@Blizzard, Al’akir etc is in a really bad shape and it has been for a long time now. There are like 1-2 guilds left on the server raiding and they are like 4/12 m max.
The server is not low at this point it’s inactive… I hope and pray we’ll see some changes in shadowlands.
I think free transfers are the solution. The game has too many realms for the amount of people who play it.
There’s Bloodfeather/Burning Steppes/Executus /Kor’gall/Shattered Hand which is a 5 realm merge but it’s still considered low population. Merging more realms with it would be absurd.
I have a few low level alts and one who I used my shadowlands boost on Al’akir. But they’re only there for messing around I wouldn’t consider it as ever being my main server.