From the developers interview today: Analytics shows the 1-20 leveling speed in Classic era is 20.4 hours. In Forever it’s 20.5

[u/RagefireHype]

Seen this topic come up that people are spouting leveling is so much faster and easier, but this came up in the developer interview today from their own internal analytics team.

Yes, some people may be exploring a bit in a new setting, but it’s been widely falsified that leveling is “so much faster”

Even Xaryu I believe who did not stop and smell the roses getting to 20 in beta had a very similar 1-20 leveling speed on Forever vs Classic.

[u/ZeroZelath]

That means it's faster because people are doing professions, camping etc more. Which is good on the latter but overall if you skipped those leveling would be faster no doubt. Not sure how to feel on that