I logged on last night expecting a que or at least expecting that launch day rush of tons of people. It’s something I really enjoy and I have been surprised that I leveled to 60 barely seeing any other players. I can probably count on my hands and feet how many players I saw total. I literally didn’t see a single other person In Ardenweld I felt like I was playing a SP and it was a bit dissapointing.
Has anyone else noticed this? Does it bother you?
Well I mean you’re probably outlevelling the vast majority of normal-speed players, so there’s probably that.
Some of these new zones are big from the ground, and I think most people who give a crap about Shadowlands have gone through Bastion and Maldraxxus already, and continue to progress. There’s still plenty of people I’m sure, but they are just following the same road. It probably depends on the who, what, when and where.
Sharding? I remember BFA and Legion being similar.
Yes it is weird and it is because of sharding I suppose.
Bastion was pretty lonely yesterday/last night/this morning with Warmode On.
This evening/night I encountered a lot more people in Maldraxxus with Warmode Off. Not sure if that made a difference.
Come to think of it this was my experience with BfA for the most part. I saw people but not a ton of them. Sharding was at play then and is probably doing the same now.
Bastion last night (Tuesday night) with WM off was dead. I saw two players in the zone starting hub, but that was all. The most I have seen was three players together in the Maw.
Yesterday it felt like I was playing a local single player game.
I’ve had points like that too, then someone comes out of nowhere and gives me a bit of a jump scare as I’m trying to do something.
It would not bother me in the least.
That is the only time I can actually get immersed in this game, when there is no other players around. Fighting for tags and waiting for respawns is just not enjoyable to me one bit.
Also, of course this is someone on a RP server who complains about this. The ones who don’t have their leveling zone crammed so full of people you can barely quest because no CRZ.
Blizzard since legion has been heavily using what they call “sharding” technology to make launches much more smooth. They last the first week or 2 of an expansion. Even classic had it when it launched. So I saw 100s of people waiting to click on the portal to ICC and then by the time I got into the maw there was only a dozen of us. That’s very much on purpose so the servers don’t crash or you lag out. Sometimes I feel like they over-do it. But better than underdoing it.
What’s funny is I see more Alliance than Horde. Like at a 3:1 ratio.
I have the opposite issue… getting tags suck. Why is this faction tag still a thing when we’re at peace? Bring back the legion system blizzard! (obviously it can and should exist during war mode).
I play on Stormrage and there’s way lesser players than I expected on Bastion, I believe they enabled sharding because the zones are overcrowded.
I think it’s the new phasing they put in for this expac.
There’s a lot of sharding going on in the covenant zones, but when you leave those zones, you’ll see more people.
I think the problem OP is that you thought you were playing an mmo. WoW hasn’t been that for a long time.
That’s what I see 99.99999% of the time I go anywhere for anything. And yet I keep hearing that the Alliance is dying. 
Even in BfA the only time I saw players out in the wild was at an Herb node, or boss world quest. They kind of phase in on top of you and phase out 30ft away. I’m 20+ hours into Shadowlands and I just do not see other players to the point I assumed I was bugged into a private shard. Zero /1 general chat - I’ve tried starting conversations but I don’t believe another player can even see my /1