World of Warcraft subscriptions have nearly halved since 2010

World of Warcraft has experienced a hefty population drop since 2010, with compare the figures .

Yes it's a steep drop, but 6.8 million is still a huge number for a game nearing its tenth birthday. Recent market research conducted by Superdata shows that World of Warcraft still holds the lions share of the MMO market at 36 per cent, with its closest competitor Lineage 1 holding only 9 per cent.

If the decline continues at this rate (ie, does not accelerate) we still have five years of World of Warcraft, assuming the forthcoming lead to a boost but it was fairly short lived.

With the subscription-based MMO widely believed to be in decline, it seems increasingly unlikely that a true usurper to World of Warcraft will ever emerge. Now seems a better time than ever to partake in one of the biggest gaming success stories of all time. On the upside, Diablo III and Hearthstone continue to be riproaring successes for Blizzard. All up, Battle.net is up 40 per cent in of active s, year-on-year.

Shaun Prescott
Australian Editor

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.