this might be shocking revelation for you, but a lot of people play on free private servers bcs they are FREE
- - - Updated - - -
i assume its pulled from the same "source" that tells you classic only population is MASSIVE part of the wow playerbase, of which we dont know the size, not even the total size for both (all 3 actualy now) compared, just the MAU for whole company covering what, half a dozen other games?
how about the fact they were closing and combining realms in classic lately (which are smaller than retail ones to begin with)? or you ignored that as it didnt support your "facts"?