Blizzard's answer to decreasing World of Warcraft subscriptions? A price hike … in the U.K.

The World of Warcraft just raised its rent for U.K. players.

That’s where Blizzard will soon raise World of Warcraft’s subscription fee from £8.99 ($15) a month to £9.99 ($16.72). The publisher made the announcement in the game’s forums. World of Warcraft is the most popular role-playing game in the market, but it has been losing players. Earlier this month, publisher Activison Blizzard revealed that the game currently has 6.8 million subscribers, which was down 800,000 from 7.6 million last quarter.

“We regularly look at our pricing around the world and from time to time we make changes in light of local and regional market conditions,” Blizzard states in the post. It is allowing players with current subscriptions to pay the original price for an additional two years, as long as they continue to auto-renew.

The price increase will start when Warlords of Draenor, an upcoming expansion pack that adds new content and increases the level cap from 90 to 100, launches on Nov. 13. It is World of Warcraft’s fifth expansion, with the last one, Mists of Pandaria, having come out back in Sept. 2012. At its peak in 2010, it has 10 million subscribers.

We asked Blizzard if the U.S. will see a similar price hike and are waiting for its response.

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor - Cinematic

Mike Minotti

Mike Minotti has been with GamesBeat since 2012, starting as an intern. Based near Youngstown, Ohio, he now manages GamesBeat's editorial team. He's also a prolific podcaster, appearing on multiple shows covering the gaming industry.