But is it really the cost? This argument gets thrown around alot, even by Blizzard but the moment you start to actually look at numbers it stops making sense.
I mean if we calculate one devs cost as $10k/m and one gm/support at $5k even a dedicated 5+5 team would only cost $75k/m. Hardware acquisition is a one-time fee with small upkeep fees. Electricity/bandwith are laughably small compared to other costs. Even a measly 10k players would bring in $150k/m. Realistically it would be much higher. Additional realms are cheaper since you only need more support, not devs.