This may be similar to what numbers have done in previous expansions, but I have friends who have already given up on this expansion who never quit this early before. And they all seem to be citing the same reasons:1.) Lack of meaningful gear upgrades.2.) Frustration of running M+ for no upgrades/getting duplicate gear repeatedly.3.) Boredom of WQs.4.) Either frustration with/or loss of any interest in Torghast.There were other reasons that varied by individual: they leveled one character, but couldn't bear going through the process with a second; lack of interest in the story; unhappy with the whole conduit/soulbind system, and others. Main point is these are people who had never taken a break from WoW prior to the final patch. For them to be walking away this soon tell me something about this expansion.
We don't have numbers of the previous expansion's drop offs, all the people defending Blizzard are doing it of blind faith that all expansions have seen a 40% drop in players after the first 4-5 months. I somehow doubt that every expansion drops 40% of the playerbase after 6 months. People who are hating on Blizzard are doing it from the point of view that for a lot of players this expansion feels like the worst 2nd job ever that we pay to do work for little reward, now sure all expansions have a spike and a dropoff, but are we really going to say that 40% of the playerbase from the start of the expansion leaves after the first 4-5 months, every single time?
"Shadowlands hype" is an oxymoron. But yeah, WoW did good because it was 2020 which was 9 months of a pandemic and people needed an escape, especially with no movie theaters. You're gonna get useful data from 2020 about as well as if you got data for people spending time outside included walking to/ from the car or trash bin.
i will admit SL is a good expansion, but this is the first one that i have only 2 toons , 1 horde 1 alliance, have tried to dust off an old alt but really can't go through the zones again, yes i have done threads as well, whilst previous xpacs I made alts leveled alts , the game seem to be fresh and if i got bored i went and did old raids for tmogs pets mounts etc, but since the leveling squish has messed things up it is near impossible to solo some of those raids that were easily done in BFA, these are things that kept me logging in going after a mount or pet i didn't have finishing off a Tmog set or getting achieves in raids i missed out on while they were current. now starting a alt or even leveling another alt just feels meh. yes the honey period is over and people have left , happens every xpac , but i feel that they really didn't listen to the player base hence the mass exodus.
Removed
A bit vary about these market "research" companies creating top 10 lists - especially one that is part of the Nielsen group, but then again, you don't really need a marketing genius to announce there's a post-expansion launch drop off in subs.
what the hell happened to Cyberpunk 2077? I expected it at least on the PC list, where is less buggy than on consoles
We're less than 6 months into the xpac and the grind already feels like work to me. I've definitely been playing less since launch and it makes me sad.
I figure things will keep dropping off for System lands.