Leaving your 15 year old characters and the 15 years of memories they hold is incredible painful and its almost impressive how easy blizzard have made that decision

feeling bad about leaving a toxic relationship because it may hurt your toxic ex is something no one should ever feel bad about

This video now has potentially more players than wow does.

It needs to be said: this drop off started *before* all the scandals within Blizzard HQ. So, when everyone complained that they were making the game too grindy, too much of a time sink, and the devs laughed it off because Daddy Activision wanted more time played per account, we were giving them the warning: "If you keep doing this you'll lose money in the long run." And here we are.

1.- They create Thanos 2.0 2.- They destroy 50% of its population The level of detail they work with is INEVITABLE

The biggest change coming out of this video will be blizzard removing ways for people to track player activity

Blizzard: "You turned them against me!" Asmongold: "You have done that yourself!"

In legion i had about 8 alts. Shadowlands i can't even be motivated to play my main.

I still can't get over one thing. Retail is ridden with it's poor business practices. Classic was their golden opportunity to right themselves, in a way. Then, with their hearts pounding and nervous sweating, they gave into the irresistible temptation to add a cash mount. Like a child you tell not to touch the hot stove. Morons. My laughing stock.

Asmon it is not your fault, Blizzard did this to themselves. They refused to listen to feedback, they dropped the ball this expansion, then had a bad and entitled attitude towards constructive criticism. The only people to blame are the Activision and Blizzard higher-ups pulling the strings, silencing voices and stifling game design for short-term profit. All of this was before the lawsuit, which like the Blitzchung incident will cause _some_ players to quit the game for good.

Hello Asmond. I am in my 50's, played wow since 2004. Have a vanilla high warlord (Well he is a Grand Marshall right now). I have played every wow expac at launch and to this date, 9-22-2021 I have not purchased shadowlands and have played maybe a week since its launch. I personally find no interest in the lore, or the premise of the expansion. Yesterday I resubbed for a month, cities are dead on "high pop" servers (I assume everyone is in shadowlands somewhere) the game feels like a shell of its former self. I only tell you this because you are not the cause of their decline. I dont watch you, I dont care for twitch at all, I do not sub to you....I just know your name and you had zero impact on my decision to not play shadowlands. Do not take the fall for Blizzards incompetence, or consider if you were complicit. You are not. If the content was compelling, people would play it, but it's not. It's that simple. I wish you well!

10:49 its 100% NOT your fault, the game just sucks at the moment (it didn't always), so people just don't play, regardless of what you say or do with the game, if the game sucks, we don't play it, simple as that

Can't speak for anyone else but I personally, will not be returning. Quitting WoW has actually been a really positive experience for me and I realized that there are way better things to invest my time into. Had fun over these last couple of years but I'm closing this chapter of my life for good this time around.

ASMOND, if you hurt the game by leaving, then you were keeping it on life support by staying.

I just wanted to comment that I find it sad to see how things are going. Its a sad thing to see things end in this manner. I haven't played wow for many years but I did play it religiously back in 2005 - Cataclysm. And when seeing footage of wow I just remember how I started, and how it felt to play wow back then. It was a classic, loved by critics and players alike, it was a cult phenomena, an instant classic and people knew it. I remember I started with Guild Wars but wanted to try WoW to see what the fuzz was about,.. Man,.. those first steps in Elwyn Forest.. First dungeon,... playing with a IRL friend for the first time,... /wave. Loot, First mount,... Getting that epic mount for my paladin, I mean doing the damn quest for it.... exploring, getting lost, not having a clue how to play my class,.... first time raiding,.... First time PvP... What was it,..the snowy one? Alterac Valley right? ... Farming Honor for gear.... getting my first PvP Gear Set...(On My Rogue, looked sweet) then when Outland hit,... omg,.. servers going down,.. Flying mounts,..first time mounting on a flying mount,.... listening to taverncast podcast, then later TheInstance podcast,.. Man, those were the days,... almost getting teary eyed dammit.,... And then after a good expansion or 2 Activision got em and the cancer started to grow I guess... and also games and game development in general started to change I guess. Now an old-timer like me hardly plays anything but a few Indie titles from time to time. Tbh most games these days are cold, soulless pieces of garbage meant to suck your wallets dry and turn your soft brains into mush. But I'm glad I did experience WoW - The early Years. Before it turned into a soulless abomination.

With so few players, you can't stratify your player-base by removing catch-up and making returning/new players play progressively through the tiers. You get people stuck not being able to catch-up and play with your friends.

want to know how the Jailer snapped half the player base into nonexistence? read the new novel "Zovaal, The Jailer" for only $49.95, coming to stores and digital Fall 2022.

