Thanks to IronforgePro, the latest raid numbers are out and they’re surprisingly low. At just 157,114 characters who have raid logs, this marks the lowest participated opening week in the Classic timeline.
I think the biggest issue here, is that MoP and beyond, are versions of the game that are so close to current retail and so much further away from “classic” (Vanilla/TBC/Some of WOTLK) that many have no reason to play these versions of the game that don’t fully satisfy whatever kind of player you might be (classic enjoyer just goes on anniversary/hardcore/era, retail can stay on retail for a better version of the game).
When classic was first announced many years ago, people literally used to meme “can’t wait for MoP or WoD classic :^)” and yet here we are, with some people in full denial. I think it stems from people not ready to give up or move on from their characters they’ve been so invested in since 2019 classic, wanting continued progression through expansions that aren’t classic because if they hear that classic won’t be proceeding anymore it will cause further decline and disinterest.
This is not even mentioning the massive can of worms that Blizzard has opened, what happens to classic toons, do they go to retail with their uncollectables, or do they stay on some kind of MoP era realm.
Other small things that impacting numbers as well
- We just MOP Remix last year
- Overlapping release with the new retail patch
To sum it up, classic 2019 should’ve stopped with WOTLK, with all of those realms becoming permanent wrath-era realms, and then a new cycle begins. When the new cycle reaches and completes wrath, all those chars are then transferred to the original, permanent wrath-era realms, and then the cycle starts again with fresh servers starting at vanilla again.
