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How many players are playing classic WoW?

Author

Matthew Cannon

Updated on March 06, 2026

How many players are playing classic WoW?

We took a look at some data for the first two weeks of January and found around 357,000 players still playing WoW Classic on EU and US servers. The breakdown is about 180,000 players on EU servers, and 173,000 players on US servers.

Then, do more people play classic WoW?

Over a month after its record-breaking launch, where 1.2 million people concurrently watched their favorite streamer brave server queues 20,000 players long, World of Warcraft Classic hasn't lost its allure. It's still one of the top games on Twitch and its servers are still bustling with players.

Also, why are people playing WoW Classic? The most obvious reason is nostalgia--people want to re-experience the game during the honeymoon phase when they first started playing and fell in love with it. This is, as I see it, looking at the past through rose-tinted glasses. In most ways, the game has improved significantly over time.

Secondly, is WoW classic still popular 2020?

It is 2020 and folks all over the world are still playing WoW Vanilla, the game that Blizzdrones and some people from within Blizzard fought TOOTH AND NAIL (according to Mark Kern) to keep buried under the California desert, forever. Both retail and classic. Just think about it, only 1 game to support.

Is World of Warcraft dying?

The only way WoW will ever “die” is when the servers are shut down. There really is no stopping it at this point. Even if a new shiny MMO comes out that offers the majority of stuff people want, people will still come back due to their personal investment into it.

What server is esfand on?

Esfand, Asmongold, and sodapoppin have all picked Faerlina-US. Toweliee will be playing on Pagle-US. The most popular EU realm appears to be Shazzrah, where queues exceeded 1 hour. The few EU streamers have so far picked Golemagg-EU.

Are people still playing WoW Classic?

We took a look at some data for the first two weeks of January and found around 357,000 players still playing WoW Classic on EU and US servers. The breakdown is about 180,000 players on EU servers, and 173,000 players on US servers.
According to a combination of fan estimates and official WoW subscriber numbers over the better part of two decades and seven expansions, Wow has seen its player base fall from a peak of 12 million in 2010 to just over two million at the end of 2018, the lowest it's been since 2005.

Should I play classic WoW or retail?

The experience of playing a Paladin in WoW Classic is entirely different from the experience of playing in WoW Retail. Retail is faster, more polished, and less grindy, but has a very different difficulty curve. Classic is slower and requires more grinding, but can also feel more rewarding.

Is WoW classic worth playing?

WoW classic is worth playing for anyone that enjoys games. Its an experience on its own, the ability to be placed into a living world that is free for you to explore is something else, interacting with other people and making friends along the way. This is the best time to pick up WoW in 11 years, in all honesty.

How many WoW players are there?

At its peak, World of Warcraft had about 12 million active players, though numbers have since declined. However, Blizzard expects so much interest in WoW Classic that players will have to queue to enter certain realms.

Why is retail better than classic?

Retail is a game made for an age where fast and immediate gratification and tangible rewards are required by its players. Classic was the game made for a slower paced journey. Lots of people, obviously, love and appreciate the slower paced journey.

Is WoW any good 2020?

Should you play World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth in 2020? (Updated for Patch 8.3) Best answer: For veterans, the overall end game raids and Mythic+ dungeon system is in a pretty decent place right now for the most part and worth a look.

Is WoW or WoW Classic better?

Classic World of Warcraft isn't a better game than Retail because it has better mechanics than Retail WoW. Quite the opposite actually. It's a better game because it has frustrating mechanics that force players to work together to get around them, thus forcing players to interact with each other.

Which is better WoW or WoW classic?

Classic is always going to provide engaging content, though. Gear upgrades feel more significant. I think the biggest difference is the leveling experience, classic wow was more difficult, you really didn't want to pull three mobs at once. The difficulty led to people looking to team up to get quests done faster.

How many players does WoW have now?

According to rumors , the number started at 3.2 million at the launch of Battle For Azeroth and are currently (as of October 15th, 2018) hovering around 1.7 million. I remember seeing a count of “Over 10 million active subscribers!” on advertisements for WoW a long time ago.
Classic WoW has no longevity, it's just a niche nostalgic fluff piece for an audience to play when they're bored with retail. You could make an argument based on Twitch streams/viewership numbers that Classic is more popular but that's anecdotal at best.

Is WoW classic still alive?

Classic is Undead. A rotting corpse kept alive by foul means. In 3-6 months he'll still be here, but instead it will be “Give it 1-2 years.”

How many players are on a WoW server?

The estimated number from 2004-2006 is that each server could hold 2500-3000 players. Even though the servers can hold more than that, it causes issues.

Is WoW Classic doing well?

The good news is that Classic doesn't really need to carry the torch—Blizzard apparently has the pieces in place so it can run on existing servers, and you get access with your WoW subscription. So as long as WoW remains a thing, WoW Classic will stick around.

How long will WoW Classic last?

Depends entirely on the content release cycle. If they release Naxx a year after, I bet most people will leave around Naxx just because of the end of the vanilla content cycle and it honestly being the least interesting part of vanilla. Say they do each state 9 months apart, it will last 3-4 years.

Is WoW retail Worth Playing 2020?

Simply put, World of Warcraft is not very accessible for newcomers in 2020 purely based on how incoherent and disorganized the legacy content is. If you fancy giving WoW retail a try again, it might be worth simply waiting for that at this point, since it should release later this year.