While World of Warcraft undoubtedly has a hold on the massively multiplayer online RPG market, subscription numbers have been known to fluctuate due to competition. World of Warcraft producer John Lagrave has attributed a recent 2 million player drop in part to the rising popularity of BioWare’s record-braking foray into the genre, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Speaking to Eurogamer, Lagrave explained:

We certainly do look at [where WOW players go], and we have a very smart bunch of guys who do our analytics for us. Of course people are trying Star Wars – our development team are trying Star Wars! I’m one of the few people who’s still playing it actually, but yeah we’ve seen a dip in subs. It certainly has to at least be attributable to The Old Republic, but it’s also attributable to people who want to wait and get Mists of Pandaria, so it’s not surprising. Right now we’re very happy with the subscription system with World of Warcraft. We think it works very well.

This statement comes hot on the heels of their forthcoming expansion pack Mists of Pandaria, the fourth since its initial release in 2004, which among other changes looks to expand on the storyline, introduce the new Monk class and raise the level cap to 90.