Activision Blizzard reports that on December 31, 2011, 10.2 million players were subscribed to World of Warcraft. This represents a drop in subscribers from the last report, where Activision Blizzard let investors and press know know World of Warcraft was down to 10.3 million. This is down from over 12 million subscribers around the time of Cataclysm's launch.
10.2 million is still an enormous number of subscribers, but represents a trend that World of Warcraft's subscriber base may have entered into a state of permanent decline.
Blizzard aims to change that with the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion, though it's interesting to note that WoW subscriptions continued to decline even after Mists was announced at BlizzCon 2011, the Hour of Twilight update was released, and the Annual Pass program was announced.
As of yet, Mists of Pandaria does not have a specific release date.
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10.2 million is still an enormous number of subscribers, but represents a trend that World of Warcraft's subscriber base may have entered into a state of permanent decline.
Blizzard aims to change that with the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion, though it's interesting to note that WoW subscriptions continued to decline even after Mists was announced at BlizzCon 2011, the Hour of Twilight update was released, and the Annual Pass program was announced.
As of yet, Mists of Pandaria does not have a specific release date.
source