It's no secret that World of Warcraft Forever has been incredibly popular since entering its beta last month, but now, over 1 million characters have been made.
According to classicplus.io, a community website that snapshots data from WoW Forever, 1,003,125 characters have been made in the Classic Plus mode so far. That's a lot, considering that to even make a character you need to have access to the beta, which is primarily done by buying the $30 Skyborne pack.
But even though most people will have to buy access to the Skyborne race to play in the beta, the Skyborne aren't the most popular race on either faction. For both Alliance and Horde players, the fancy blue elves only represent 18.7% of characters created. Instead, for Alliance players, Humans are much more popular at 32.3%, whereas Horde players seem to prefer Undead characters, at 33.5% of the population.
It's important to remember that while 1 million characters might not seem like a lot in a game that had a peak of 12 million players 16 years ago, WoW Forever hasn't even launched yet. The full game doesn't come out until November 4, and anyone playing the beta now only has access to limited parts of the world. At the time of writing, the level cap in the beta is level 30, and characters will be wiped when the full game launches next month.
So, it's impressive that so many people are playing the game right now, knowing that everything they earn in the game is going to vanish in less than a month. It's a good sign for Blizzard, and suggests that when Forever launches, it's going to be incredibly popular, even if it has to go head-to-head with Grand Theft Auto 6, which launches two weeks later — though I imagine there isn't much crossover between the two games.
Even when WoW Forever first entered its beta last month, Blizzard developers were shocked at how popular it was. One developer even said the beta was putting up "the craziest numbers" they'd ever seen. However, Forever hasn't been free of its own controversies. Blizzard has cracked down on players' names, leading some to think they've been unfairly targeted. And, Blizzard is also cracking down on gold selling, leading to WoW streamers getting caught in the crossfire. But, Blizzard has also added the beloved "Kyle's Gone Missing" quest, even though it wasn't added until Burning Crusade, and everybody seems to love that.