World of Warcraft's quietest servers will be merged with busier ones, says Blizzard

(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

Blizzard has outlined plans to merge sparser World of Warcraft servers with more popular ones.

Following a "comprehensive study of realm populations for every realm in the world", Blizzard said it will "connect the low-population realms to other existing realms" over the next two to three months during scheduled maintenance "until [they]’ve connected every low-population realm in every region to a substantially larger population of players".

"World of Warcraft is best when you have a community of other players around you, and while numerous ways to participate in cross-realm play have been added to the game over the years, there are still many aspects of the experience that are realm-based," community manager, "Kaivax" explained on the official forums.

"From your history with your guild to your interactions with the economy around you, a realm with a healthy population provides more opportunities, and it's been several years since we last connected some realms.

"As this project unfolds, we will post notices in advance of each week's connections in the appropriate regions and languages," Blizzard added. "During each maintenance period, everything will be automatically combined for the affected realms. When maintenance is complete, players on affected realms will log into Battle for Azeroth and find that they're now part of a larger connected-realm community. At the same time, we'll merge the appropriate realm discussion forums."

ICYMI, World of Warcraft is getting a board game. As Jordan reported at the time, the game takes the expansive world and lore of World of Warcraft and compacts it into a 2-5 player experience that can be completed in 40-80 minutes. Players will pick between 16 different races and 20 special powers to strategise wins over several islands.