Where are all the players?

[Masternap]

Playing Shadowlands feels like running through a ghost town. I barely see anybody, and I've tried both WM on and off. I've been doing world quests for hours and I've seen maybe 5 people in total.

There's nobody while leveling, nobody to help with the overly long objectives, nobody to fight in the PvP world quests. Is this a result of phasing, am I on a dead server or has everyone already stopped playing? I clearly remember every single world quest having a lot of people when BfA launched.

What happened? I feel like I'm playing a single player game.

[Gestopft]

Sharding and/or phasing mostly, and also depending on server. And I think you're right- it has felt pretty sparse while leveling especially compared to previous expansions.

There was one side quest I did (capturing a monster for the Theater of Pain in Maldraxxus) which took me to a zone that was apparently not sharded and it was WAAAAAAY crowded. The people are there; I think they may have fewer players per shard than before or something.

[Rustedsaint]

Everywhere I go I see people even when I want to solo I see people running around taking my quest.

[Big Thanks]

I had the same experience.

The Maw is very populated always...but otherwise it was very deserted even on day 1 launch

I presume Blizzard took measures to have a smooth launch and heavy sharded everything.

[Glormon]

The Maw is very populated always

I presume Blizzard took measures to have a smooth launch and heavy sharded everything.

There seems to be a few spots wherre the sharding either isn't on or doesnt work, thinking special places like that one quest in Maldraxxus where you go into that floating island area. See like 100 players there each time I go, similar story to the Maw.

Echoing Shadow but I think they've just heavily sharded to have less player blockage.

[Lionhearte0]

It's weird, because I'll be questing and see maybe 2 or 3 others alongside me, but every so often will come to a quest area and there's 30-40 people all crowded around. Particularly in hot spot areas like the slime area in Maldraxxus to get the mount. I've seen dozens and dozens of people there even late night at 3 am PST.

[Mad_Murdock]

What happened? I feel like I'm playing a single player game.

Are you on a RP server? My big annoyance is that all the WQs I do always has tons of the opposite faction tagging up all the mobs. Outside of that, definitely doesn't feel like a ghost town on my server grouping.

[Masternap]

Are you on a RP server? My big annoyance is that all the WQs I do always has tons of the opposite faction tagging up all the mobs. Outside of that, definitely doesn't feel like a ghost town on my server grouping.

I'm not on a RP server. When I see people, I actually see them from a lot of different servers. I doubt that there are so few people across so many realms. Judging from the responses so far, it seems that this is definitely due to sharding.

I wish there was a way to change to the more populated ones. I'm standing in my covenant base in Maldraxxus right now and there's not a single other person there. It's friday, how can that be?

[Makabreska]

I'm not on a RP server. When I see people, I actually see them from a lot of different servers. I doubt that there are so few people across so many realms. Judging from the responses so far, it seems that this is definitely due to sharding.

I wish there was a way to change to the more populated ones. I'm standing in my covenant base in Maldraxxus right now and there's not a single other person there. It's friday, how can that be?

Yeee, sorry for me to doubt that statement.

[Masternap]

Yeee, sorry for me to doubt that statement.

Then don't believe me, but it's pretty much what I'm seeing right now. A few people here and there, most of the time complete emptiness.

"/who maw" only gives me 43 results right now. I feel like that should be waaay beyond 50 right at the launch of Shadowlands.

[dope_danny]

I'm lvl60 and about the finish the Revendreth part of the main story quest and so far i've seen 6 other alliance players. Thats it.

[Eurhetemec]

Then don't believe me, but it's pretty much what I'm seeing right now. A few people here and there, most of the time complete emptiness.

"/who maw" only gives me 43 results right now. I feel like that should be waaay beyond 50 right at the launch of Shadowlands.

I would bet that if you physically go to the Maw you're going to see a lot more than 43 people more or less immediately.

[Teriz]

I was leveling an alt in Kultiras and it was packed with people.

[ZazuuPriest]

it feels so empty because of phasing and sharding. During leveling its most likely phasing and at max level its most likely sharding.

The leveling experience feels more like a single-player game than it ever has in SL. Beyond the fact that you likely are not seeing many people the quests and NPCs all speak to you as if you, the "maw walker" are a singular anomaly not a small part of your particular faction

[natpick]

i agree running around most areas it seems like a mmo in decline,its clearly not and im sure the servers have many players on them at any given time,its the sharding making it seem less populated,not a good look imho for a big mmo,part of an mmorpg is the feeling that your surounded by other players all hanging around doing different stuff,pretty hard when you cant see them,and the people saying you must be on a dead server,just stop.

[Ladey Gags]

I’m grateful for this overly used sharding. I absolutely hate questing around dozens of other players, it’s the most unimmersive annoying competitive thing you can experience in this game, and thankfully in warmode on a RP server I don’t have to deal with that crap at all. It feels perfect—I see a few other players at quest hubs and maybe out around quest objectives but not being surrounded by a million other hamsters on the wheel is nice

[kenn9530]

Then don't believe me, but it's pretty much what I'm seeing right now. A few people here and there, most of the time complete emptiness.

"/who maw" only gives me 43 results right now. I feel like that should be waaay beyond 50 right at the launch of Shadowlands.

Maybe the shards are set to around 50 i would guess so you can only ever see who is on your shard.

[Steelcryo]

Phasing is set extremely heavily at the moment. While it does feel a bit quiet at times, not having to compete for every mob and objective is nice.

[doodle90]

I see tons more people in threads of fate leveling, maybe the questlines are heavily phased and so you only see people in your shard+on the phase of the questline you are in.

[Nalam the Venom]

There is only 1 "Mawwalker", it would be weird to see more than 1.