As of September 30, the World of Warcraft has dropped from 12 million active players to 10.3 million over the last year. This was revealed by Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime on Tuesday in a conference call with Gamasutra.
Morhaime claims that the majority of departures come from the East, particularly in China, though it still remains immensely popular in that area and is still by far the most subscribed MMO in the world.
"[though it remains highly successful], we know there are improvements that we can make in game content," he continued.
Blizzard has a significant content update in the coming weeks; however, Morhaime explains that "it's really not intended to go out and drive new user acquisition, that's a whole other strategy. But it does drive engagement with the game, and so that will impact churn if we do it successfully, and will eventually drive win back, as players tell each other about the content they're enjoying."
Only time will tell if Blizzard will be able to add more subscribers, or even retain its current ones, especially with the new expansion–Mists of Pandaria–announced several weeks ago.