I don't know what this point is trying to measure. Are we using Goldshire because it's a low level area? or a popular hangout.... I think I last logged onto FFXIV and saw 100+ people in Limsa around the teleport and then 40-60 in the Adventurer's guild in Ul'dah alone.
I don't quite understand why goldshire is worth mentioning.... quick look around Durotar/Silverpine/barrens on my server had like 9 players... But I don't think Wyrmrest is a popular server for general play anymore as most the guilds I use to know moved elsewhere.
This is a bit weird atm..... up to September 2021 changing as we go...
WoW active player count from one site: 2.2m
FFXIV's from same people 2.7m
The daily chart is pretty interesting. I don't know how accurate they are yet but at this point I think
I mean yeah... the king is the one that can afford to make bad decisions for years, and people still act like it's going alright. Just look at Nintendo. Hasn't really won any of the console wars this decade but still going strong for the next decade because they got that pre-electric gaming money and a couple IP older than the people lining up to run the businesses.
edit:
I am not trying to saw any game is dying or that one is becoming the new king or whatever. That argument is bullshit. I would like to highlight however that it's beyond silly how some people want to argue one game is on top... like Twitch views or player count in a region... Goldshire for example isn't a required leveling area and isn't even in a default starting region anymore. Likewise trying to equate s region like whatever Thanalan or shroud to it will fall flat because the leveling design of THAT game doesn't adhere to the same sort of leveling path.
edit2:
also The current "king" as people like to post... only sees it's "king" worthy spikes of interest on major patch updates and then drops down to levels that are respectable for other games shortly after as everyone shifts into raid/reset log mode because, lets face it... we aren't all spamming 15+ keys and cycling through arena/rated BG's and hell most the altaholics have been driven off by Anima and renown.
edit3:
teach me to not skim things... MMORPG were in existence for upwards of a decade prior to WoW being made predating the warcraft RTS release.
While WoW might be MANY players first experience with MMO's that is not proof that WoW created the MMORPG genre.