World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Players Experiencing Server Issues in Some Realms, Blizzard Responds

If you're one of the many World of Warcraft players who hopped back in for the Shadowlands expansion this week, there's a chance that you've encountered some server issues that inhibited you from getting into your realm smoothly. Blizzard has since responded to some of those issues with a status update on the servers that identified a couple of realms in particular which it's looking at to hopefully resolve some of those problems.

The problems associated with the servers right now are due to massive influxes of players trying to play in the Shadowlands expansion, Blizzard said. Though the creators of World of Warcraft and its latest endeavor said they opened up realms to receive more players than ever before in preparation for the number of players present with Shadowlands, the number of players that showed up exceeded even that precaution. Blizzard said it'll continue working on server stability and to make sure players are able to get into their realms in a timely manner.

"We increased realm capacity to let more players than ever before into a single realm, but extreme demand on a few realms has exceeded even that capacity, so we have dialed down some of our earlier changes," Blizzard said. "We are trying to carefully balance service stability and accessibility, and exploring multiple avenues to get everyone online and playing smoothly."

As for which realms in particular are being looked at, Blizzard provided a brief list of the ones it was focusing on as of November 25th. Those realms are Area 52, Frostmourne, Illidan, Stormrage, and Tichondrius. Blizzard said the issues afflicting those realms and others affecting players' opportunities to get into their realms are currently the number one priority for the World of Warcraft team.

Shadowlands is the latest of several expansions Blizzard released for World of Warcraft. Though it didn't hit the intended release date and had to be pushed back to a later one, it's now out for World of Warcraft players to purchase and try for themselves.

"What lies beyond the world you know? The Shadowlands, resting place for every mortal soul—virtuous or vile—that has ever lived," Blizzard's preview of the Shadowlands expansion said. "Journey beyond the veil, discover five otherworldly realms of wonder and horror, gain incredible powers — and save Azeroth from all-consuming darkness."

Expect to see more updates from Blizzard on the status of realms and servers as they're resolved.