WoW – Tops the “Community First” list

As a follow up to my post on “Community First” game companies from yesterday I’ll go deeper into our top scoring team – The Blizzard WoW dev team. Check the comments for the link to the original article.

SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYSIS

WoW is our overall top “Community First” title from 2023. They achieved this with an exemplary Social Media strategy. As most games total audience grows, they usually struggle to maintain a high net sentiment value but not WoW. Second only to Fortnite for total Social Media brand post volume, WoW is also our second highest social media net sentiment scorer (BDO #1).

They do a wonderful job of spreading out this content on multiple channels and creating interesting and engaging content optimized for the channel. They do multiple posts per day on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and are using TikTok better than any other game except Fortnite.

OPPORTUNITY

WoW is best in class among the games we profiled. With a consistent and engaging presence on all social media outlets, but there still exists opportunity to get more fan-created volume. Could it be that WoW fans are just not as interested in posting on social as younger GaaS gamers?

COMMUNITY ANALYSIS

The WoW owned forum has two key purposes. First, to report on and debate the latest updates / WoW news – what they enjoy, are disappointed in, or want more of. Secondly, showing their fandom through fan creative, providing helpful guides, and giving tips on play.

OPPORTUNITY

WoW currently only has a brand owned forum. But, with multiple fan-led Discords as the go-to place for community conversation among gamers, notably Millennials and Gen Z, develop a brand led Discord to engage with the broader WoW community beyond traditional social platforms and promote greater conversation around day-to-day play.

ENGAGEMENT ANALYSIS

We find that the game teams that achieve a 50/50 balance between content intended to inform and content intended to engage are the most successful. WoW’s entry into TikTok was a stroke of genius making their debut TikTok by using a very well-known player mishap that has spanned not only across the many generations of WoW players but across gaming genres as well. Leeroy Jenkins happened more than 20 years ago and somehow is still very relevant to certain situations today. The team was able to rekindle memories of one of the most iconic disastrous plays in gaming history, EVER, in one post.

WoW’s social team is in tune not only with their own player base, but they also understand the types of content that a certain platform’s audience desires. With this understanding they’re able to consistently curate content for those platforms  repurposing content to other channels such as YouTube #shorts or Instagram Reels.