ebony and ivory
October 16, 2009
Thanks to reader Armagon who asked for a consolidated report on race distribution. This subject is covered by a variety of other sites, but there is some doubt about whether those sites are maintaining a representative sample.
It’s easy enough to produce a couple of simple tables that give us the information we need. (The data is from the patch 3.2 scan.)
| Race | Popularity |
|---|---|
| Human | 20 % |
| Blood Elf | 17 % |
| Night Elf | 16 % |
| Undead | 10 % |
| Draenei | 10 % |
| Tauren | 9 % |
| Orc | 6 % |
| Gnome | 5 % |
| Dwarf | 4 % |
| Troll | 4 % |
That seems to be a reasonable match to the Warcraft Realms data. There will always be some degree of sampling error in this work so everybody’s numbers have to be treated with a bit of caution.
Tables like that always make me shake my head a bit but… the fantasy RPG where everybody wants to roleplay the cute kid next door… Hey, trolls are people too you know!
Anyway, if we want the distribution of race and class then we get this. (Percentages here are based on the total population so the popularity column adds up to 100%.)
| Race | Class | Popularity (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Blood Elf | Paladin | 6.1 |
| Blood Elf | Death Knight | 3.2 |
| Blood Elf | Priest | 1.6 |
| Blood Elf | Mage | 1.6 |
| Blood Elf | Hunter | 1.4 |
| Blood Elf | Warlock | 1.4 |
| Blood Elf | Rogue | 1.3 |
| Draenei | Shaman | 3.9 |
| Draenei | Death Knight | 1.6 |
| Draenei | Paladin | 1.2 |
| Draenei | Priest | 0.8 |
| Draenei | Hunter | 0.7 |
| Draenei | Mage | 0.7 |
| Draenei | Warrior | 0.5 |
| Dwarf | Hunter | 1.3 |
| Dwarf | Paladin | 1.2 |
| Dwarf | Priest | 0.7 |
| Dwarf | Warrior | 0.7 |
| Dwarf | Death Knight | 0.4 |
| Dwarf | Rogue | 0.2 |
| Gnome | Mage | 1.7 |
| Gnome | Warlock | 1.4 |
| Gnome | Rogue | 0.9 |
| Gnome | Death Knight | 0.8 |
| Gnome | Warrior | 0.5 |
| Human | Paladin | 5.3 |
| Human | Death Knight | 3.3 |
| Human | Mage | 2.7 |
| Human | Warlock | 2.5 |
| Human | Warrior | 2.4 |
| Human | Priest | 2.1 |
| Human | Rogue | 1.7 |
| Night Elf | Druid | 6.2 |
| Night Elf | Hunter | 3.3 |
| Night Elf | Death Knight | 2 |
| Night Elf | Rogue | 2 |
| Night Elf | Priest | 1.5 |
| Night Elf | Warrior | 1.3 |
| Orc | Death Knight | 1.5 |
| Orc | Shaman | 1.3 |
| Orc | Warrior | 1.3 |
| Orc | Hunter | 1.1 |
| Orc | Warlock | 0.5 |
| Orc | Rogue | 0.3 |
| Tauren | Druid | 4.1 |
| Tauren | Shaman | 1.4 |
| Tauren | Warrior | 1.4 |
| Tauren | Death Knight | 1 |
| Tauren | Hunter | 0.6 |
| Troll | Shaman | 0.9 |
| Troll | Hunter | 0.8 |
| Troll | Mage | 0.5 |
| Troll | Priest | 0.5 |
| Troll | Rogue | 0.4 |
| Troll | Death Knight | 0.3 |
| Troll | Warrior | 0.2 |
| Undead | Rogue | 2 |
| Undead | Warlock | 1.9 |
| Undead | Priest | 1.9 |
| Undead | Mage | 1.7 |
| Undead | Death Knight | 1.3 |
| Undead | Warrior | 0.9 |
I’ll add this to my set of reports over at my Google site, so that it stays updated with each new scan. But it does seem that the other sites that cover population are doing a reasonable job of reporting what is really going on.
RSS - Posts
October 16, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Woohoo, thanks a lot
October 17, 2009 at 12:18 am
From my own experience the class/race combo I choose is based on how well the racial bonuses stack with the availible classes.
As an example Humans. The top two are Pallys and DKs. A lot of that may come from the sword and mace bonuses, and with DKs in particular the rep bonus.
I know thats why my DK is human.
Availibility is another option. It makes sense that Blood Elf Pallys and Draeni Shaman are the most popular, you simply have no other choices.
In order to truely tell whether people are playing the character they like or simply the race with the best bonuses for their class we would have to dramaticly change the game.
If all classes were availible to each race, and there were no racial bonuses, we could see what people really thought about the artwork that makes up thier avatar.
I know 3 out of 4 of my characters would be a different race if that was the case.
October 17, 2009 at 1:30 pm
It would be an interesting exercise to prove that there is a bias towards the eye-candy end of the race spectrum. Race choice is related to class because of the bonuses, as you say, but what we need to see more clearly is how many people are downplaying the bonuses when they make their race/class choice. Let me have a think about how to do that.
October 21, 2009 at 8:35 am
Sweet work… Now I’m trying to decide whether to roll a
Dwarf Rogue
or a
Troll Warrior
October 21, 2009 at 9:33 am
always good to stand out from the crowd!
October 21, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Could you add in gender as well? I’d love to see what the least popular race for female characters is, for instance.
October 22, 2009 at 9:58 am
Hi Mania.
I did gender a long while back, but you’re right, it’s an interesting issue so I’ll update my google apps site so we always have an up-to-date report.
October 22, 2009 at 10:56 am
Excellent! Thank you so much. :>
October 22, 2009 at 1:19 pm
You’re welcome. I’ve just updated the google site with the latest figures.
November 2, 2009 at 5:42 pm
[...] Data Mining compiled an awesome list of the most popular races and classes and combinations thereof in WoW. Very useful if you’re ever trying to figure out what the most [...]