World of Warcraft: Forever’s beta appears to be growing in popularity, as one of Blizzard’s leads has revealed the server capacity had to be increased over the weekend.
Holly Longdale, executive producer of World of Warcraft at Blizzard, announced the news on her personal X account. She wrote: “So… we had to increase the WoW: Forever Beta population cap again. The wild ride continues.”
The game already showed signs of being exceptionally popular, even without this latest post from Longdale. Last week, immediately after the beta went live, long-time World of Warcraft: Classic developer Josh Greenfield said the beta led to the “craziest numbers I’ve seen in 17 years working at Blizzard and almost 8 years on classic.”
Seventeen years ago, World of Warcraft was in the middle of its Wrath of the Lich King expansion, around a year before the game would reach a staggering 12m paying subscribers worldwide. In the years following, Blizzard and Microsoft would be less open with their public subscriber figures, but this window of around 16-18 years ago is widely believed to be the game’s peak of popularity.
It’s worth noting that this World of Warcraft: Forever beta requires a player to pay £51.99 / $59.99 / €59.99 for the Skyborne Epic pack. When it launches fully on the 4th November, the cost of entry will be a monthly subscription rather than a hefty one-time purchase. As such, these player figures are expected to grow significantly.
Perhaps this shouldn’t be a huge surprise. World of Warcraft: Classic’s release saw the largest jump in subscriber numbers in the series’ history back in 2019. People love the game, and the prospect of that older version being toiled on for the foreseeable future is enticing for many. Especially since it has captured the magic of that original MMO experience for many.
