Blizzard Claims 10.1 Million WoW Legion Subscriber Report Was A Misquote
The release of the World of Warcraft Legion expansion has resulted in a sudden influx of players who want to try out what the latest installment had to offer. In an interview with Pixel, a Polish gaming magazine, Tom Chilton, the lead designer for World of Warcraft was quoted as saying that the iconic MMORPG currently had 10.1 million active subscribers. Here’s a snap of the original interview and translation from Redditor htaler:
Pixel Magazine: You've reached peak of 12 million users but at the end of 2015 it was only 5.5 mln users. Then Blizzard stopped publishing that data. Can you say how many users are paying the subscription right now?
Chilton: As we speak, it's about 10,1 million. It's hard to say what future will bring. We have an internal competition in form of Overwatch, but it's possible we will reach 12 million once again. The potential is there as there are over 100 million registered accounts.
Blizzard Entertainment now claims that Chilton never discussed subscriber numbers with the magazine, explaining in a note to GamesBeat that, “After speaking with Tom on this end, we can confirm that this was a misquote or some kind of misunderstanding on the part of the journalist.” In addition, Blizzard also said that, “Our policy for almost a year now is that we do not talk about subscriber numbers, and Tom did not do that with this publication.”
Blizzard stopped releasing subscriber numbers when their subscriber base went to down to 5.6 million from over 10 million subscribers when Warlords of Draenor came out in 2014. While it’s not uncommon for subscriber numbers to surge with the release of an expansion, Blizzard firmly denies the accuracy of the number. The gaming giant, however, has not, and presumably, will not be releasing an official subscriber count.
Watch the World of Warcraft: Legion – The Fate of Azeroth trailer below or head on over to GamesBeat for more info.
