"May have?". LMAO.

At its height, sure. It had a load of players, agreed. But they managed to LOSE a huge swathe of those, didnt they?

Lets remember that one word, shall we?

HAD

Past tense.

The correct benchmark of any company isnt what they used to have, its what they manage to RETAIN. THAT is the actual metric.

They faffed around so much, screwed their customers over so bad that they quit in disgust. In DROVES. Up until two years ago no one had even heard the words "wow refugee". WOW used to be a big game, it used to have a massive subscriber base, it used to do this, it used to do that.

Where are these people now, hm? Gone.

WoD was so bad, so utterly tone deaf to what the players actually wanted vs the devs "vision" that they lost HALF their playerbase in four months. The later flight debacle cost them at least two million more, despite the copium sniffers claiming " no one quits WOW they always come back", those players did not return.

WoWs developers ignore, and continue to ignore even today with their brand new expac alpha, what their players want. They ask for feedback.then ignore all of it

Heres a corollary..if you are applying for a job and learn they have a high turnover in staff....RUN.

WoWs customer churn rate is now so bad that they are busily connecting servers, activating crossfaction systems in a frantic effort to consolidate whats left of a disintegrating playerbase that has had enough of their garbage...and lol, I am told that yes, despite the playerbase getting older and sick and tired of the same rubbish, it will be more recycled "If you dont raid, pvp, or do m plus, GTFO we dont want you"

Why does WOW have so many addons?

Answer: Their UI is 19 years old and obsolete. FF 14s UI back when I started in 2019 had more basic functionality than WOWs and I didnt have to download a ton of addons to get it to do things it should by DEFAULT.

In FF 14 you have to approve a friend request for them to contact you and send you mail. In WOW a stalker can just add you as a friend and track you anywhere they want and you will never know it. put them on ignore and they just shift to a different toon and do it again..and again..and again....in 2012 they promised an appear offline system to add a basic privacy function FF 14 has by default.

It took them five years to admit that the delays they were saying were problems were in fact a lie, as one of their engineers admitted they could do it anytime, they just didnt want to.

Its an axiom of business that it is far more expensive proposition to get new customers, than it is to keep them. If you CANNOT keep your customer base, if word of mouth is so bad that your customers that you spent so much on to obtain walk out the door...

You

Have

FAILED.

I am sorry, but my assessment of the massive limitations of WOWs 19 year old engine and its outdated customisation stands.