Does Classic have more players than retail?

[Elias01]

As a rough metric you can look at number of high pop realms. Retail has twice as much high pop realms than Classic. So I have hard time believing such claims.

Except retail realm status ia based on number of characters created no on currently active players. Also high populated classic realm can hold far more players than retail.

[hulkgor]

Only Blizzard knows, and even then most are 'duplicates' across both games.

That said, no, it's completely unlikely that Classic has more players than retail, even if it has a very healthy amount of players, and way more than expected at launch.

[arkanon]

As a rough metric you can look at number of high pop realms. Retail has twice as much high pop realms than Classic. So I have hard time believing such claims.

No, that doesnt work. Retail has a FAR bigger playerbase, but this is not an accurate way to measure it, for a few reasons....one being they have different server sizes to begin with.

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Except retail realm status ia based on number of characters created no on currently active players. Also high populated classic realm can hold far more players than retail.

Um..................

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Some people simply dont understand how the majority of WoW Classic players are literally already active retail subbers, bored with 8.2 or BFA , and Blizzard did exactly what they planned, to keep people spending money on subs, instead of unsubbing till 8.3 , or even 9.0.

I am floored by the number of classic fans who completely deny this. I suspect even some of those denying it are subbed retail players themselves.

[FiveOneTwo]

Except retail realm status ia based on number of characters created no on currently active players. Also high populated classic realm can hold far more players than retail.

Both of these things are wrong.

The second point especially since classic realms are restricted to only one layer (minus a couple that have two or three still until phase two at the latest)

[lollerlaban]

If you think classic has more players then you're just retarded beyond belief

[ablib]

I think a good way to gauge which version of the game is more popular is by checking the downloads of addon updates for addon makers that write separate versions (Classic & Retail) for the same addon, then see which one has more downloads. For the addons I use, the Classic version consistently has more downloads than their BfA counterparts.

As an example, see the below links for Bagnon and Details!:

https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/bagnon/files

https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/details/files


Remember, the OP asked which version of the game had more players, not how many subscribers total. If we treated this as polling data, then it would conclude that Classic has more players.

[illiterite]

What is the point to this argument on a daily basis? There will never be an answer.

And if there was an answer, if Bliz came out tomorrow and said "RETAIL HAS MORE PLAYERS THAN CLASSIC IN EVERY SINGLE MEASURABLE METRIC" what would happen?

Would classic players wake up and admit "defeat" and stop playing? Would retail enthusiasts receive some sort of badge of loyalty that they can display in game?

Play what you want to play, or get something meaningful in your life? The internet is a baffling place.

[RoKPaNda]

You can't do that however, as one classic realm could be equal to 5-10 retail high pop realms.

Blizzard changed the way u see population after classic popularity at launch, i can link u source.

In retail servers show populations in relation to each other.

That means retail could have 10k players and still have more high pop realms than classic

Wowhead have a article posted about this 1 week after classic launch.

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I would say its highely unlikely retail have more players than classic. If you look at twitch as thats the best metric we have atm, you can see classic out performs retail 10:1.

Remember how big classic realms are, and even now 2 months after launch we still have layering on over half of the servers.

If you compare this to bfa launch, people started unsubbing day 5, after they completed all content.

I'm playing Classic and enjoying it, but there's been an absolutely massive drop off in players. Hence why Dire Maul was released early though that probably didn't help much. This was expected by everyone including Blizzard though.

[Seranthor]

I'm hearing people saying that classic has more players than retail. How do you see that? How do they know? Is there a way to see classic and retail populations?

'people' dont know which has more... Blizzard does know... And Blizzard aint tellin'

[Doffen]

Except retail realm status ia based on number of characters created no on currently active players. Also high populated classic realm can hold far more players than retail.

Yeah, because blizzard doesn't use same tech for retail servers compared to classic... If classic servers can hold far more players than retail, then blizzard would change retail servers to that. Blzzard said that Classic servers are bigger than the servers was in VANILLA, 12-15 years ago.

This thread reeks of fact twists and biases. There is no way anyone here knows who got the most players. As someone said, their medium server in retail is dead. Well, my medium retail server is packed. So whos right? It's just anecdotal.

[reokotsae]

both versions have enough to comfortably run all content available, which is all you need really

[Brewhan]

Just login to retail in the middle of the night 1 day before the weekly reset, basicly on the worst day to do anything and...

... you see multiple raids still doing the pvp evens (IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT)
... you see everywhere players doing WQ's (PARAGON)
... you get N/HC/M raids running (IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT)
... you got like 9 pages long scroll for M+ keys 10-20 running (IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT) as ALLIANCE (small population)

I am not sure how people can even come to the conclusion that the population is even comperable, I guess they log in to stormwind and decide nobody is playing?!

If even the classic streamers are clear about the huge decline in classic population, what gives you even the slightest hint it could be otherwise?

But just login yourself in both version and tell me what you see.

You must play on EU because this is a lie on NA realms. There might be 3-4 groups at best which are very picky of what class they want at "worst day to do anything" time of night.

[Elias01]

both versions have enough to comfortably run all content available, which is all you need really

Not really. Becouse if classic truly have bigger playerbase than 2 things will happen. New content for classic with reduction of developer resources for retail or retail will change to appeal vlassic audience. ActiBlizz will never pour monwy into something what cant support itself without puring in dollars from classic subs.

[Dziubla]

I think a good way to gauge which version of the game is more popular is by checking the downloads of addon updates for addon makers that write separate versions (Classic & Retail) for the same addon, then see which one has more downloads. For the addons I use, the Classic version consistently has more downloads than their BfA counterparts.

As an example, see the below links for Bagnon and Details!:

https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/bagnon/files

https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/details/files


Remember, the OP asked which version of the game had more players, not how many subscribers total. If we treated this as polling data, then it would conclude that Classic has more players.

