The Daily Grind: How much do you care about subscription numbers as a consumer?

by Seraphina Brennan Nov 8th 2009 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind

We've all heard that infamous World of Warcraft line -- "12 million people can't be wrong." People say it whenever a person doubts that World of Warcraft is the "omgbestestgameevar!11" but how much weight does that line actually hold?

Specifically, what we want to know here at Massively is how much do you pay attention to a game's perceived subscription numbers? Do you avoid games that don't seem to be doing so well? Or are you the type of person who just pulls the game off of the shelf due to content and content alone? Does a game have to have some huge number of subscribers to be successful in your eyes?

You know the drill. Words go in the comment box below. Typing is super effective!

Tags: crowd, opinion, subscription-numbers, the-daily-grind

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Hordur Vilbergq said on 8:13AM 11-08-2009

I quit wow because I didn't like it anymore, doesnt matter how many people there are when you only have a few thousand in your realm.

I played warhammer for the better part of a year, despite all its troubles, and right now I have an active subscription for it (but dont really play it ... lack of PvE in end game got the best of me)

I quit aion because of the grind (obviously).. no amount of subscribers is going to make me go back there anytime soon.

Right now I'm happily progressing through the ranks in Runes of Magic.. they seem to be doing alot for the games end-game.
Too bad it takes forever to get both classes to 55.

Oh and I've also got my EVE Online account.. after 5 years I've finally gotten the hang of it. I love how many people there are on the shard in eve.
I also live like 5km from CCP Iceland headquarters so I like the idea of supporting them.

Yeomanly said on 8:14AM 11-08-2009

Subscription numbers can give you an indication of a solid game that has some addictive gameplay, does not mean that game will suit eveybody though.

World of Warcraft was very lucky to hit the market just as the Internet boom happened and most homes started to dabble in the WWW, no longer did the geeks on thier 56k's own the waves but now kids and mums were playing.

If subscription/sales numbers counted we would all be playing The Sims ;)

jswissler said on 9:02AM 11-08-2009

2004, internet boom? Really?

Not even close...

JP said on 9:33AM 11-08-2009

I'd agree that WoW's timing coinsided w/ the acceptance of high speed internet by nearly everyone. But the internet blew up in like... 95?

UltimateQ said on 10:08AM 11-08-2009

It's true. Few people were interested in playing their games online because of their slow 56k internet connections. The fact that Everquest, launched in 99, managed to pull the number's it did, when online gaming and especially MMOs were still in their infancy; is nothing short of amazing.

2003-2005 is when the broadband became widely available. I didn't get my cable internet connection until some late 2003. I remember when my cable company announced they were installing the proper lines in our area to run broadband, I counted the days.

dave313 said on 8:14AM 11-08-2009

I think it is somewhat important, as it can indicate how much long term support and additional content there will be for the game. MMOs have a life of their own, but if you know the game you are playing is being played by many others, you know it will go on. Terminally ill games that have few players will end up going away. That is frustrating when you invest the time over months/years then poof....gotta go somewhere else and do it all over again. Having confidence that the game will endure is important.

Koko said on 8:17AM 11-08-2009

To me, the subscriber number means nothing in most cases. I don't care if 12 million people play WoW, I am not going to interact with those 12 million people at the same time, what's important to me is the number of people per server, in games like WAR, where population is important.
If a game has enough players for me to be able to play as I like, it's fine. Right now I gave Champions Online a shot, game in which an instance will hold 100 people. Is that too few? Well it's not like I'm going to need more than 4 to make a party and play. Well, seeing more people around you helps the inmersion into an alive world, but it isn't decisive, I'd say. Most people usually play alone when they wander the world, anyways, and will just see the random bypassers without even noticing (even if these will complain that instanced play is stupid because it takes the "massive" out of MMO).

Ada said on 8:22AM 11-08-2009

I don't care. I just want people to play with on my server. If there was only one server but it was populated enough, I'd be fine with it.

Psychotic Storm said on 8:40AM 11-08-2009

I don't care much or at all, if I enjoy a game I don't care if it is not the most popular game on earth.

Wisdomandlore said on 9:10AM 11-08-2009

I only care about subscription numbers in so far as they indicate how long the game will be playing, and how healthy the servers are.

