Blizzard is losing subscribers as its 10th anniversary draws near.
At an earnings call meeting, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime noted that while World of Warcraft earnings remain “healthy,” the game is losing subscribers.
According to Morhaime via Seeking Alpha’s transcript of the call: “As we mentioned on the previous call, we anticipated fluctuation in subscribership due to seasonality and the fact that the current game content is at the end of its life cycle.
“And as expected, we did see a decline in subscribers, which mostly came out of the east.”
Activision Blizzard puts the current WoW subscriber figures at 6.8 million, which is down 800,000 from the 7.6 million in the previous quarter.
At its peak in 2012, there were 12 million WoW subscribers.
The popular MMORPG (Massive multiplayer online role playing game) was originally launched on November 23, 2004, and has been mostly successfully in its decade of existence.
Morhaime, however, notes that the drop is nothing unusual given that the current expansion, Mists of Pandoria, is nearing the end of its cycle, and expects the subscription rate to pick up again come the release of Warlords of Draenor.
“That drop in 2012 was followed by an uptick in subscribers just ahead of Mists of Pandaria’s launch,” said Morhaime.
“So we’re hoping to see players return once we draw closer to the release of Warlords of Draenor later this year.”
The release date for Warlords of Draenor will be announced on Thursday, August 14 at the Ace Theatre in Los Angeles.
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