC3 is pretty good.
 

Arsic

Member
D3 past 30 mil on sales lifetime as at 2015.
I personally thinks that SC2 and WC3 is pretty good.
I'm not talking Sales or overall quality of game, nor is OP. It's abkut player bases going down.

SC2 heyday came and went.

Wc3 Reforged lessened active players.

D3 gets a boost during the new seasons for a week then goes back to the usual player count.

Not reflective of how good the games are just the state of Blizzard support or lack thereof has killed off player base.
 
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V4skunk

Banned
Well, WoW has been on a decline since Wrath. SCII was an okay attempt but somewhat mishandled and a dying genre. Overwatch/HotS = zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Diablo:RoS was solid but no where near as good/having the longevity of 2.
RTS isn't dying the problem is that bigger devs are not interested in investing money into RTS when they know they can make a cinematic cookie cutter 3rd person open world action game and make bank.
Aoe2 DE and COH2 are big on Steam.
Aoe4 should be good and get huge sales and I'm 100% sure if EA revived C&C for pc and Blizzard made SC3, these games would sell millions easily.
 

treemk

Banned
People spend in wow big time. Not to forget tokens, people drop 100's on those.

WoW quietly went pay to win with tokens. You can do anything with enough gold, arena rating, mythic raids, m+ dungeons. The lfg chat is entirely people selling stuff now and is probably the biggest thing that is killing the game.
 

Kenpachii

Member
WoW quietly went pay to win with tokens. You can do anything with enough gold, arena rating, mythic raids, m+ dungeons. The lfg chat is entirely people selling stuff now and is probably the biggest thing that is killing the game.

I returned in legion, had a blast. liked that u could farm gold for tokens on the auction house so u can extend your playtime. However the entire game started to become a token fest when people even for raids archievements where asking to be paid in tokesn so they could boost you, so u had the archievement and could actually raid with random groups as u alll had to link the archievement.

Then they add tokens to other blizzard games and the price of a token went through the roof to the point it was just not farmable anymore in a few hours. Quited the game never came back.

But yea, wow is straight up pay to win at this point.
 
I'm honestly surprised people still play wow. It's so outdated. Class/job system, inventory management, fast traveling, and quest design is a lot nicer in other games. Plus it looks its age. Time to stop milking the cow and start... feeding it? idk
 

Hari Seldon

Member
I'm coming back for D2 but yeah I gotta make sure I boot up the launcher in advance as I surely have gigabytes of updates on that fucker with how infrequently I boot it up.
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
All I know is that last summer, on a lark, I booted up Black Ops multi-player on the PS3 and got a game immediately.
 
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