Blizzard ran WoW: Forever on 70,480 CPU cores
Blizzard's new game launched on 3,924 virtual machines with 251TB of memory, and media and players called it one of the company's smoothest launches.
The facts
- According to Tom's Hardware, World of Warcraft: Forever launched on 3,924 virtual machines with 70,480 CPU cores and 251,136 GB (251 TB) of memory.
- In 2009 Blizzard said it used 10 data centres, 13,250 server blades, 75,000 CPU cores and 112.5 TB of memory. The new setup has 6% fewer cores and 2.2X more memory.
- Blizzard does not say what hardware it uses. Tom's Hardware's own estimate is eight to ten 42U server racks, costing at least $15 million.
- Tom's Hardware also speculates that Blizzard may be using Microsoft's Azure platform, since Microsoft owns the company. This is not confirmed.
Case notes · Danny's take
Why it matters
A smooth launch looks like luck from the outside. It isn't. It's capacity bought in advance, before the crowd arrives. The more interesting detail is the swap: fewer cores, far more memory. Memory, not raw processing speed, is now the bottleneck for big live services, and that is true for AI workloads too.
For builders
If you run anything that spikes on launch day, plan capacity before the crowd arrives, not after the servers fall over. Check memory capacity and bandwidth, not just core counts, when you size your infrastructure. Renting cloud capacity on cost terms is also a real option if you don't own the hardware.
Not financial advice. Do your own investigation.
This story was summarised with AI from Tom's Hardware's reporting and checked against our editorial policy. Danny's take reflects his views. Disclaimer.
Danny Walter
Founder of Moon Republic, Volt Terminal and Moon Republic Academy. Author of The Market Is a Crime Scene and After the Applause.