@Daestra, Shumensko: I need to drop in here… I used 3,5 as the average number of ACTIVELY used characters of levels 20 to 120 within the last 30 days. That is a very specific set of circumstances. The number of existing characters per player is certainly significantly higher, but there is no reliable way to try estimate it without access to far more data than I have at my disposal.
Additional edit: Lots of people who only play one main character still have bank alt(s), old non-active mains, etc. But there is very little such info available, especially since RealmPop is gone. If my very vague recollection is correct, both Silvermoon and Draenor have way in excess of 600 000 characters each in existence, but both have less than 120 000 active ones above level 10.
@Daestra: blushes heavily Not everyone shares that sentiment, so thank you. I needed that stat to run calculations on the number of active accounts and I spent quite a bit of time on that. The number of existing characters is significantly trickier and it is certainly not simplified by the fact that all realms have inactive characters… Some literally hundreds of thousands of them while others have relatively few. I am not sure how accurate that number is today, but before Sporeggar was connected many years ago, I think RealmPop listed it having a total population of 8 088 or thereabouts both factions combined. In any case it was tiny realm with a prime time peak of something like hundred each of alliance and horde…
People seem to be very closed-minded it’s scaring !
I was some time ago in the case of openning a secondary account only to handle more characters in my colleciton. Yes, my WoW account is all about collection. I have plenty of toons with their own skins, their own NAMES. YES people, what about caring about your char’s name ? Many many many players do not seem to do, but I do. Sometimes I’m getting bored of a toon, I want to make another one of the same class/race (and maybe same spec) but I want new skin, new name : new character. Without ereasing or killing the old one.
My toons live in my account like in a giant legacy colleciton where they all belong to the same universe, having their stories in it.
So, it’s not because I make a human mage that I won’t make another one later (and maybe I could make it right after the first one, still I don’t want to erease the oldest). Maybe I do not want to play different specs on the same toon. Maybe my Fire Mage and my Arcane Mage are two different charactoons of the same race, possibly working together in my stories, in my universe. Or maybe I’ve done a part of the game with one, and at a new expansion coming I do not want to modify it’s story or it’s stuff. So it’s not about having one char of each race/class/gender combination AT ALL.
That’s what “game” and “colleciton” or just “buying it” is about for me guys. Chill down and open your minds, we do not all play the game the same “strict” way like if it was a society in which you have obligations and things are intended to go like this or like that, and only.
So I’m of the ones who would be glad if they could put more toons on the same account. And after all, if your account could handle more than 50 characters, would you be forced to create more and to play more or to create toons not to play them only because of it ? I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t change any of your habits if your account could only handle more toons. Some players have an account from the beginning of the game. Many different toons of same sh¡t because you might not play with same people, same guild, on same relam over all the expansions. And you won’t pay a transfer, rename, reskin, resh¡t because it’s money and you already bought the game and pay each month (or 3 or 6 or else) for it. Not playing a toon anymore DOES NOT MEAN “it’s time to erease it” (more, think about the rare toon-related achievements that aren’t bound to account, or are too important to let the toon go even if it’s not played).
Love your toons, make them good and pretty.
Good game (:
Indeed, why limiting ourselves to one race, class or gender combination? I have a lot of dks cause I really like the class, so I tend to make the same race, class, gender for all of them, what I like changing is the realm, to have access to all different levels of economy, population and faction balance.
