How many Classic servers at launch and what will be the server cap?

[ossyc]

Taking in to account that Blizzard will have to accommodate the tourists.

There could be 5 million+ on launch day, so a rough estimate here, what could be the server number and cap Blizzard goes for?

I think Classic was 2500 at launch.

200 hundred servers is 500.000. It will need a huge number. Maybe 10000 per server to keep the server numbers low?

[ManiaCCC]

5 mil seems to be too optimistic to me. While there will be surge for sure, it wont be THAT huge. Also they can just create instances of zones now, can't they?

[Deleted]

5 mil seems to be too optimistic to me. While there will be surge for sure, it wont be THAT huge. Also they can just create instances of zones now, can't they?

I think it's a reasonable estimate.

3000 0000-6000 000 people at launch.

1000 000-2000 000 people in the long-term.

That's what I think we'll see

[ossyc]

Classic won't use the phasing tech, it most likely will be on the one shard, so the numbers will be astronomical.

[ManiaCCC]

I think it's a reasonable estimate.

3000 0000-6000 000 people at launch.

1000 000-2000 000 people in the long-term.

That's what I think we'll see

Damn, your numbers are hard to read. But I would love to know how you actually got these numbers. WoW classic, despite all the good things, is not just current game and it will be niche (i will still play it). If classic will manage to have at least 500k players in long term, It will be god damn miracle.

Launch numbers are hard to predict. It is certainly possible that many retail players will hop in, to watch what is all that fuss about, but will return to main game rather quickly. So while I can see how first hours/days numbers could be VERY high, it will be just for a short time. After that, couple of Classic severs will do it. Well, at least 4 for each region.

[ossyc]

Damn, your numbers are hard to read. But I would love to know how you actually got these numbers. WoW classic, despite all the good things, is not just current game and it will be niche (i will still play it). If classic will manage to have at least 500k players in long term, It will be god damn miracle.

Launch numbers are hard to predict. It is certainly possible that many retail players will hop in, to watch what is all that fuss about, but will return to main game rather quickly. So while I can see how first hours/days numbers could be VERY high, it will be just for a short time. After that, couple of Classic severs will do it. Well, at least 4 for each region.

Lmao 4 servers for each region? By 1.12 I think the servers were only 3,500

If the servers were even 10,000, you're saying that there would only be 80,000 playing Classic, 40,000 for each region? Haha......

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

Where are you guys getting these numbers?

[ManiaCCC]

Lmao 4 servers for each region? By 1.12 I think the servers were only 3,500

If the servers were even 10,000, you're saying that there would only be 40,000 playing Classic, 40,000 for each region? Haha......

well, 4 is bare minimum because of PvP/PvE/RP combinations. Also you have to understand that general rule for MMOs is "at peak, up to 10% of playerbase is logged in" - which may or may not be true in this case, however if we go with these numbers, 4 servers holding up to 10k players can support playerbase size up to 400k. Which honestly, sounds too much for each region.

Where are you guys getting these numbers?

I could tell you but you wont like it

[Deleted]

Taking in to account that Blizzard will have to accommodate the tourists.

There could be 5 million+ on launch day, so a rough estimate here, what could be the server number and cap Blizzard goes for?

I think Classic was 2500 at launch.

200 hundred servers is 500.000. It will need a huge number. Maybe 10000 per server to keep the server numbers low?

They'll probably underestimate thereby giving people a chance to experience what it was really like when WoW first released.

The ultimate classic experience.

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

I could tell you but you wont like it

I'm willing to bet that, regardless of whatever numbers you have it will likely be much less.

[ManiaCCC]

I'm willing to bet that, regardless of whatever numbers you have it will likely be much less.

I am already quite realistic/pessimistic about these numbers so hopefully, it wont be much lower. but lets see.

[Deleted]

Damn, your numbers are hard to read. But I would love to know how you actually got these numbers. WoW classic, despite all the good things, is not just current game and it will be niche (i will still play it). If classic will manage to have at least 500k players in long term, It will be god damn miracle.

Launch numbers are hard to predict. It is certainly possible that many retail players will hop in, to watch what is all that fuss about, but will return to main game rather quickly. So while I can see how first hours/days numbers could be VERY high, it will be just for a short time. After that, couple of Classic severs will do it. Well, at least 4 for each region.

Fair point. However, Take a look at the wow reddit most upvoted and commented thread. It's not the one about BFA, it's the one about classic wow (actually it's 5 times more upvoted and comment than it). And look at how many famous people are hyped about it, streamers, players...

