i guess they’re just comparing it to the previous Classic seasons
Ironforge.pro website shows ~5050 players over 2.2k in 2s, which happens to be right around the “Rival” cutoff (Top 10% of the ladder over 1000 rated). So we can go 5050x10= around 50,000 chars total on the 2v2 ladder above 1000 rating.
I guess this is way lower than past seasons
I have an alt that I used to cap for points for pve gear. I don’t even play him now, so he’s not on the ladder at all this season. If thousands of players all do the same as me, then the title spot total will shrink.
I think a lot of people got wrath classic, tried arenas and got over 1k rating, then uninstalled or just stopped arenas. But they were there on the ladder all the same. It’s not like participation fell off a cliff overnight when ULD patch released, I think the people have been slowly quitting throughout S5 but we didn’t see until now. Also the cutoff board this season was non-functional until like a month ago or something, which hid the problem.