World of Warcraft is still hemorrhaging players

World of Warcraft, the MMO that defined the genre for at least half a decade, is continuing its steady decline, with another large number of players leaving in the past few months. In the last quarter, as many as 1.3 million players closed their subscriptions, ending their time in Azeroth.

This of course doesn't stop it being the most popular subscription MMO out there, with pretty much everyone else having to run a free to play mechanic in order to keep their game world alive – though the now 8.3 million players isn't as impressive as it once was. Half a decade ago, the concept of 10 million or so players all gaming away in one digital world was impressive, but now if you look at the likes of League of Legends, which has more than that each month and WoW stops being quite so impressive.

Left it a bit late to begin levelling there mate… Source: juanpol

Still, it'll certainly go down in history was one of the most successful games ever. For almost a decade, Activision/Blizzard has raked in over $100 million a month, just from subscriptions to the game – let alone the money made by the original purchase of the box and discs.

KitGuru Says: It'll be several years more before we begin discussing the true end of the World of Warcraft, but perhaps something else will bring the death blow that ends Azeroth once and for all. Most likely it'll be Blizzard's next big MMO, Titan. People would probably feel quite comfortable having spent years within one of the company's worlds, to begin anew in one made by the same people. Blizzard could even offer incentives for it. Bring some of your equipment with you, that sort of thing. 

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