Source here suggests that WoW has lost half of its players over the past 4 years. I’m guessing that the recent news and scandal surrounding them hasn’t helped them any…. In short from the article, and the one it links to… monthly users has dropped significantly for WoW, while Candy Crush and Call of Duty have obviously seen huge upticks in revenue because of microtransactions…
The only thing Blizzard seems to be making money off of at this point is the microtransaction pumping they’ve been doing profusely.
My first thoughts after playing this game again after 10 years (literally, 2011 last time I played) is wow… There is definitely not $15 worth of content worth to play. Back in 2011ish, there was so much to do it was hard for me to keep up with, and I was part time in college with 40 hours free to play WoW. Now, I have a full time job (55-60 hrs a week), and I find myself running out of stuff to do constantly. In BFA it wasn’t so bad. But in Shadowlands, good God… There’s just not enough to do.
In comparison, I can play 40 hours a week on Apex Legends, 7 Days to Die, Grand Theft Auto, League of Legends, Overwatch, TF2…. 100% free. All of these games have so much to do for free. How can they justify $15 a month for almost nothing ?