Asmon didn't cause this, he actually counteracted it while he was still playing WoW and streaming it. Life lesson: You don't have to set yourself on fire just to keep others warm. It was Blizzards failure, not his.

"The vocal change...I knew it" Okay, so I'm not alone in this. I've developed, like, a sense for knowing when an ad read is coming. Their voice slowly gets weirder and more mechanical or something

When I think of players leaving WOW I always think about wisps killing Archimonde. Cool that Blizzard made a cinematic of their own demise.

I’ll be honest, you contributed to my decision to leave, but at the same time, I was already sick of the game in general. Don’t feel bad though, you just expressed what we were all thinking.

Dont feel bad they did it to themselves, you had the outrage to point the problems out and people agreed with you. This is the pain Wow needs to become the better game that we all hope for.

I feel for the genuinely determined and fresh people that have probably lost their jobs due to this, but at the same time I feel like this is a much needed kick to Blizzard's ego.

Asmon is one of the few reactors (if you can call him that) that don't skip the ads. He knows not skipping will help the original creator. Much respect.

Based on these numbers and the tracking record, my guild, which is 7 people, account for about 55 of those characters. I legit think the actual number of unique players is around 500k atm.

I quit wow and I regrew my hair, built muscles, started to ride horses (IRL mounts) by volunteering at a ranch, and learned that Outside is actually a pretty good game.

This happens with many "games as a service", when new content drops and people come back to play and then half of them leave after they try the new stuff. The problem for MMOs is that they're largely community driven, so letting this happen creates resentment towards developers for not creating an experience that players want to stay to enjoy. Games that are just Raid/Dungeon grinders aren't enough to keep players longterm, and rely entirely on seasonal releases. If WoW wants to keep players, it needs to create player driven content.

I had an alt of every class at cap running torghast when I quit around end of February, and that wasn't considered out of the norm in the groups I ran with.

Disagree with Asmon about not a lot of alternatives being around during WoD. That's when I quit the game and tried out a number of different MMOs and there were plenty of options. The main difference between then and now is Blizzard has an established pattern of crap. Now a lot more players are tired of Blizzard's antics and are more receptive to trying other MMOs and legit giving them a chance.

My whole guild quit before 9.1 came out. Most of them don't even watch your content, Asmongold. Believe me when I say that it isn't your fault that the game is losing players.

Will be interesting to see how small the numbers are for 9.2 when that comes out in a year.

I haven't had an active guild since MoP, I haven't had a core group of friends to play with since Legion, so yeah that did it for me.

I will never forget riding through Stormwind at the release of Wrath. I still have screenshots where you Literally can not see the ground because there were so many players

Considering how much Blizzard loved to brag about their subs, the silence in that regard says it all. Eat your heart out Blizzard.

It's not your fault Asmon - they did it to themselves ! It was an ongoing process -they've been doing that for a long time (it's not just Shadowlands).

The amount of people going "Bogus data! Pulling it from his ass!" while ignoring the sources given is astounding.

“Services” are not a sprint, but a marathon. Blizzard lost everyone that made WoW what it was, about a decade ago. The replacements were too focused on the short-term gains that they forgot about the long-term sustainability of their service. These trends show us that Blizzard has either lost control of their service, or just don’t care to invest the resources needed to maintain their core customers AND focus on growth. Services either grow or die. I believe we’re seeing the latter playing out now.

I would totally say they did this to themselves. I've known a lot of WoW players to cross over to FF and the one consistent thing I've heard is that they felt like WoW just wasn't respecting their time investment anymore. There's a point you're just sitting there saying 'this isn't fun anymore'.

I've been harping on progressive raiding for YEARS. Kara was a great raid and all, but it was especially good because someone ALWAYS had an alt or something that needed to run it. It was also just good enough that it was fun to bring a high power toon as a carry to have a nice power trip night.

"The numbers don't lie and they spell disaster for you!" -Scott Steiner

This isn't a "managed decline", it's a ballistic trajectory of a lawn dart.

as much as i dont like Asmon, he didnt kill WOW, helped it maybe, but the Devs killed it on their own, who wants to play a grindy, abusive game, where the next patch everything you did is useless

around 7:20, something to consider is seasonal variation. For example, people typically have more time to play in the summer, February is prolly around midterm exams for uni students (not saying this is what's causing the numbers, but there could be underlying factors unrelated to the "health" of the game). So the raw numbers might overstate the issue, somewhat. A crude solution is to compare this difference to the difference between Aug & Feb in other years, as a comparison or base year.

