Project Legacy — the independent Vanilla 1.12.4 server running on VMaNGOS — has crossed 1,000 registered accounts and is reporting its highest concurrent player count since launch. The team is crediting the Aug 26 patch 1.12.4 update and a sustained open-beta push; the server has added Guild Banks, a Gadgetzan arena, talent inspection and a custom Guardian of Hyjal world boss in the last two months.
The numbers
The figures the team posted over the weekend:
- 1,000+ registered accounts
- 1,700+ characters created
- 14,400+ total hours played
- Highest concurrent player count since launch
- 200+ new accounts in the last two days
For a Vanilla+ server outside the Turtle WoW family, these are the largest growth numbers we have seen in 2026. The previous high water mark for any post-Turtle Vanilla+ server that we track was Capybara WoW at launch in late July; Project Legacy's open beta has been running since Aug 26 with the new content patch and the Murky companion reward for open-beta accounts.
The Murky reward
Any account created during the open beta permanently unlocks Murky as a companion, free. The reward system goes live after open beta ends, and every character on an eligible account will learn to summon him. There is no wipe planned, no extended downtime, and no other change to existing progress — but the reward is one-time. Accounts created after open beta closes will not receive Murky. The team framed it as both a thank-you to early adopters and a way to lock in a population baseline for the persistent world.
Why it matters for the Vanilla+ scene
Project Legacy is the only Vanilla+ server in the tracker that has had a meaningful growth event in 2026 outside the Turtle-derived family (Octo WoW, Capybara, Ravencraft, Everwood). It is also the only one of those that runs on VMaNGOS — a 1.12.1 fork — rather than on the leaked Turtle 1.18.1 base, which means it is the closest current example of what "Vanilla+" looks like when it is not directly downstream of Turtle's code. The custom content list (200+ new quests, Guardian of Hyjal world boss, Prestige mode, 25-player raids with refreshed encounters, cross-faction everything) is the same shape the community was asking for during the Turtle era, just rebuilt on a different core.
The tracker has Project Legacy at small population as of today, up from tiny a week ago. The Vanilla+ section of the server list now has 9 playable entries: 1 large (Capybara), 2 small (Capybara already counted, plus now Project Legacy), 3 tiny, 3 unknown. It is still the smallest "playable" expansion tag in the scene by absolute count, but the trend line is the first positive one the column has produced since the May C&Ds.
The open question
Open-beta growth is easier than launch-day growth, because the cost of entry is zero and the reward (Murky) is permanent. Whether the population holds after the beta closes — when the novelty of the reward is gone and a more permanent gate goes up — is the test. We will be watching the next 30 days of population data and updating the tracker entry if the small tag holds or if it slips back to tiny.
For now: the post-Turtle Vanilla+ scene has its first real growth story, and it is not from the leak family. That is worth noting.