Icecrown 24k population support?!

[Palifiko]

I was just thinking... Both Icecrown and Onyxia have 12k online in prime time, so the question is: will Icecrown support 24k online when Onyxia will merge with it, OR it will be a 12k queue at prime time when this will happen?

[Blind]

Icecrown will stay at 12k and nothing even remotely close to a 12k queue will happen.

Most of onyxias population not already present on icecrown will either migrate to another seasonal realm or have a break/play somewhere else till there's a new one.

Realms are pretty much hard-capped at 12k due to hardware limitations and feature a few workarounds, e.g. view distance in dalaran being reduced, already. WoW was never intended to be played with that many people sharing a single server.

[pelike]

After merge the adventure is over, complete, people will take a break. The math will not be 12k queue. People will probably wait for a new seasonal realm. Outland TBC realm had 15k population if I remember correctly. I read dev log here on Warmane and they already had zones instancing in 2021, Dalaran, Sholazar Basin, Zul Drak and Wintergrasp having own instances which reduced ping and increased stability. I think you could see it nowadays if you fly in Northrend, tho I'm not sure if it's indeed this mechanism, but if you cross sub-zones you notice some players appear or disappear out of nowhere... So even if we had 24k cap realm, I assume you wouldn't notice because there would probably be multiple instances of Dalaran