--- description: Blizzard's indefatigable fantasy MMO picks up players as both its 10th anniversary and next expansion loom. title: World of Warcraft Enjoys Over Half a Million Subscriber Bounce image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # World of Warcraft Enjoys Over Half a Million Subscriber Bounce by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 15, 2014 1:46 PM CUT by [Matt Peckham](/author/matt-peckham/) ## Matt Peckham Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 15, 2014 1:46 PM CUT _World of Warcraft_‘s next expansion, _Warlords of Draenor_, trundles onstage November 13\. And so Blizzard’s tireless fantasy MMO, slow-bleeding subscriptions for years, is experiencing a kind of bounce — to the tune of about 600,000 subscriptions. The new worldwide subscriber tally: in the vicinity of 7.4 million. Blizzard hasn’t announced or confirmed the 600,000 figure; it’s the implicit takeaway subtracting one press release from another. In early August, Activision Blizzard [revealed](http://time.com/3086189/world-warcraft-subscribers/ "undefined") _World of Warcraft_‘s subscription base had fallen to 6.8 million, down 800,000 from the prior quarter, when it stood at 7.6 million. The last time the game’s base was that low, the housing bubble hadn’t popped, _The Sopranos_ was still on the air and [the Governator](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold%5FSchwarzenegger "undefined") was only midway through his California reign. Yesterday, Blizzard slipped the 7.4 million figure into [a press release](http://blizzard.gamespress.com/THE-INVASION-OF-THE-IRON-HORDE-HAS-BEGUN-WARLORDS-OF-DRAENOR-PRELAUNCH "undefined") about a _Warlords of Draenor_ prelaunch patch. That number is current as of September 30, 2014. At its height, _World of Warcraft_ commanded 12 million subscribers. That was October 2010\. Someone’s been plotting all these press release points [on a Statista chart](http://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-of-warcraft-subscribers-by-quarter/ "undefined") if you want to see the broad sweeps. The actual chart probably looks more like one of those chaotically scribbled volume-trading maps, with subscriber activity trending gradually down, marked by periods of noisy, frenetic re-acclimation. A subscription surge was inevitable. It’s happened every time the company releases an expansion. _Warlords of Draenor_, which follows _Mists of Pandaria_‘s release two years ago, is Blizzard’s fifth expansion for the game. Its raises the level cap from 90 to 100, shines up the graphics, plugs in the customary new dungeons and raids, and for its new feature trick, gloms on user-created garrisons whereby players can recruit in-game characters to automate loot-gathering busywork. _World of Warcraft_ celebrates its 10th anniversary on November 23 (brace for the glut of press paeans). It’s one of the longest-running MMOs of all time, and it’s the most broadly played subscription-based MMO by any measure. Plenty of MMOs have lived longer–I believe _Furcadia_, which launched in 1996, currently holds the record–but the nearest rivals (like _EVE Online_, which launched in 2003) have only fractional populations. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3509965/world-of-warcraft/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3509965/world-of-warcraft/"},"headline":"World of Warcraft Enjoys Over Half a Million Subscriber Bounce","datePublished":"2014-10-15T13:46:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:03:24.615Z","description":"Blizzard's indefatigable fantasy MMO picks up players as both its 10th anniversary and next expansion loom.","url":"https://time.com/3509965/world-of-warcraft/","keywords":["Tech","Video Games","Blizzard"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Peckham","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/matt-peckham/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3509965/world-of-warcraft/","name":"World of Warcraft Enjoys Over Half a Million Subscriber Bounce"}}]}] ```