This is the last World of Warcraft subscriber report you will ever read

The latest World of Warcraft subscriber numbers, revealed as part of Activision Blizzard's financial results for the third quarter of 2015, have slipped once again, albeit quite slightly, to 5.5 million subscribers. That's only—"only" being relative—a drop of 100,000 users since August, but even so, this report represents the end of an era.

"Note that this is the last quarter that we plan to provide subscriber numbers," the company said. "There are other metrics that are better indicators of the overall Blizzard business performance."

Those indicators will apparently be measured in "engagement," a porous sort of term the studio already seems quite fond of. Hearthstone's "key engagement metrics" have grown 77 percent year-over-year, for instance, while Black Ops 2 engagement has increased as well, despite being three years old and unavailable on current-gen consoles.

World of Warcraft still has plenty of legs—5.5 million subscribers still adds up to a hell of a pile of money every month—but the Legion expansion, announced in August, looks set to mark the end of an era, too. Find out why here.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.