All of the recent discussion surrounding what people are
planning for their Worgen and
Goblin characters got me to thinking about the ingame races that just don't get that kind of love. It's no secret that certain race/class combinations are underplayed (witness, for example, the ingame hell of finding a Dwarf or Orc rogue for
Turkey Lurkey), but some races are just massively underplayed, period. If
Warcraft Realms is at least ballpark accurate, then Humans are roughly 5 times as popular as Gnomes, Dwarves, and Trolls at 80. Draenei are twice as popular at 80 as Gnomes and Dwarves, and
Blood Elves have a chokehold on the Hordeside population. Zardoz's
Armory Data Mining (fast becoming one of my favorite
WoW sites) did
a breakdown on class, race, and gender populations as of November 4th, and the results are pretty illuminating. In case you're wondering, Dwarves, Orcs, and Tauren are the least likely to be female, and Draenei, Blood Elves, and Night Elves the most likely (although Draenei are the only race in the game to have a female majority). The most played combination in the game is the Blood Elf paladin, and the least-played are the Dwarf rogue (I for one am
shocked) and the Troll warrior.
So my question is -- if you don't play an underplayed race/sex combo, why don't you play them? For me, the breaker is usually the animations; a lot of the animations on the more underplayed race/sex combinations are just grindingly dull. The male Tauren warrior, for example (a hugely popular combination) always seems very dynamic, smashing their shields into someone's face with a great slashing special attack. The female Troll warrior, by contrast (a hugely unpopular combination), just kind of...ineffectually pokes at things. I tried to play one for a bit and finally shelved her just because it didn't feel like she was actually
doing anything. Then again, I also have a huge herd of female Tauren characters, who are just as unpopular and have an incredibly boring casting animation, so I could be completely off-base. However, it does seem like there are consistent patterns to what most people are willing to play, and I'm curious to hear why people don't like the less-popular combinations.
Tags: armory-data-mining, armory-datamine, armory-datamining, breakfast-topic, breakfast-topics, character-choice, class-choice, class-popularity, class-population, demographics, goblin, race-choice, turkey-lurkey, warcraft-realms, worgen, wow-character, wow-demographics, zardoz
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics
Nov 29th 2009 at 8:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 11)
Quiz Nov 29th 2009 8:06AM
So, if I read these numbers correctly: paladins are the most popular class in WoW?
Markainion Nov 29th 2009 8:27AM
I still looks like Paladins are the most played class, even though the data isn't as clear as the frequently played class data that someone on WOW insider posted a number of months ago. The data then showed Paladins beginning to overtake Death Knights as the number one played class since Wraith Launch.
While I will not say that Paladins are still overpowered, they clearly got the reputation as being the most overpowered class since wraith launch, and I am a strong believer reputation as being a very strong class has a lot to with a class popularity. Paladins were clearly overpowered at one point since wraith and the number of people starting to play Paladins proved it.
Namus Nov 29th 2009 10:12AM
I'd say "pretty" horde race + only horde race capable of being paladins + Wotlk buffs = most popular class combo ingame
Jamesisgreat Nov 29th 2009 12:21PM
Additionally, I'd imagine blood elves are more popular than other races for the same reason Draenei are - their starting areas are so much better designed that questing there in the first few levels is a dream. That's why I rolled a belf hunter anyway (don't hate me!)
Zanathos Nov 29th 2009 1:53PM
The class/race table is done as a percentage of the population. Add up all the different races for one class to get the percentage of the population that plays that class. According to the table, paladins are 14.1% of the population. Death Knights are 16.9%. Warriors are 9%. After doing the plate classes I got bored of adding up the precentages, but if you're curious that's how to do it. Blood elf paladins are so prevalent because not only is it a popular class, but it's the only option for one faction of a popular class. Death knights, on the other hand, while overall more popular to play, can be any class. They don't have a standout racial combo. This is also why Draenei shamans are so prevalent for that class (4% of the population is Drae shamans, and shamans just 7.8% overall)
Zanathos Nov 29th 2009 2:09PM
Death knights can be any race, rather :P
d34d3r Nov 29th 2009 2:27PM
If paladin is the most played class, why is it so hard to find a pally tank when you need one?
tjduck Nov 29th 2009 3:48PM
If the design of the starting zones affects race choice, then hopefully Cataclysm will rectify the imbalance through redesigning a number of the old starting zones from levels 1-20 to be more on par with the Burning Crusade + Cataclysm ones.
ger Nov 29th 2009 6:01PM
Because Paladins can do 2 other roles, and tanks aren't fun to play. Especially in PUGs.