Instead of rereleasing WC3 I would have loved to see WC1-2 get modern updates. It’s almost like once WoW passed the known lore of WC3 it started going downhill 🤔

It's easier to blame Asmon for player losses then admiting their game currently sucks ass.

My dream would be for the Jailer Raid to come out. And no one try’s to kill him, allowing him to “remake reality” Really stick it to the devs.

wow was always one of my all time favorite games memorable times growing up playing it genuinely a little sad to see it end up this way

My guess for 2v2 / 3v3, is that 2v2 is mostly used to quickly get better gear in the first two weeks, to bypass some timegating and shit; while 3v3 is where pvp oriented people mostly invest their time for the long run. So 2v2 spikes, then fall after a few weeks, where 3v3 maintain itself after the surge. ( Also, boosting )

Honestly, only way to save wow with minimal effort, is removing the monthly fee. This game is definitely not 15 bucks a month. Kinda straight robbery if you ask me

Don't forget that MAU counts the same player several times if they log into different blizzard games across the month. In 2016 Blizzard had less titles in their launcher, so current MAU data is inflated.

Really sad to see the downwards progression. I played since vanilla all the way through to MoP and was just looking to see if I could get back into it recently. It’s disheartening to see how everything has been wrecked.

I think there are only two end game bosses that we truly had no hope of killing at the beginning of the expansion, The Jailor and Sargeras. And we didn’t even technically beat Sargeras, the pantheon did. I don’t see how we can beat the Jailor atm without it being ridiculous

As a WoW player of the first hour (year) its painful to see where this is going, nonetheless you always knew that nothing lasts forever. 16-17 years of stop and go were an absolute blast, especially classic, tbc and wotlk. The memories will stay! 💪

Serves them right. They gave up on content, broke the game, didled their employees and blamed it on us. Scumbag company. Tbh it's Activisions fault, they should have never joined the sith

I started playing Wow before it was a Released MMO pre Alpha, that game had so much potential, I saw this games downfall long ago and I am sure most of you have as well

Warcraft 3 was the killer. They missed a huge opportunity. The whole “we own all mods you make” was the declaration that blizzard has syphilis and to stay away. Instead they could have had dota 3.

This is what WoW's afterlife looks like. Blizzard knew what they were doing.

I would love to see Asmon creating a series or long video on how HE would design a MMO from 0.

i tend to skip part ads if they are part of the video and if i feel like it even comment a timestamp when ad has passed

Honestly I’ve been playing tbc classic and what I noticed is that everyone left just moved over to one server and everyone still playing are the people who really love the game and want to keep the community alive. I can still run into people leveling up in the barrens to do quests with run dungeons and most people you run into are generally pretty friendly. If you want to play wow play wow especially tbc classic as far as I know you don’t notice that so many people left as much when you just play on the one high population server

You playing FF14 is the BEST thing for WoW. It NEEDS competition to actually innovate, and listen to players, and CARE again. It's not your fault Blizzard shits on their fans.

I sometimes think of my character, dalaran, moonglade, places and memories that I loved and made me come back to the game for 15 years. Too many things went wrong through the years to make me feel sick of it. Honestly let it burn..

Yeah when i was playing still i had like 7 max lvl characters logging on each week. this is so sad to see but its been coming for such a long time.

and a good chunk of ppl are like me who got the 6 month n are just waiting for it to run out. I have 4 friends whose subs don't end till December but haven played since August.

Here's something crazy to think about.... When Asmon first streamed FFXIV, he had around 250k viewers.... that's about a quarter of WoW's current entire playerbase lololol

"I feel like part of this is my fault" Let's pretend for a minute that's true. Think about how BAD devs of a game had to be and think about how bad the game had to be to "allow" a single streamer to be the end of their game. Think about that for a minute.

I will miss the days I got randomly ganked trying to quest and then randomly got helped by some random guild, I was there when the game had life and I’ll cherish that shi forever

It lived 2004 - 2021. Rest in peace Wow. No king rules forever.

I jumped over to FF14 2 weeks before Asmon and the big wave started but even then it seemed obvious that the time put into the game no longer had the same weight or value it used to. Seeing all the new streamers getting into the game and enjoying it as much as i have only solidified that it wasnt just my view and something new was coming.

The mindset of players are "I'm gonna get loot from this xpac so when it gets popular again I have rare stuff" but it's dying my guy, it ain't getting popular again, it's dead

Legion was the last time I really had fun on retail WOW. And Classic WOW made me feel like a kid again. But now I just can't play the game.

