'World Of Warcraft' Loses 1 Million Subscribers, Falling Below 10M Mark For First Time Since 2008

The popular massive multiplayer online, or MMO, video game "World Of Warcraft" has lost 1 million players from its core user base since the company last reported its figures in May.

At the time, the company claimed that the game was holding steady at 10.2 million users, according to a report from the industry-focused site gameindustry.biz. But just three months later, publisher Activision Blizzard has now estimated the number of subscribers has fallen to 9.1 million, according to financial results released today by the company.

This is the first time that "World of Warcraft" has fallen below the 10 million mark since January of 2008, when the game first secured a spot for itself in "The Guinness Book of World Records" as the most popular MMO. The game's subscription numbers peaked in October of 2010 at 12 million, according to a Blizzard press release from the time. The news comes after Blizzard has repeatedly suffered sinking figures from "World of Warcraft" and "Diablo III," following the game's controversial and crash-laden launch.

This only puts more pressure on the upcoming expansion pack for "World of Warcraft," "Mists of Pandaria," to help rejuvenate the franchise when it arrives in late September.