TBC - 7
Wrath - 10
Cata - 7 added zones to both continents
MoP - 7
WoD - 7
Legion - 5
BfA - 6
SL - 4
DF - 4
WW - 4
3 Likes
At this point I think we should demand the Light Forged fly around the planet so we can check for any other yet “undiscovered” continents or island chains.
3 Likes
So they can crash on the dark side of Azeroth and we’re still clueless?
2 Likes
I’d suspect because fewer zones with more to do inside them are better then 7 / 10 half empty zones.
5 Likes
Because four starting zones and one endgame zone worked with Legion really well. Whilst Warlord’s had one of the most miserable launch experiences in the history of the game. BFA was a bit of a flop so they probably wanted to put the focus on something else than having several different zones that were highly detailed and focus on more coherent design. Shadowlands was bad because their zones were completely disjointed from each other but it is worth noting that Shadowlands actually had five zones.
So only Dragonflight so far have had four zones but … they have been ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE! We are talking about being able to fit basically ALL of Wrath in DF. So they changed to having four main campaigns, in four regions, that all had massive sub-regions that could fit entire previous expansions in them.
So we are getting fewer total zones, for a more coherent storyline, with a better red thread, and more areas to explore and play around with.
1 Like
this… Sure DF only had 4 zones but they are flipping massive.
And I use a certain leveling app that shall remain nameless. but the guides for DF are the biggest I have seen. Like in BFA Zuldazar had like 330 steps in the guild for a full zone clear, that big at the time. I was like HOW MANY?! and then in DF we got the waking shores… Over 500. and my jaw dropped. That did not include glyphs or all the the little start quests. Over 500 steps for main and side quests and Oharan plains was not any better.
1 Like
5 actually. Which zone did you forget about? Bastion?
8 technically. The Broken Shore was available to explore from the get go, unlike the Forbidden Reach with Dragonflight. In fact a secret started from there (broken shore that is) and the uninstanced Eye of Azshara zone where said secret finished. Also Dalaran is treated as its own zone.
So we are not counting the Draenei and Blood Elf starting zones? They are part of TBC too. I say we should count them so that is 11 for TBC.
6, they forgot Maw:
Oribos (yes, it is a separate zone, as it’s not found in any of the other zones, unlike Valdrakken etc)
Bastion
Maldraxxus
Ardenweald
Revendreth
The Maw
1 Like
I feel like this image I found from Reddit really tells a story about DF’s size.
But we can do one better by using another one that looks at pre-DF sizes:
With these two, we can really get a feel for just how large DF actually is. Because it is a beautifully crafted continent … that also happens to be the third largest continent they have created in WoW to date.
1 Like
Ah true, I forgot about Oribos.
I know, I was making a joke.
If we are counting the two Tol Barad zones as two zones, I think it is fair that we treat the three Vashj’ir zones the same as well. So that would make Cata have 9 at launch.
EDIT: Actually, it would be more since we have to include Gilneas. So it would be 10.
Since we are not counting the Forbidden Reach as you could not access it freely until patch 10.0.7 beyond the Dracthyr starting experience, we will not be counting Kezan and the Lost Isles.
Number of zones is irrelevant.
Size and density of the zones matters more.
2 Likes
Probably slows the amount of experience earned to complete enough zones. Maybe worth an experiment but i’m worried about community backlash. 
1 Like
Even more so for Wrath as one of its zones only has Dalaran in it that is anything note worthy. Since Dalaran was such a server hog Blizzard had to scrap whatever plans they had with Crystalsong Forest and move it to another zone (hint, it was added in patch 3.1 and expanded upon in 3.2)
Because they are charging more and giving less and people keep buying it. Nothing more to it.
i dont count maw as a zone tbh
2 Likes
More zones only creates the illusion that there is more.
Take Vashj’ir for example, it is split into 3 mini zones. Would you consider Cata having more zones if those mini zones were just labelled as zones?
Sorry but facts don’t care about your feelings
I don’t count Shadowlands as an Expansion tbh…
a zone has variety of flora. maw is that thing you visit for 5 minutes