Byron Nov 29th 2009 9:12PM
Why doesn't everyone know by now that you don't have to roll a particular race just to level through its starting zone? You can roll any race, level it to 5, then run them to the starting zone of your choice, and level from there.
My 70 Orc Warlock, 70 Orc Hunter, 70 Undead Rogue, and 75 Tauren Druid were all Exalted w/ Tranquilien by lvl ~20. My 80 DK tank main would be too if it didn't start at lvl 55. The initial run can take 20-30m or so (esp for Tauren), but the leveling speed in Eversong Woods and Ghostlands, and the rare blue quest rewards at the end, more than compensate.
krazyblair Nov 30th 2009 5:48PM
Hang on a second is every1 seeing different data to me.....
Blood Elf Paladin 6.1
Night Elf Druid 6.2
Am i the only person that saw that?
.........
Fifticon Nov 29th 2009 8:06AM
But I am! I was just checking the site during taxi flight, honest!
Alanid Nov 29th 2009 8:08AM
At the moment I'm not playing any character due to modern warfare 2 and left 4 dead 2. I do play a dwarf rogue... but I'm thinking of faction changing him when he gets to a higher lvl since atm I play mainly alliance.
MusedMoose Nov 29th 2009 8:10AM
Hmm. I'm a roleplayer at heart, so for me it's less about things like animations and more about how I see the character, whether or not I'm actually RPing my characters. This is my main reason behind choosing any particular race/class combo, and gender does play a role in that - I got rid of my female draenei paladin and made a male one, just because being massively muscular seemed a better fit for the whole paladin thing. *grin* Most of my characters are female simply because I like playing female characters, but this one's an exception, and I plan to play more male characters when Cataclysm hits.
In general, I don't play gnomes because I don't find them that interesting and their class choice is so limited, and I don't often play dwarves, though I don't think I actually have a reason for that; I plan to play a dwarf shaman later. I also only have one human character that I actually play, mostly because I'm human in real life and would like to be something else when I play a game.
False Name Nov 29th 2009 8:21AM
'I like playing female characters' WOOT.
Bikhai Nov 30th 2009 2:59AM
A million upratings for you for stating verbatim my philosophy on choosing characters: 1) What is interesting? 2) Why the hell would you play a fantasy game and be a human? Why? Srsly now.
Karilyn Nov 29th 2009 8:10AM
I dunno why, I've always enjoyed playing Female Taurens and Female Dwarves. Other races feel funny to play, I think it's because most of the other female races suffer from "barbie proportions syndrome"
It's like the other races look more like supermodels than fighters (Except gnomes, but they are just plain creepy). Which just doesn't appeal to me.
Also, Taurens have the best tails in the game. You Draenai ain't got nothing on us.
sara Nov 29th 2009 9:02AM
Oh I agree 100% with this! My main is a draenei and I love her animations and such, but I really prefer the more realistic female body types. My tauren is getting a lot of play time atm, as is my dwarf. Another race I like for that reason is orc.
And the tauren tail is definitely the most awesome tail in game!
kunukia Nov 29th 2009 10:29AM
I have more lady Dwarfs than anything else, and even a rogue! I love the lady Taurens also, although I also am fond of the female Orcs.
I totally agree with all you say; I hate the Barbie doll look.
Khanmora Nov 29th 2009 2:05PM
I originally had 2 female dwarves, 2 female humans, 1 female draenei, 1 female nelf, 1 female belf and 1 female orc. Since race changes I now have 4 female dwarves, am waiting for dwarf shaman to be an option to make it 5 and am seriously considering changing my orc warrior to dwarf. Going to see if the leveling changes in 3.3 make a big enough difference for me to reroll another warrior. I am building my own female dwarf clan and the only problem is the lack of good hairstyles :(