Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft lost 1.3 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2013, according to the company’s earnings announcement. Despite hemorrhaging subscribers, WoW still has 8.3 million subscribers playing the popular game.

Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard’s CEO, acknowledged the drop in subscribership, but was quick to point out WoW’s support in the gaming community.

“Our first-quarter performance was driven by continued consumer interest in all of our key franchises. Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm was the #1 PC game for the quarter. Additionally, during the quarter, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft remained the #1 subscription based MMORPG in the world with more than eight million subscribers, although the game saw declines of approximately 1.3 million subscribers, mainly from the East, but in the West as well,” Kotick said in a statement.

In 2010, WoW added another accomplishment to its growing list of achievements in the gaming industry. WoW nabbed a Guinness World Record for being the most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role player game.

As noted by PC Magazine, the WoW franchise came to be in 1994 when Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was released by Blizzard Entertainment. More recently, Blizzard Activision released Mists of Pandaria. PC Magazine points out that Mists of Pandaria features a new playable race, a new character class and a new level cap.

Overall, Activision Blizzard started the year on a fantastic note. According to the earnings announcement, the company’s GAAP net revenues were $1.32 billion, as compared with $1.17 billion for the start of 2012.

“While we have had a solid start to the year, we now believe that the risks and uncertainties in the back half of 2013 are more challenging than our earlier view, especially in the holiday quarter,” Kotick said.

Though the year to year comparison reveals significant growth for Activision Blizzard, Kotick is certain that the company will face numerous obstacles in 2013 and the coming years.

“The shift in release dates of competing products, the disappointing launch of the Wii U, uncertainties regarding next-generation hardware, and subscriber declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns, as do continued challenges in the global economy,” Kotick argued. “For these reasons, we remain cautious. However, our focused and disciplined approach to our business has served us well in the past, and through continued investment and careful management of our costs, we expect to continue delivering shareholder value over the long term as we have for the last 20 years.”

Are you a WoW subscriber? Will you continue to subscribe to WoW? What makes WoW so popular with gamers? Share your thoughts in the comments section.