Yes, the majority of the people won't keep playing classic wow, probably 75-80% of the playerbase will stop playing this version of the game after 1-2 months, but I still believe that at least a million people will play it in the long-term.

If even a private server like Nostalrius could have a community of hundreds of thousands of people, then imagine what it will be like on retail.

[Shamu]

Damn, your numbers are hard to read. But I would love to know how you actually got these numbers. WoW classic, despite all the good things, is not just current game and it will be niche (i will still play it). If classic will manage to have at least 500k players in long term, It will be god damn miracle.

Launch numbers are hard to predict. It is certainly possible that many retail players will hop in, to watch what is all that fuss about, but will return to main game rather quickly. So while I can see how first hours/days numbers could be VERY high, it will be just for a short time. After that, couple of Classic severs will do it. Well, at least 4 for each region.

people seem to think it will hit 20mil+ players and stay like that and never go down,

[ManiaCCC]

If even a private server like Nostalrius could have a community of hundreds of thousands of people, then imagine what it will be like on retail.

Good point, however it was registered users. For example WoW probably have up to 100 million registered users/players but it doesn't mean it ever had that many players.

Just putting things into perspective, not that I disagree with you.

[Deleted]

2500 was estimated to be the cap of servers in vanilla, but much more because of hardware and software limitations and not because blizzard felt like 2500 was a good number.

But i feel like 5000 could be a good number, they have to be careful about not allowing too many people online at once, as the vanilla/classic world scales poorly.
While today you can tag the same mobs, loot the same mobs, loot the same objects and have sharding to keep players spread. You have nothing of that sort in vanilla.

We can assume that a big part of their current subs will want to try out classic servers when they launch, especially if they launch in between patches. Aswell as a decent number of older players or unsubbed players wanting to get on and try it.

Excluding returning players we could make a guess and say that wow have 4-5 mil subs and atleast 10%(most likely more) of them will be online at the same time, giving us 400-500k players online.
then we can assume that atleast 50% will want to try out classic when it launches, giving us 200-250k.
with 5k pop a server that will be 40-50 servers.
Obviously a lot of them is gonna drop back out again once they realise it's not for them, so making that many servers will be a waste and having around 15-20 servers is more likely for the long run. With the option to add more if it ends up a lot more populare than thought.

But obviously this is by guessing and assuming a bunch of stuff, seeing as we have no numbers of subs or active players.

[ossyc]

2500 was estimated to be the cap of servers in vanilla, but much more because of hardware and software limitations and not because blizzard felt like 2500 was a good number.

But i feel like 5000 could be a good number, they have to be careful about not allowing too many people online at once, as the vanilla/classic world scales poorly.
While today you can tag the same mobs, loot the same mobs, loot the same objects and have sharding to keep players spread. You have nothing of that sort in vanilla.

We can assume that a big part of their current subs will want to try out classic servers when they launch, especially if they launch in between patches. Aswell as a decent number of older players or unsubbed players wanting to get on and try it.

Excluding returning players we could make a guess and say that wow have 4-5 mil subs and atleast 10%(most likely more) of them will be online at the same time, giving us 400-500k players online.
then we can assume that atleast 50% will want to try out classic when it launches, giving us 200-250k.
with 5k pop a server that will be 40-50 servers.
Obviously a lot of them is gonna drop back out again once they realise it's not for them, so making that many servers will be a waste and having around 15-20 servers is more likely for the long run. With the option to add more if it ends up a lot more populare than thought.

But obviously this is by guessing and assuming a bunch of stuff, seeing as we have no numbers of subs or active players.

Good points.

How many returning players, a conservative estimate of 2 million?

I think they will launch between 50-80 servers with a 5k cap, as you say.

[Othraerir]

you guys think there will be any oceanic servers? not sure 200-250ms is realistic this day (but then there's the silly argument of that's what it was like for us back in the day)

[durenas]

I believe there will be one server per region, for each type(pve or pvp)

[Re4leader1]

5m subs???? You dudes smoking wayyy to much you think there's gonna be anything even near 1m people lmao

[Qnubi]

I am thinking it will be 4x2 and 2x2 per Language region. So 4 PvE servers, 4 PvP servers and 2 RP-PvE servers 2 RP-PvP servers for example EU English, then the same for German, Russia etc. America will probably get double. That's my estimate at least.