That’s how big the rush is right now: There are no official player numbers for World of Warcraft or WoW Classic. Some websites do count created and logged in characters, but they do not accurately represent the total number of players.

Nevertheless, it can already be seen that since the release of the pre-patch of WotLK, significantly more players are logging in than before. This can be seen in the server load, which is either “high” or even “full” in 4 of 6 realms in Germany.

On the English servers in Europe it is even harder. Gehennas has queues of over 10,000 players, Thekal sends you into a queue of over 9,000 people at peak times. This is despite, or perhaps because, Thekal is one of the “new servers” where everyone is starting fresh.

A similar picture is emerging on US servers as well. The popular Benediction and Grobbulus servers are just as crowded as their European counterparts. And those who manage to log in are, with a bit of bad luck, greeted with a black screen with no characters:

How does Blizzard react? The problem with the rush has apparently been recognized. At Twitter writes the official support on message of crowded servers: “We had other messages about this problem and are looking into it.”

On the US servers and meanwhile also in Europe free server transfers have been set up because of this. These can be selected directly in the queue. So if you want, you can move your characters to another realm for free.

WotLK only comes out in just under 4 weeks, players already want to gamble now

Where is the rush coming from? Leveling has been made much easier with the pre-patch. For one, there is still the handy buff for 50% more experience. On the other hand, the required experience from level 60-70 has been significantly reduced.

So if you still want to level up a character or prepare a death knight, you now have ideal conditions. The new class is already playable. However, the expansion itself will not be released until September 27.

Along with the favorable conditions, other features of WotLK are already in play. Inscription lore is selectable as a new profession, achievements are also now playable. Also coming soon is the acclaimed event that can turn you all into zombies.

However, not all players are happy with the current content. Apart from the problems with logging in, one change in particular is going down badly, which is different from Wrath of the Lich King 14 years ago. This is because the controversial Dungeon Finder is not in the game the way players are used to it:

WoW Classic drops controversial dungeon finder – But replacement system is so cumbersome that chat suffers