“After speaking with Tom on this end, we can confirm that this was a misquote or some kind of misunderstanding on the part of the journalist,” a Blizzard spokesperson explained in a note to GamesBeat.
Late in 2015, following the subscription-bleeding after Draenor, Blizzard announced that it would no longer share quarterly updates to its paying-player numbers. That policy is still in effect.
“Our policy for almost a year now is that we do not talk about subscriber numbers,” said the Blizzard spokesperson. “And Tom did not do that with this publication.”