Asuryan's Flames

EA officially announced the numbers of active subscribers to Warhammer, they are down a fair amount from what we saw at launch, but like all games there is a huge spike at the start of a games life then a drop after the first free month then as stuff is polished a steady increase. Now the numbers posted, 300k, are very respectable, but they are not on target for what Mark Jacobs was wanting:

"For the number two spot, Jacobs reasoned that “Warhammer” would need at least a half-million subscribers, which he guessed was close to what “Final Fantasy” and “EverQuest 2” have now. “Let’s just say north of half a million would mean we’re successful. Now how a far north? I wouldn’t mind being a little bit cold.” Multi Player Blog

I personally think that there will be a stead increase and an influx of people with the upcoming content addition. These people who have left the game for the time being will get to see War in a new light, one that has been updated and changed to better fit with what the population is looking for.

Now for those pessimists out there, the comparison of this game to the likes of EQ, EQ2, FF, and WOW is a tough one to make because you are comparing games that are very polished and have been out for years. In fact had you told me that EQ2 would survive the 2 week down time at launch I would have laughed at you but Sony has turned it around and has an amazing game now. Mythic had a great launch, and they are working on the polish now. From better class balancing to adding and fixing content. Albeit slow sometimes, the staff that is kept on to maintain a game is often a lot smaller than the staff used to build it. So they can only focus on one part at a time.

I do think that the quarterly report:
"Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning®, an MMO from EA’s Mythic Entertainment studio, ended the quarter with over 300K paying subscribers in North America and Europe.” EA Quarter Report Is just a picture of the current state of the game, and I do feel that it is in a healthy state, but there is room to grow, and with time polish will come, as well as a better backbone, and more community suggested fixes.

Don't fret over these numbers; they are meaningless to us players as long as our chosen hobby is still online. Enjoy the game for what it is, a past time.