World of Warcraft: Forever launched on 70,480 CPU cores and 251,136 GB of RAM

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Take that, bean counters: World of Warcraft: Forever officially opened its doors on November 4, allowing a massive number of players to experience WoW's origins while introducing new content and storylines along the way. According to Blizzard's latest social media posts, WoW: Forever's massively multiplayer world is running on some seriously impressive hardware – the kind of infrastructure that very few game servers – or even data centers – can match.

Soon after launch, Blizzard revealed some of the most impressive details about the hardware powering the game. The new-old MMO is running on 3,924 virtual machines, 251,136 GB of memory, and 70,480 CPU cores. The "memory" figure is suspiciously precise, especially coming just a few days after Sam Altman shared his now-notorious opinion about "terrible" PC users wasting precious DRAM chips that would be better off inside one of OpenAI's data centers.

Either way, WoW: Forever's "wasteful" hardware infrastructure seems to have paid off handsomely, helping the game deliver a remarkably smooth launch. Blizzard executives have celebrated the positive reception, and some players have described the game as one of the smoothest they have ever experienced.

– World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) November 5, 2026

Blizzard confirmed that WoW: Forever was already breaking the company's records for concurrent players. The game attracted more players than any previous WoW launch, bringing in the highest number of new players for a WoW release in 15 years. Needless to say, Forever also set a record for the number of returning players in the franchise's history.

Blizzard has not shared any specific figures detailing how many players are currently wandering through Forever's online world. However, the company seems happy enough with the game's popularity just days after its launch.

World of Warcraft: Forever is an alternate version of the WoW experience, based on the settings and gameplay mechanics players enjoyed in 2004. Blizzard said this alternate "universe" will evolve as a standalone branch of the original WoW, running alongside the game's modern version and World of Warcraft: Classic's "vanilla" edition.

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World of Warcraft: Forever launched on 70,480 CPU cores and 251,136 GB of RAM

 

[Hexic]

I can’t believe I’m saying it… but Blizzard actually did good here.

Hopefully they keep up this momentum, because the game is freakin’ incredible.

 

[BobDolesGhost]

Sadly I don't think I could never return to WoW. I played/lead hardcore raiding all the way back to Molten Core, BWL, and on. Had to quit after Lich King because I missed female companionship lol. Loved the game, but the game didn't really allow for life going like that. As a guy in my 40s now and married, I'm so busy that I haven't even played a PC game in about 8 months. My Steam backlog of games at this rate would last me past the grave lol.

 

[MarkHughes]

It's great, They really delivered on this, Thoroughly enjoying it.

 

[Inthenstus]

As I long time WoW player I’ve always wanted them to release stats like this, and I’m really happy they did. They’re much higher than I expected. They also claimed that this was their largest ever game launch of WoW which is a bit mind boggling considering peak player count was 12 million during Wrath.

 

[NumberNine]

Being owned by Microsoft is not without advantages.

 

[Jarenien]

I can’t believe I’m saying it… but Blizzard actually did good here.

Hopefully they keep up this momentum, because the game is freakin’ incredible.

Dunno how people keep playing this. It is boring af grinding. The game was great 15-18 years ago when I played it, but then I moved on to better things. Do people just keep playing it because literally your refridgerator has enough power to run it?

 

[J95qRP7]

The "memory" figure is suspiciously precise, especially coming just a few days after Sam Altman shared his now-notorious opinion about "terrible" PC users wasting precious DRAM chips that would be better off inside one of OpenAI's data centers.

I mean, it's just 64GB of DRAM and 18 Cores per VM. It's only "Suspiciously precise" if you don't think about it for a second and instantly jump to conclusions.

 

[Hexic]

Dunno how people keep playing this. It is boring af grinding. The game was great 15-18 years ago when I played it, but then I moved on to better things. Do people just keep playing it because literally your refridgerator has enough power to run it?

Look at you, the bastion - no, the golden standard judge of video game quality, and what is worth others’ time.

What a braindead take.

 

[Jarenien]

Look at you, the bastion - no, the golden standard judge of video game quality, and what is worth others’ time.

What a braindead take.

I'll respond in your language so you understand...

"Baahhhhhhhhhhhhh"

 

[Hexic]

I'll respond in your language so you understand...

"Baahhhhhhhhhhhhh"

Nobody understands whatever you just said.

 

[tylerb1489]

The power of Azure…. I wonder how much the US region is using