Yes, launch peak was like 5k. After that it dropped to 3,5k. A few days ago thousands new players joined and the pop is usually over 5k whenever I play. I've heard it had to do with the news about Blizzard withdrawing from China, so a lot of those new players seem to be Chinese (which I do not mind but others do. I've had no bad experiences with them, they seem mostly friendly, helpful and willing to cooperate for shared quest objectives etc pp)
Bernd is just lvl31 right now, because once again he tried to level and play with a friend. Like always he is "that friend" that never logs on after playing for a few hours on the first day and a few days afterwards. Of course Bernd tried to wait for him again, played others chars, but in the end decided to just play without him. Again. But once AGAIN I realized I hate leveling with others, even worse with someone I am supposed to talk to on Discord and someone who is just slowing my journey.
Anyways, I have very ambivalent feelings about this game consuming me. Over and over. And Bernd has daily thoughts about just deleting the Wow folder (but maybe backup the Interface config, cause it always takes so much time...)