They'll make a third "orb of annihilation" thing like they did with Deathwing, Nyalotha. Don't worry XD

i dont blame asmon for me leaving, i left cause i felt like wow was getting not fun and more like work

Haha as a dev, this is absolutely hilarious. This guy that asmon is watching is doing more analysis than a lot of our business managers lol smh

I completely agree about Wrath heroics in ICC. If you give me the choice between new content or more annoying rotating mechanics, I will always go for new content.

For years, everyone wondered when the "WoW-killer" would arrive and in what form. Turns out it was Blizzard themselves.

the saddest thing was that they killed kelthuzad like he was just a random guy and not even gave him a cinematic of his own...that guy wanted to become the god of death and now is a pile of ash...

Every time I log into my new MMO of choice, I'm glad I made the decision to leave WoW. WoW is being offed by death-by-a-thousand-cuts. Wasn't one thing, but many...many individual incidents.

This is a great time to try GW2 xD last time you mentioned it it was 11 million players collectively (active and non-active) and is now at 17 million with a good 1+million active. And 3rd expansion release coming this February has drawn quite the crowd, even in the FTP realm.

I often go back to the crossroads and look over Michel Koiter's in-game grave. One of the creators of World of Warcraft. I remember reading his twin brothers words after MK passed away. MK wanted a game where you could start off as nothing and feel like you've clawed your way up to greatness. Where you're not a hero in the game, where the game doesn't call you a hero, but you feel like one because of the community. Where everyone KNEW who you were on that server if you did something amazing. Where people knew your name - but to the NPC's you were just another adventure. It made a real sense of feeling like a true champion, like you were actually doing something. Guilds felt like families and the world felt alive and breathing. The heart of azeroth was her people. I wonder what MK would say if he saw his game today.

Those were good days back then. Now Blizzard/Acitivision is toast because of their greed.

Bruh, the FF launcher pop up when we're watching how WoW raiding is getting cucked, its so beautiful and kind of poetic

Denathrius, severe daddy energy aside, I love the hammy villain vibe as well. I just love him. Fight was pretty good as well.

I feel like almost every player has at least one alt at lvl 60…

Just to imagine that an actual "WoW killer" we waited for 15+ years will be Blizzard itself.

Quitting cold turkey is the only way to leave it… like ripping off a bandaid.

Hunter having the 2nd best and 2nd worst dps specc in m+, that's Blizzard balancing right there!

Shoutout to 18:50 where Final Fantasy launcher shows up while talking about players quitting WoW

The time to quit WOW could not have come at a better time. They took 15 years of my life Now all these brand new MMO'S coming out will get a fair chance to be explored. I feel like I left an abusive relationship and I feel free 😁

Sadly, this video will soon have more views than WoW has active subscribers, and most views will be from the people that quit and miss the game . . .

That was one of my main reasons, to quit wow. After all these years of struggling, never really getting some kind of "buff", to even be considered decent, i gave up on my enhancemeht-shaman.

I play on BC classic and our server is full to the brim. I think many people went back to play nostalgia.

Whatever new “team” they developed after legion, plummeted the game.

10:55 I can just imagine a salty dev on twitter calling Asmongold the WoW killer

"That's good, that's alot" I love his reaction to the numbers six month prior

2:30 that wtf face was so priceless HAHA!!!!

It always crack me up every time Bel gets him with the ad.

I overheard my sister telling someone last night that she couldn't even find pug groups for M+ on her Alliance character anymore because all of the people who choose to push M+ and raid seem to have gone to Horde at this point. For myself, I was part of the player attrition during Nathria, quitting WoW for good about two weeks after the raid dropped because I'd been benched for progression in Normal/Heroic due to the guild having too many raiders (I was on the roster as a Normal/Heroic raider, although I would always be available to fill for Mythic progression later in the tier if they needed, so I was benched to allow the Mythic raiding trials to get in). Ironically, they ended up quitting raiding about 5 weeks later because they didn't have enough players to beat the roster boss anymore, as basically all of the trials had moved on and real life took out a handful of our core team.

The part where Bellular goes through the guilds killing Shriekwing vs finishing the last bosses and how guilds quit, goes to show how stupidly long they made these boss fights. Thats what happens when you make bosses have to much HP, players get bored easily and don't want to continue experiencing the same long grind of taking down an insanely high amount of HP on a boss for little reward. So they just quit.

I played this from launch to just at Pandaria release ...loved it but the changes back then pushed me away . My friends left much earlier than I did . I'll miss those times but I'm glad I got out when I did ....