Lower WoW Player Population

The theory of a massive 600K drop in World of Warcraft player population has been stewing around the Internet for the past two to three weeks. Now since I haven't played since about mid to late May (my subscription expired on May 24th) I can't really say what the current status of my realm population is.

But I know that before I stopped playing I noticed it seemed like the game didn't have as many players as it had in the past. The things I noticed; not as many people around the holiday quests, although it could be argued that most players have already completed the holiday quests and no longer care for them. I will say that measurement is inconclusive at best.

The next and perhaps more important sign is; the number of players at the action house at various times during the day. I've read on forums that when people say this they don't have a large enough sample size to actually make a determination, and I agree with that. But if more and more people are making this claim then I think it should get some consideration.

I actually hope there is a significant population decline. It will show Blizzard that their customers are growing tired of World of Warcraft's MMO mechanics, and they are looking for something different. I know my wife and I have; we've been long time players and both of our subscriptions have been frozen since May.

Blizzard is also offering a seven-day free pass to me, my wife, and I'm sure many other long time players who haven't had an active sub in a while. Is this perhaps the only evidence you need?