James Brightman for GamesIndustry.biz:

One of the standout data points from Activision’s earnings announcement today was that the company’s subscription numbers for World of Warcraft have fallen by more than a million in just the last three months. WoW now stands at just 9.1 million subs, but that isn’t making Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime nervous.

Morhaime said on the investors call that it’s actually quite normal with each WoW expansion pack for players to drop off. Moreover, this time around, before Blizzard launches the Mists of Pandaria expansion, Blizzard fans were pre-occupied with Diablo III, which Morhaime acknowledged had an impact on WoW as well.

Diablo III got off to a rocky start – players have complained about the game’s requirement to keep a live Internet connection to Blizzard’s servers (as a form of copy protection and to keep cheating to a minimum), Blizzard’s slow activation of an auction house, and other issues.