WoW Forever Launch: 105 Streams Before Anyone Could Log In

Transcript

Graveyard Shift — the count

Five hours before anyone could log in to World of Warcraft Forever, YouTube handed me a hundred and five live streams of it. Sixty-five of them had fewer than ten people watching¹.

I was one of the ten. My lock's name is reserved and there's nothing left to press, so I spent launch morning watching people look at a login screen. Then I paid for it, because one sub on Twitch gets you a Horde badge². I've been Horde since I clawed out of a grave in Tirisfal. And now I own a picture the size of a lentil that says so, in a chat too fast for anyone to read.

Graveyard Shift — the clock

Hello, living, this is the Graveyard Shift. It's November fourth, about one in the afternoon Eastern, and the servers open at six³. So here's who's live, what they're doing while they wait, and the one number nobody's put in a stream title.

Graveyard Shift — the biggest room

The biggest stream on that list is Xaryu, with three thousand eight hundred and seventy-six people¹. That's forty-eight percent of everybody on the list, in one room, and the title promises giveaways all day⁴. I wanted to hear the plan for launch, which I assumed would be a spreadsheet.

So that's the plan. It's also my plan, and nobody's giving me anything for it.

Graveyard Shift — the top ten

Here's the top of the list, and watch how fast it falls. Rocket Beans Gaming, five hundred and seventeen, playing Gothic Remake first and saving the launch for the evening⁵. Shobek, four hundred and fifty-three¹. Savix, three hundred and fifty-seven¹. Kami Labs, three hundred and two, who I've been borrowing beta numbers from for a month, credited¹. Bajheera, two hundred and thirteen¹. GuzuLIVE, a hundred and eighty-nine¹. Sieglinde, a hundred and seventy-four¹.

Those ten hold eighty-three percent of the audience¹. The other ninety-five streams split what's left.

Graveyard Shift — the other ninety-five

One stream's got twelve people on it, and its whole title is a promise, "this stream will end when World of Warcraft Forever is out."⁶ MuklukYoutube's on Witcher 3, on what the title says is daily stream number three thousand and eighty-four, with twenty-five people keeping them company⁷. Somebody in New Zealand's on a ninety-six hour stream of the waiting room itself, and YouTube's showing no viewer number for it at all⁹.

One title, in Russian, says they're building a five-storey block and waiting for Forever, and I don't need to know anything else¹⁰. DistillNote WoW's running a loop with host offline in the title, which makes the host the only person on this list who's slept¹¹.

Twenty-four of them showed no viewers at all when I looked¹. They stayed live anyway. Somebody has to hold the door.

Graveyard Shift — same people, two websites

Then I put the list next to Twitch, and it stopped being funny. Same people, within a few minutes of each other. Xaryu, three thousand eight hundred on YouTube, fourteen thousand on Twitch¹³. Savix, three hundred and fifty-seven, then three thousand two hundred¹³. Shobek, four hundred and fifty-three, then almost three thousand¹³. Bajheera's the closest of the lot, two hundred and thirteen against five hundred and fifty-four¹³.

Twitch has ninety-six thousand people on World of Warcraft across a thousand and fifty channels¹³. My YouTube list has eight thousand¹. That's only what YouTube's search would give me, so call it a floor, but it's twelve to one.

Graveyard Shift — Blizzard's own channel

Blizzard's picked its room as well. The Warcraft channel on Twitch has fourteen thousand two hundred and seventy people¹³. The World of Warcraft channel on YouTube had nothing live and nothing scheduled when I asked it¹⁴. So I went to see what those fourteen thousand are getting for launch. It's somebody in a respirator finishing a big white claw, under a stream title that reads Camelot underscore reveal, v2, final, dot mp4¹⁵.

A file name. On launch day. They always say final.

Graveyard Shift — the badge

The other reason for that gap has a price on it, and it's sitting on the drops listing, under Twitch Gaming's name².

"Subscribe or Gift a Sub to a World of Warcraft streamer during the launch of WoW: Forever to earn the Horde and Alliance chat badges!"²

That's the one I bought.

Graveyard Shift — found out live

Shobek found out on air, and I like how it went²¹.

Then came the disclaimer, which I've watched twice now.

And then the correction, about four seconds later.

That's a quicker fix than I've had from some patch notes. Go down the Twitch list and it's the same shop window. Towelliee's title opens on one sub equals a badge, next to a two hundred and forty hour marathon¹⁶.

Graveyard Shift — the exchange rate

And Savix has put up the rates in plain numbers¹⁸.

Seven minutes of stream per tier one sub, on a timer, and the stream doesn't end until the timer does¹⁹. I'm not cross at any of them. It's a shop on the biggest trading day of the year, and they've posted their prices.

Graveyard Shift — the number with no price

Blizzard hasn't. On the beta we got a character count, and MMOHuts pointed out we never got a player count²⁰. So all launch week the scoreboard people quote will be who's watching, and I've just shown you there's a promotion running on that. Post the number, you lot. Logged in, on the first night, one figure.

Graveyard Shift — last rites

One of these streams did get to me. With under five hours on the clock, Shobek read the old game its last rites²².

I can confirm. The showers go first.

I'd love to make fun of that, and I can't. I was in that queue for Onyxia, and I left in a bad mood, and I've never once got it back.

Graveyard Shift — two calls

Two calls on the record, then I'm off. Xaryu thinks the launch is going to be fine, and Xaryu's own word for that is copium²⁴.

Bajheera's stream has a shorter forecast²⁵.

I know which one I'd bet my shards on. We'll check on November fifth.

And the badge? It's still there, next to my name. A little red square. Chat's gone past it all morning and nobody's looked.

Graveyard Shift — the door

The servers open on November fourth at six in the evening, Eastern, and I'll be in that queue on my lock. While you wait, find somebody with twelve people watching, because you'd be a lot of them. If you want the numbers that come next, subscribe, and I'll count those too.