Except on retail, whatever addon you want, there is at least a dozen (and more) of addons that do the exact same thing. On classic? Usually much fewer, so comparing a few single addons will give you much skewed results...as always, in these threads.

Oh, and OP - No.

[Doffen]

You must play on EU because this is a lie on NA realms. There might be 3-4 groups at best which are very picky of what class they want at "worst day to do anything" time of night.

I play in EU and the activity with raids and especially m+ is as busy as always. The impression I have got, is that classic is way more popular in NA compared to EU. Could be just a gut feeling or course. Today at prime time in EU on my medium retail server with sharding it was at least 25+ groups for each dungeon at any given time in average. At the moment at 1.40 am in the weekend its usually 10+.

Rough estimate, but every night these days there must be tens of thousand m+ runs going. I can sit for 5-10 mins just queuing for a m+ and see groups getting full fast af. For a 15 year old game, pretty good. And I hear its buzzing in classic too. Isn't that great.

[Relapses]

Here's how you figure out which version of the game is more popular:

First, pick your favorite version of the game.* Got it? Okay, great. This next step is important. Now you need to find a happy echo chamber. I'll give you a hint. You're currently in the Classic discussion forum so you're going to find a lot of people who think retail is a dumpster fire. If you want a retail echo chamber you'll need to visit General Discussions... just mind the 9.0 leak threads. Alright, now that you've found your preferred echo chamber all you need to do is tell everybody that your friendlist shows more people playing your preferred version of the game. Seeing as all you really wanted was validation from internet strangers, you'll assuredly have plenty of people agreeing that your entirely anecdotal evidence is proof that your version of the game is winning. Boom!

*IMPORTANT: You cannot like both versions of WoW. This is NOT allowed. And really, let's be honest. You really like one version more anyway. We both know it.

[KYZ123]

I think a good way to gauge which version of the game is more popular is by checking the downloads of addon updates for addon makers that write separate versions (Classic & Retail) for the same addon, then see which one has more downloads. For the addons I use, the Classic version consistently has more downloads than their BfA counterparts.

As an example, see the below links for Bagnon and Details!:

Remember, the OP asked which version of the game had more players, not how many subscribers total. If we treated this as polling data, then it would conclude that Classic has more players.

I think that's an awful way to gauge which version of the game is more popular.

Firstly, that doesn't tell you 'how many people use that addon', it's 'how many people downloaded that version of the addon'. I fairly rarely update my addons, unless it breaks or disables itself due to being out of date, so I'm not counted there. Equally, you can update an addon and not actually be playing the game - doesn't Curse launcher or whatever do that automatically?

It also assumes equal demand for addons in both versions. For example, retail has the 'clean up bags' option, which may make Bagnon less desirable to have, while classic does not, so a larger proportion of classic players would download Bagnon.

Building on that - and this one is based on a few assumptions - I'd assume that retail has a higher proportion of casual players than classic, due to its larger number of casual-friendly features. I'd also assume that casual players tend to use fewer addons, since they're less necessary for casual play. If those assumptions were correct, then the addon statistics for classic would include a higher proportion of their overall playerbase than for retail.

Basically, it's highly unreliable as polling data.

[xGLxAnubis]

Except on retail, whatever addon you want, there is at least a dozen (and more) of addons that do the exact same thing. On classic? Usually much fewer, so comparing a few single addons will give you much skewed results...as always, in these threads.

Oh, and OP - No.

Except that he picked Details! as one of his examples... Which has the same number of 'competitors' between the two versions >_>

And I would actually argue that LESS Classic players use addons when compared to Retail (In terms of percentage); a lot of people in Classic refuse to use addons because they weren't popular during Vanilla and so they didn't use them then either. I certainly come across more people in Classic that say they don't have a damage addons when in Retail, I can't remember the last time someone said that. Everyone* did.

As a result, Add-on downloads might be one of the best population metrics we have.

*By everyone, I clearly mean the vast majority to the point that it was hard to find someone who didn't.

[Relapses]

Except that he picked Details! as one of his examples... Which has the same number of 'competitors' between the two versions >_>

And I would actually argue that LESS Classic players use addons when compared to Retail (In terms of percentage); a lot of people in Classic refuse to use addons because they weren't popular during Vanilla and so they didn't use them then either. I certainly come across more people in Classic that say they don't have a damage addons when in Retail, I can't remember the last time someone said that. Everyone* did.

As a result, Add-on downloads might be one of the best population metrics we have.

*By everyone, I clearly mean the vast majority to the point that it was hard to find someone who didn't.

I disagree and assert that Google search popularity is more accurate. I have no real evidence to support this but I personally believe it to be more accurate. And since I'm the center of the known universe, I'm right. End of story.

[Kiri]

Except that he picked Details! as one of his examples... Which has the same number of 'competitors' between the two versions >_>

And I would actually argue that LESS Classic players use addons when compared to Retail (In terms of percentage); a lot of people in Classic refuse to use addons because they weren't popular during Vanilla and so they didn't use them then either. I certainly come across more people in Classic that say they don't have a damage addons when in Retail, I can't remember the last time someone said that. Everyone* did.

As a result, Add-on downloads might be one of the best population metrics we have.

*By everyone, I clearly mean the vast majority to the point that it was hard to find someone who didn't.

That just leads down multiple rabbit holes, to be honest. I mean, if you say that fewer players use addons in vanilla, you also have to consider that a lot of retail players don't update their addons unless they screw up, while the Vanilla probably has a higher number of 'first downloaders'. But then there might be a counter argument to that, then to that counter argument - it'd probably be a mess. There are far too many variables here to really use that as a metric, imho, unless you can somehow track the active number of users of all somewhat recent versions of an addon.