Xanija said on 9:00AM 11-08-2009

I look at subscription numbers - if they are available anyway - but it's just one piece of a puzzle, when I try to get a picture of a MMO. Huge numbers of subscribers means, it attracts a lot of people, it might have fewer bugs and probably is great fun for those who play it. On the other hand, games with fewer subscriber number often have a better community and more people willing to help new players.

Moar said on 9:03AM 11-08-2009

Basically I agree with what dave said above. Sales numbers don't mean much to me if it's a single player game but with mmog's numbers can mean a lot. How full servers will be, how much continued support you can expect from the developer or even simple things like your chances of running into people irl that play the same game as you. These are all important to me when it comes to the time commitment an mmog is and higher subscriber numbers generally indicate these things.

TheExplorer said on 9:11AM 11-08-2009

after a certain point it doesn't matter. BUT...if subscription levels are too low, and the MMO can't support itself...it does start to matter.

There is one MMORPG I really like (gameplay rise), but even on the newbie island there is a very distinct lack of people...making groups near impossible to find (since its a group based game, and can't do much without one). A double edged sword if the numbers are too low...people don't play because they can't find anyone to group with and decide not to subscribe...which doesn't help the population either.

Another problem that rises, at least with this MMO, is that since there is so few subscribers...updates are smaller and take a lot longer to produce. Maybe this is just how the company works, but I imagine they don't have as a big of a budget as larger companies (which is sorta obvious).

but like I said, after a while...numbers start to not really matter that much. I don't know the "magic" number, but I want to say past 100k subscribers and the MMO is doing really well. After that, it doesn't really matter how many people are subbed or not. One benefit I see of more subscribers, is the feeling the game is stable and just won't shut down from lack of population.

Scuffles said on 9:13AM 11-08-2009

Yup subscription numbers on a game itself can be nifty to know but really have no effect on my enjoyment of the game or my continued subscription ..... its the number of people on my server that I care about, which I guess is a subset of the over all subscription number but I still.

They also generally don't go into things like how many of those subscriptions are currently active, so yeah they have Xmillion subscriptions but only Ymillion actually have current accounts and then only Zmillion bother to log in on a regular basis and keep in mind that a percent of those coveted accounts are the RMT and gold spammers that you love to hate so ...how many of those play in other regions that don't even effect me?.. just saying you have a crapton of accounts is a bit to vague for me, unless their willing to break that down into a nice pie chart or a bar graph, heck I'd take a spreadsheet ..... without more info on what that number actually means.

Its like McD's saying they have served over a billion people ...doesn't tell me what they served those billion people nor does it tell me what the people at my local franchises prefer ... and it certainly doesn't make me like their fish sandwich.

JP said on 9:36AM 11-08-2009

Also -

GO GATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

H0sti1e17 said on 4:24PM 11-08-2009

I agree....GO GATORS!!!!! WoW is a lot like the Gators...love WoW or not, it is the undisputed king of MMOs in terms of subscriptions. A lot of people love to hate WoW, but is that jealousy? or is it actual dislike? Just like the Gators, many people hate them, but when it is all said and done...19 wins in a row, 2 national championships in 3 years (5 games from #3)...and like it or not WoW has millions of subscribers.

torak said on 9:44AM 11-08-2009

Well to me, it's only important as an indicator of how many people are playing and the impact it will have on me.
As long as the server is healthy and there are people to play with, I don't care if a game has one server or 1000, I can only play on one at a time.

Now where it does matter is how much support a company is going to give a game. Many small companies put a ton of effort into their titles no matter how small the player base is because every subscriber counts.
Big companies like SOE and NCSoft to many times launch and abandon a title or shut it down if it doesn't make goal sales numbers. Vanguard, Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault and true support for Warhammer seems to be lacking... just to name a few.

mailhierher said on 9:45AM 11-08-2009

As long as the game is not dying subscription numbers don't matter. It's more interesting if they are stable or increasing/decreasing. That's some sort of indication wether or not the game has met the expections of it's players.

Jason said on 9:59AM 11-08-2009

Alot of subscribers does not mean a game is good. It just means alot of people like it. We all have our opinions. I don't like boy bands but they sell millions of CD's. I don't think the music is good but many people do. We all have our own opinion's. I put more faith in press review scores. If a game is getting consistent scores by many press outlets, it leads me to believe what the reviewer's are saying. Going by reviews I consider the top current MMO's to be WoW and LOTRO.