Calling it now, classic will have more players than retail at launch.

[Fascinate]

I have seen so many people that i had no idea even played video games talk/tweet about this its insane. I think this is going to be the largest release blizzard has done in many years, yes even bigger than an expansion release.

My prediction is when this comes out there will be more people playing on classic servers than live, of course i dont expect this to last forever, but for a short period i think this is a very real possibility.

[Jazzhands]

I have seen so many people that i had no idea even played video games talk/tweet about this its insane. I think this is going to be the largest release blizzard has done in many years, yes even bigger than an expansion release.

My prediction is when this comes out there will be more people playing on classic servers than live, of course i dont expect this to last forever, but for a short period i think this is a very real possibility.

I could see it for a short time. A lot of people are in for a harsh reality with Vanilla though, it definitely won't last long if it does.

[natpick]

i agree which is why we will get a average expansion this time,it gives blizz the exuse to go easy and not have too much new features in the expansion,just my opinion .

[Moxal]

For a very, very short time, perhaps.

[zlygork]

Certainly likely and, as you say, it will probably be shortlived. Comparable to the subscription spike in WoD

[bledgor]

Not even a chance lol, and the numbers it does get will plummet when people actually get a chance to play the clusterfuck that is vanilla.

Vanilla was good for its time, but by modern standards it is awful, and the community (which is what people really remember so fondly) isn't going to magically return, namely because people could still make those connections today, they choose to be lazy and not make them though.

[Daedius]

I look forward to the wave of complaints about very slow levelling, mob competition (tapping issues) for quests, slow respawn times, etc. etc. etc. before people even reach level 10...

[Fascinate]

I think blizz is smart enough to massively increase spawn rates of mobs/ore etc at launch, it would be literally unplayable if they didnt. That to me (well, and bugs) is the only thing that should be different about classic.

[Tanthoris]

Well considering blizzard hasn't released subnumbers in years, we'll never know will we?

That being said, will there be a HUGE influx of players at launch duh, but will they manage to stay entertained by a 10+ year old game that had some very outdated systems, doubt it. One of the main reasons why the private vanilla servers are so popular is because they are free, I doubt WoW classic will be free, costs too much to do something like that and keep servers running.

[facialslam]

I totally see classic being a huge success at the start.

[bmjclark]

Wouldn't surprise me. I also bet it loses 95% of it's players in less than a month.

[Fascinate]

Please dont get confused here, private server people are NOT the audience blizz is catering to. They know they have an ace in the hole with classic and ive been saying for years (really, check my old posts) that these servers were inevitable. Its truly staggering the amount of people interested in this for reasons i can and cannot think of, its gonna be on a scale none of us have ever witnessed on a launch.

[brownie]

I could see it for a short time. A lot of people are in for a harsh reality with Vanilla though, it definitely won't last long if it does.

i look forward to people realizing just how much of vanilla WoW blows compared to what it is now. about the only thing from vanilla i really cared for was pre-nerf AV where it would last all day

[Blamblam41]

Vanilla fanbois drastically overthinking the popularity of a decade and a half old game mode that is so outdated it almost physically hurts.

[Frumpy Frumpy Frak]

mob competition (tapping issues) for quests

I completely forgot about that. My already lukewarm interest in Vanilla servers has plummeted.

[hulkgor]

That's just absurd.

Only a small part of the community is actually looking forward to it and will play it (me for example! \o/).

There will be people checking it out, but those won't last longer than a couple of hours\sessions.

Whoever wanted classic will play immensely, the rest won't. So no, classic will never have more players than retail at launch, or at any point.

[Mormolyce]

We have no idea how many players live currently has, so I don't see how you'd judge that.

I strongly expect a spike at launch though. Because for one thing, that's how launches always work.

[Fascinate]

Vanilla fanbois drastically overthinking the popularity of a decade and a half old game mode that is so outdated it almost physically hurts.

Quoted for posterity

If you take your own reasons for not wanting to play vanilla out of this, and imagine the endless reasons someone would want to come back/try original wow out you start to get how large this really is going to be. Im actually scared blizzard has no idea yet, and they wont have enough servers lol.

[phealin]

Yeah I can see it having more people when it first launches up but people are gonna drop out very quickly when they realize things like
How slow it is to level up.
That they have to run to the instances.
That they can't even mount 60% mounts until lvl 40 and that's if they're really lucky and have enough money for that stuff, I remember I mounted my first 60% mount at lvl 55 or something during Vanilla, that fast and shiny 100% mount was just a distant dream at that point for me untill a friend loaned me the gold to afford it haha

Edit: All the above assuming that it's the legit thing and none of this quality of life bullshit you see people asking for suddenly now that they got what they first asked for.
I say: No good sirs and madams! You asked for vanilla servers now run from Ironforge to Scarlet Monastary only to have your tank or healer DC because you took so long so you have to hearth back to Ironforge and look for a new one another couple of hours! (I'm not bitter about that last part! You have no proof! *Flails arms*)

[Stormspellz]

depends on the time frame you call launch, they literally had to stop selling the game because of all the servers being full.