The article which is linked to above is of level 80 players post 3.1.1

This. Why don't more people understand this? There aren't nearly as many DKS as there were. Wotlk has been out for a few months now and the majority of people who wanted to, have already tried a dk out. At this point they've either ditched it or stuck with it, and I know a lot of my friends have ditched their dks and gone back to their mains. I really don't see any more dks on my server than mages, hunters, or paladins.

Yet still the QQ continues. It's something that will continue to the end of time. Customers whine about wanting new stuff, customers get new stuff, customers whine about getting new stuff.

There's also this to consider: once you get to 55 you can make DKs on any realm. I have friends on a different realm that have encouraged me to make a DK on their realm when I hit 55 on my main. Plus, a few of them have made DKs on my realm, too, to hang out while I play my main. I also know that my guildies often have DK alts because they start in at 55 and, thus, can go just about anywhere in vanilla-WoW without having to worry too much for farming.

yep... /nod /nod...

my dk is only a bank right now... :P

I gotta agree with offday. You either love DKs and play one as your main, or you hate them with a passion and think they ruined the game. Those are the two opinions I most often hear about them. People should just embrace new content and have fun, and if these numbers are correct, it looks like lots of people are.

You can install the CensusPlus addon and check current populations of your server at any time. I've done a few during peak hours and DKs are consistently around 15% of the active population on my server followed closely by Paladins and Hunters.

Have one, have leveled it to 70, but I prefer my paladin. I'm singular like that.

Lately my guild has been experiencing somewhat of a renaissance when it comes to alts. Everyone has one. So I've gotten a lot of insight into why characters become popular :)

First, the class has to be perceived to be good. Or at least the particular spec. Second, when you actually play the class, it has to be able to live up to those expectations.

Druids were unpopular before because they were the opposite a) They didn't have a great reputation b) They were weaker than the "pure" classes. As such, you mostly had people playing druids, that were actual fans of the class. These days druids are perceived as being strong; at least healing and caster-wise. So more people are willing to roll them, and more people stay with them. In my guild, there's no less than five level 80 druid alts. But none of them are feral.

This also explains what has happened to death knights. They are perceived as being very strong; which they are. They also have the advantage of being new and shiny. Which I suppose is a third factor, the "cool" factor, which could mean any number of things. But I suppose applies to the specific unique traits that seperate the class from others... druid shapeshifting, rogue stealth, hunter pets, DK's death.