World of Warcraft subscription numbers have long been shrouded in mystery, but thanks to a recent Blizzard GDC talk and some clever number-crunching by a WoW content creator, fans of Blizzard's MMO now have some hard data on exactly how many players are paying a monthly subscription fee for the privilege of exploring Azeroth.

Blizzard stopped giving out exact subscription numbers prior to the release of the game's 2016 Legion expansion. Since then, fans have wondered how well (or how poorly) the game has been doing from a player-number perspective, especially following the release of 2020's Shadowlands, which is considered a low point in the game's long history.

The good news is there are now some actual numbers to mull over, even if they are rough estimates. According to an estimate by BellularGaming based on a chart shown by Warcraft general manager John Hight as part of his recent GDC talk, as well as previous Activision Blizzard earning statements, WoW currently has an estimated 7.25 million subscribers. That number is significantly up since the launch of 2022's Dragonflight, and is a major course correction following the game's polarizing Shadowlands expansion.