Confirmation, Classic wow has "MILLIONS" of players.

[FuxieDK]

Its strange how many people on MMO Champ HATE WoW Classic......its sad.

Maybe, because it's a 15 years old game, that have actually IMPROVED for (almost) every expansion...

[playfull]

is there any word on what they will do with layering?

phase 2 announced and major servers still layered!

[Mosotti]

Maybe, because it's a 15 years old game, that have actually IMPROVED for (almost) every expansion...

Yeah, it's a very improved version, it improved so much it turned into Diablo.

[Thage]

In fairness it's reasonable to assume classic brought back more inactive players than it stole from retail.

This, if for no other reason than it likely enticed many players who left in the standard lifetime churn from TBC onwards. I would also wager a lot of the people enticed back stayed away from private servers for the same reason I could never really get invested in private servers: the frequency of shutdowns and bias toward 'seasonal' server design meant it generally wasn't worth my time to get invested in them at any serious length.

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That census is pure shit. Millions came, millions left and millions still remain (surprisingly I would say)...

Not sure why it's surprising. People like what they like, and there's a big market for nostalgia and retro gaming. Runescape Old-School and the popularity of retro gaming streams/Let's Plays is enough evidence of that. Especially with modern AAA gaming an absolute shitstorm of microtransactions and death-by-a-thousand-cuts game design meant to push you into those microtransactions, older games and game design is making a strong comeback among players who are sick of it.

I'd wager, hell, I'd put my paycheck on it, that a number of game systems in Shadowlands, including the leveling revamp and unpruning of 'flavor' skills like paladin auras, shaman totems, and Eyes of the Beast, came about because of Classic's projected success (projections it seems to have once again surpassed, since it again came in on an almost perfect storm of timing and marketing just like initial release) and wanting to entice Classic-only players into trying out retail coupled with the free 120 boost for your first level 60 in Classic.

[Oakshana]

Its strange how many people on MMO Champ HATE WoW Classic......its sad.

I don't hate WoW Classic. I don't hate retail.

I hate the incessant back and forth of one being better than the other, or that Classic won't last, or that Classic is killing retail. If someone likes one over the other, completely fine. Just stop being a dick about is all I am asking.

Given the opportunity, a lot of people will be assholes over completely inconsequential things.

[dacoolist]

Its strange how many people on MMO Champ HATE WoW Classic......its sad.

a lot of retail hates it because it takes away from the player pool that's ever decreasing on a 15 YEAR OLD game lol..

Classic hates on retail because they feel superior when they are LEGIT playing a CUCKED version of WoW in the first place..

So to answer your question: Everyone's crying a river

If people can't deal with fun banter back and forth - if it's TOO MUCH for people to handle - log off and don't come back

#notmyWOWcommunity #growsomethickerskin #games15yearsold #getoffmylawn

[kenn9530]

It was mentioned twice already, Classic wow brought back millions of subs to World of Warcraft.
My assumption is 3.5m subs.

WoW classic has already burned down to the people who would of played it anyway, the lack of layering proves that many have already went back to retail and may occasionally pop on classic now and then, there is nothing to do in classic that you cant do in retail and thats what people realise, would be lucky to still have 500k on classic right now.

My belief? Probably around 4-5 million active subscribers for classic. Maybe more, maybe less. We'll see some numbers soon enough.

there is not even that amount subbed to WoW in general let alone just classic, and the servers for classic cant support that many players, all the servers now dont have more than 1 layer now, maybe US can support 1 million and EU can do the same.

[Relapses]

Blizzard will release their monthly active user numbers on the 7th of November. The previous time they released those numbers covered a period up to the end of July, still there's a few things we can say right now.

Considering how virtually every realm that existed on launch of classic is full and many are still layered right now then it falls within those kind of assumption that we have millions playing classic.

Consider a situation where you have 10k or so players online on average on most realms every night. That's easily close to 1 million people online every night at the same time, and people currently online even at peak hours only represent a portion of the overall subscription base.

My belief? Probably around 4-5 million active subscribers for classic. Maybe more, maybe less. We'll see some numbers soon enough.

