Money from MMO subs begins to decline

By Robert Purchese Published 15 September, 2011

For the first time in recent memory.

Money made by subscriptions to European and American MMOs has, for the very first time, fallen.

In 2010, MMO subscriptions amassed $1.58 billion. Very good. But not as good as the year before - five per cent less.

Compare that to growth of 10 per cent in 2009, and growth of 21.6 per cent in 2008, and you can appreciate why Screen Digest believes 2010 to be a pivotal year.

From here, Screen Digest predicts, the hill will slope downwards. By 2015, we're told that the annual MMO subscription haul will diminish to $1.33 billion.

The report found that money made by micro-transaction games had, on the other hand, increased sharply. In 2010, micro-transaction MMOs made $1.13 billion - 24 per cent more than in 2009.

Money made by all MMOs, therefore, rose only 5 per cent to $2.7 billion in 2010.

None of which is surprising, considering the fleet of MMOs turning free-to-play and opting to recoup their money via micro-transactions.

Turbine proved the model with Dungeons and Dragons Online and then Lord of the Rings Online, before Champions Online and Age of Conan followed suit. And now there's talk of Star Trek Online doing the same.

What the Screen Digest report doesn't mean, however, is that individual subscription MMOs like World of Warcraft are losing money. World of Warcraft may actually go on to make even more money as lucrative new regions welcome the game.

The report does sensibly suggest, though, that subscription MMOS will slowly become the exception rather than the norm.

"The 2010 decline in subscription revenue - the first annual contraction experienced by the market since our coverage of this segment started in 2002 - represents an inflection point for the industry," commented Screen Digest analyst Piers Harding-Rolls.

"The focus of many PC game operators has clearly shifted to micro-transaction‐based models - in part due to competition in the subscription market especially in the high‐end MMOG segment, but also because of the flexibility micro-transactions offer operators in monetising gamers."

Rift is still a subscription-based MMO.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 8 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • TheDudesRug #1 8 months ago

    Maybe you should read the article.

  • madsox1 #2 8 months ago

    Yeah second that bro reading the article helps LOL

  • hiddenranbir #3 8 months ago

    How long until SWTOR face the tide?

  • Rack #4 8 months ago

    Bizarre reporting, MMO take has increased sharply from a lot of games transitioning from subscription to microtransactions and macrotransactions. Highlighting a decline in subs is missing the point somewhat.

  • X201 #5 8 months ago

    No mention of current economic problems?
    People losing their jobs or prioritising how they spend their money?

  • Yuroko #6 8 months ago

    That was me sorry. I just recently cancelled my WoW subscription.

  • slippysloppy #7 8 months ago

    The thing is when money becomes tight the first thing people look at is their monthly outgoings and if there's a subscription to a game that isn't getting enough play to justify its renewal then it's going to be one of the first things to be axed.

  • torment74 #8 8 months ago

    MMO's are flat out BORING! I have tried a few and it just turns into level grinding with an unfocused plot in between. Keep glorified chat rooms out of gaming please.

  • superfurry #9 8 months ago

    I wonder what the future for MMOs in their current state is. I was a pretty hardcore WoW player at one stage and racked up just under 200 days of /played time. However, once I grew fed up of WoW, I had and still have no desire to play any other MMO. I tried Rift for a couple of months and enjoyed it but I never bought into the whole world (both online and offline) of the game in the same way I did with WoW.

    I now have absolutely zero interest in MMOs and don't think I'll ever bother with another one again and going by anicdotal evidence of those I know, I'm not alone. I had to even suggest it, but could the MMO 'fad' be in decline? We may never see another game hit the number of subsribers that WoW did.

    Or SWTOR could just as likely blow the whole thing right back up.

  • ZeroAX #10 8 months ago

    how can decreased subs not mean decreased interest in wow? Are you kidding me Eurogamer? Wow is practically the entire subscription market. If the market falls, wow falls as well (or to be more precise if wow falls THEN the market falls as well)

  • mvrander #11 8 months ago

    I have a sneaking suspicion SWTOR is going to fall a bit flat if they go subs based. I could be wrong but aside from Star Wars fans and WoW players looking for a change I can't see it taking players from a non-subscription MMO. That just leaves new players to the MMO genre and in the current financial climate an £8-10 a month subscription amounts to more than twice the cost of a game like MW3 or BF3 that may sustain a year's play, and that's on top of the purchase price.

    Once you go free to play it's very rare to go back I would think. Guild Wars 2 looks more like it will do the business than SWOTR to me but I'm usually wrong.
    Edited by mvrander at 15/09/11 @ 13:47

  • Subdominator #12 8 months ago

    Subscriptions may be going down but that doesn't mean they make less money. Quite the opposite, thanks to F2P and microtransactions. It's just a shift in where the money is coming from, it's no indication of a stagnating market.

  • TheEarlOfZinger #13 8 months ago

    I have never understood these things...pay monthly to play a game, you already...paid for?

    No thanks.

  • bobfish09 #14 8 months ago

    Calm before the storm.

    We have SWTOR, TSW, TERA, ArcheAge, Blade & Soul and more all due out in 2012 or 2013. All these titles are subscription based and will cause a big spike in subscription revenue compared to 2010 & 2011 (where there was nothing of note released beyond Rift).

  • dagas #15 8 months ago

    That means the WoW numbers of 11 millions players or whatever must be wrong. 10m WoW players paying $15 each a month would be 1.8 billion dollars each year. yet they claim only 1.58b for all games?

  • Seoh #16 8 months ago

    Another way in which guild wars was ahead of its time, predicting free to play.

    Agree that TOR will have to follow suite but not for at least a year, the appeal of star wars should make for a very profitable 6 months then a sharp decline.

  • chrisjm #17 8 months ago

    Its the end of the World



    of warcraft.

  • Zozzilla #18 8 months ago

    I don't mind paying for MMO's, it's not that expensive after all. Plus there are a LOT of really good free ones out there now. I actually need to spend less time on them and concentrate more on getting some of my huge back catalogue of PS3, 360, Wii, PC, DS and PSP games completed. >.

  • WinterSnowblind #19 8 months ago

    I think it's mainly because of the rise of F2P games. Look at things like Guild Wars, which don't ask for a monthly fee, but still completely blows away every other MMO in terms of polish and design, and even receives more content updates and patches than most subscription based games.

    I honestly can't understand why anyone would be willing to pay monthly when we have much higher quality games offering more for less.

  • Xboxfanuk #20 8 months ago

    I remember in 1999 people balking at the idea someone would PAY a monthly fee to play a game after they bought it in the store.

  • Kanjin #21 8 months ago

    yeah Guild Wars looks like it's going to land on it's feet (please don't let that jinx it), I bet TOR will quickly switch to allow mini-transactions as well as subs

  • brod #22 8 months ago

    Microtransaction = exploitation.

  • gmjapan #23 8 months ago

    Only $2.7 billion, how will they cope?? That a year can be "pivotal" because of a 5% dip on the previous year in only 1 particular model (during some of the most tumultious economic times in history) makes me sad inside for the real driving factors in game development.

    @dagas: only the West pays the sub-model and amounts you mention for WoW and the West is a tiny part of the overall 10 - 11 million WoW "subscribers". Probably in the region of 2million for USA & Europe (guessing) with the much bigger player base in Asia paying a different way.