Now the question is whether it's dropping because they're all distracted with Diablo, because times are tight and people are cutting back, or because some of those people are actually displeased with the game...

That's still a lot of subscribers.

That is still a lot of subscribers. Even is only that is $10 USD/month for each subscriber, that is $92M each month. Every year? That comes in to over a billion dollars a year in gross profit.

With all the comments against World of Warcraft, you'd think some of these people would actually PLAY for a lengthy amount of time before judging it. Yes, people still play WoW. And yes, there's usually more than one factor that plays into it. I, for one, am in love with the lore, art style, and solid gameplay that gives me the freedom to go wherever the hell I please. PvP is solid, too, once you hit 60 and the amount of dungeons and diverse quests is staggering. Yes, there's a hell of a lot more to do with quests other than "kill x amount of that, talk to so-and-so," etc. Don't ignorantly judge a game before you've played it--let alone a respectable amount of time.

I bet alot of them quit because Blizzard didn't do anything after releasing Dragon Soul, which is one of the worst intances. Especially after Firelands and Ragnaros HC. My entire Guild is taking a break because of this. They should have released something new before MoP. Also with Guild Wars 2 coming... I don't know why they give away their subscribers like that. But maybe it's a good thing. The more ppl play GW2, the more Blizzard must do to keep those who still play and to win their old fans back. A good competition could really improve WoW.

With no content injections since Dragon Soul, it's not surprising. That's over a year of nothing, most people to taper off during the end of expansions once they've exhausted the content and mastered the gear treadmill.

Quickly, find The Sword of a Thousand Truths! It is the only thing that can save the realm from a Panda invasion!

Ouch. Not that I should pity any company who can still claim 9 million+ subscribers, I guess.

It's still amazing at how many people play this. They will see a huge pick up in sub's when the xpac comes out, then when everyone tears through that content in record time they will stop playing again.

It's always up and down with that game. I gave up on mmo's a few years back, just not interested in that type of game anymore. Played wow since beta/launch (many long breaks in between) but just grew tired of it. Played Swtor for the first 30 days capping out and got bored and was like, mmo's are done :)

Surprising, but that's still a ton of subscribers.

8 Months of DS, I wonder why theres such a drop?

Sadly this article doesn't take into account the amount of users that are daily dropping off from the D3 servers. Never played WOW so I won't bash it, but D3 was a game that is coasting on the flames of its predecessors.

Hasn't everyone in the whole freaking world played World of Warcraft except for me? People will still be playing this thing until Star Trek holodecks come out, in which case, there'll still be incoming World of Warcraft expansions.

I'm sure the subs will be back for at least a month when the expansion hits. People have to have their crack you know.

it was coming

I think Mists of Pandaria will help bring the numbers up higher. I don't really hear people talk about WoW that much but it's probably the people I talk to.

This game was good.. but really didn't like not playing for a month during the summer and then coming back and finding out all my pvp gear had suddenly become worthless. The problem is they are constantly changing and taking a break from the game became detrimental to being able to accomplish anything.

This seems to be a pandemic.  Is it a sign of the times with all the free to play RPG's out there?

Bust out the calculator and multiply 10 million by 15. One month and your set for a lifetime as a company. Dear lord that's a ton of cash.