Even with MAUs, unless Blizzard specifically states "{x number} of people are playing Classic," we're only going to get broad strokes. Of course, people like the OP will be quick to spin whatever numbers as overwhelmingly positive in favor of Classic but reality is that one version of the game out performing the other doesn't fucking matter at all to Blizzard as long as both players are paying the same sub fee. There was very little mention of Classic at BlizzCon because... surprise: The retail game is still more important.

P.S. 5 million playing Classic is absolutely fucking ludicrous.

[Twdft]

It was clearly stated that "CLASSIC brought back MILLIONS of subscriber" word for word.

Why do you still lie about something that is easily disproven? You been repeatedly corrected.

[Irian]

I find it impressive that the WoW community is so comically toxic that we have to have these huge 8+ page threads talking about how much the community hates itself.

They're the same fucking people. If you're subbed for one game you're subbed for both. Yes, almost everyone subbed probably at least made a character on Classic because you had nothing to lose for doing so. But more importantly, who gives a shit? Why is this even a discussion?

[Ange]

I love the classic subforum!

With nothing classic related at blizzcon, I can only guess that the AWC shop pet most likely outdid classic subs.

But why, oh why are people mentioning server status (low/middle/high) when they allready said they can use additional hardware on demand and just reduce it if its not needed? low/middle/high represent nothing comperable, since 2 servers with the same amount of players could show different status sizes depending on the configuration.

The amount of attention to classic should be a good indication to its significance in playerbase and earning.

The whole comparison between retail and classic is silly. How many classic-only subs is a single retail sub/shop combo even worth for blizzard? 3,5, more?

[Rehija]

Played for nearly 15 years and im drawn back to classic like a moth to a lamp.

No Balance, but also no changes or Buffs / Nerfs depending on how loud some classes whine. No "powerlevel?" or some related shit like that when you want to play a dungeon. A clear situation on where the classes stand, what they can and cannot do and a much more relaxed community to begin with.

[KaPe]

I was among those "millions", just like most of my guild. And yet, we're back to retail, with only two players still playing Classic in their spare time. It's was the case for many people - it's "free" since we're already subscribed, so why not check it out? Even those who quit after just few hours will count in the statistics.

It was still a pretty succesful launch (well, ignoring queues and lags), there's no denying that, but nothing in that statements says how many people are playing right now - and how many of those were returning players.

[varren]

Its definitely fizzled out a bit. Them launching Dire Maul early was not a good sign.

[Adam Jensen]

So disgusted of the Retail fanboyism on this board, which is why I stopped posting.

Classic vs Retail, to each their own, but Classic fanboyism is just as bad.

[Schattenlied]

Those "subs" are retail and live, so we can't really differentiate between the two.

We can't, but Blizzard can, they know who is playing what... If they say classic has millions of players, it means classic has millions of players.

[Aleloron]

I don’t know if it’s brought *millions* back, but it has certainly brought a fair amount of players back. I switch between Retail and Classic and my Classic server (Bloodsail Admiral, I think) is every bit as busy as Wyrmrest Accord - Horde, so it’s definitely in a pretty good place right now.

[Adam Jensen]

Its strange how many people on MMO Champ HATE WoW Classic......its sad.

Hate? No.

Get annoyed by the constant "Classic is better than Retail!!!!" posts? Yeah.

It's strange how many people on MMO Champ HATE WoW Retail.......its sad.

[Dergiab]

Hate? No.

Get annoyed by the constant "Classic is better than Retail!!!!" posts? Yeah.

It's strange how many people on MMO Champ HATE WoW Retail.......its sad.

This is the classic forums, what do you expect? And why the fuck are you here being annoyed?

[Krille]

A lot of people played Classic on its launch. A lot of people also stopped playing after x amount of levels. What he's saying is that millions of people played classic, I can tell you right now that every single person on my friendslist tried and some stayed on Classic. The regular sub included Classic so why wouldnt everyone at least try it? Doesnt mean there are millions of new subs for Classic alone.

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This is the classic forums, what do you expect? And why the fuck are you here being annoyed?

Why do people resort to tribal "us vs them" instantly? We're playing the same game. I see lots of Classic people saying "Classic is the new retail" on retail boards too. It's childish and annoying to read, be happy everyone is funneling money into Blizzard so they can continue create games.