World of Warcraft loses 600K subscribers in four months

World of Warcraft’s steadily declining subscriber base has dropped by 600,000 worldwide in four months, leaving the popular fantasy MMO at 7.7 million players.

In March, World of Warcraft had 8.3 million $15 a month subscribers (detailed definition below), a drop from February’s 9.6 million.

World of Warcraft’s fourth expansion Mists of Pandaria, which raised the level cap to 90 and added a new Pandaren race and monk class, released in Sept. 2012. In it’s first week on sale, the expansion sold 2.7 million copies, where the previous expansion Cataclysm sold 3.3 million in the first 24 hours. Both Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria were sold in retail and digitally.

The game is available in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Here’s how the company defines “subscribers”:

Subscriber Definition: World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees’ territories are defined along the same rules.