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Both of those wars were fought on a scale far exceeding the War of the Ring: a world population of over two billion in WWII, just under two billion in WWI, with many countries supplying combatants (and many non-combatants being killed with bombing raids etc), with half a decade of intense fighting in multiple theatres and fronts.

The War of the Ring was mostly fought over a shorter time period (just under a year: Appendix B has 20th June 3018 for Sauron attacking Osgiliath, and then 25th March 3019 for the destruction of the Ring) relatively localised (all the action happens in Gondor, just north around southern Mirkwood, and Dale), smaller regional population (major population centres of Minas Tirith, Lothlorien, Dale are are far cry from 20thC London, Berlin, Tokyo, Rome etc). I should also add that the warfare seems to be largely unmechanised (Grond and siege weapons notwithstanding), and so with mostly hand-to-hand combat, it is quite difficult to kill tens of millions of people in only a handful of relatively short-lived battles, even if they are somewhat large.

Around the year 1000, the population of Europe is estimated to be ~56 million, and in 1500 only 90 million, and the west of Middle-earth, which is roughly a medieval society, seems less populated than medieval Europe.

To contrast, A number of people have tried to estimate the various populations of Middle-earth, Googling around I find this one looking at Gondor (and Rohan), which takes into account a relation with our world:

In many ways Gondor mirrors the medieval Byzantine Empire, both consciously (Tolkien even referred to Minas Tirith as such) and unconsciously, in terms of relative geography, age, level of civilisation, political structure, level of technology etc  . Minas Tirith and Osgiliath between them even have great similarities to the ancient city of Constantinople. So, the Byzantine Empire is a good means of taking various parallels to Gondor. One would be the size of Minas Tirith. At its height Osgiliath would probably have had a population around 500,000 (equivalent to Constantinople at its height), but after long centuries of decline, plague and war, by the time of LotR the population of Minas Tirith would quite probably have declined to around 50,000, with the entire Pelennor and near surroundings supporting perhaps 100,000. Taking into account that the city was evacuated of women and children prior to Sauron's attack, the actual population during the siege may have numbered no more than 30,000, which again would map with the population of Constantinople at its fall.

and in a comment on a subsequent post

I haven't investigated the population of Mordor. I don't think there's enough scraps of information to produce more than a vague guess. Hundreds of thousands of slaves and hundreds of thousands of orcs and other creatures at its height certainly.

though it's not clear what this estimate is based on: the size of the army or more 'civilian' means (like availability of arable land, settlements etc).

So based on pure relative population sizes (even allowing for the fact some of these are rough estimates), there is no way to have tens of millions of combatants/deaths in the War of the Ring.

Both of those wars were fought on a scale far exceeding the War of the Ring: a world population of over two billion in WWII, just under two billion in WWI, with many countries supplying combatants (and many non-combatants being killed with bombing raids etc), with half a decade of intense fighting in multiple theatres and fronts.

The War of the Ring was mostly fought over a shorter time period (just under a year: Appendix B has 20th June 3018 for Sauron attacking Osgiliath, and then 25th March 3019 for the destruction of the Ring) relatively localised (all the action happens in Gondor, just north around southern Mirkwood, and Dale), smaller regional population (major population centres of Minas Tirith, Lothlórien, Dale are are far cry from 20th-century London, Berlin, Tokyo, Rome etc). I should also add that the warfare seems to be largely unmechanised (Grond and siege weapons notwithstanding), and so with mostly hand-to-hand combat, it is quite difficult to kill tens of millions of people in only a handful of relatively short-lived battles, even if they are somewhat large.

Around the year 1000, the population of Europe is estimated to be ~56 million, and in 1500 only 90 million, and the west of Middle-earth, which is roughly a medieval society, seems less populated than medieval Europe.

To contrast, A number of people have tried to estimate the various populations of Middle-earth, Googling around I find this one looking at Gondor (and Rohan), which takes into account a relation with our world:

In many ways Gondor mirrors the medieval Byzantine Empire, both consciously (Tolkien even referred to Minas Tirith as such) and unconsciously, in terms of relative geography, age, level of civilisation, political structure, level of technology etc. Minas Tirith and Osgiliath between them even have great similarities to the ancient city of Constantinople. So, the Byzantine Empire is a good means of taking various parallels to Gondor. One would be the size of Minas Tirith. At its height Osgiliath would probably have had a population around 500,000 (equivalent to Constantinople at its height), but after long centuries of decline, plague and war, by the time of LotR the population of Minas Tirith would quite probably have declined to around 50,000, with the entire Pelennor and near surroundings supporting perhaps 100,000. Taking into account that the city was evacuated of women and children prior to Sauron's attack, the actual population during the siege may have numbered no more than 30,000, which again would map with the population of Constantinople at its fall.

and in a comment on a subsequent post

I haven't investigated the population of Mordor. I don't think there's enough scraps of information to produce more than a vague guess. Hundreds of thousands of slaves and hundreds of thousands of orcs and other creatures at its height certainly.

though it's not clear what this estimate is based on: the size of the army or more 'civilian' means (like availability of arable land, settlements etc).

So based on pure relative population sizes (even allowing for the fact some of these are rough estimates), there is no way to have tens of millions of combatants/deaths in the War of the Ring.

Both of those wars were fought on a scale far exceeding the War of the Ring: a world population of over two billion in WWII, just under two billion in WWI, with many countries supplying combatants (and many non-combatants being killed with bombing raids etc), with half a decade of intense fighting in multiple theatres and fronts.

The War of the Ring was mostly fought over a shorter time period (just under a year: Appendix B has 20th June 3018 for Sauron attacking Osgiliath, and then 25th March 3019 for the destruction of the Ring) relatively localised (all the action happens in Gondor, just north around southern Mirkwood, and Dale), smaller regional population (major population centres of Minas Tirith, Lothlorien, Dale are are far cry from 20thC London, Berlin, Tokyo, Rome etc).

Around the year 1000, the population of Europe is estimated to be ~56 million, and in 1500 only 90 million, and the west of Middle-earth, which is roughly a medieval society, seems less populated than medieval Europe.

To contrast, A number of people have tried to estimate the various populations of Middle-earth, Googling around I find this one looking at Gondor (and Rohan), which takes into account a relation with our world:

In many ways Gondor mirrors the medieval Byzantine Empire, both consciously (Tolkien even referred to Minas Tirith as such) and unconsciously, in terms of relative geography, age, level of civilisation, political structure, level of technology etc . Minas Tirith and Osgiliath between them even have great similarities to the ancient city of Constantinople. So, the Byzantine Empire is a good means of taking various parallels to Gondor. One would be the size of Minas Tirith. At its height Osgiliath would probably have had a population around 500,000 (equivalent to Constantinople at its height), but after long centuries of decline, plague and war, by the time of LotR the population of Minas Tirith would quite probably have declined to around 50,000, with the entire Pelennor and near surroundings supporting perhaps 100,000. Taking into account that the city was evacuated of women and children prior to Sauron's attack, the actual population during the siege may have numbered no more than 30,000, which again would map with the population of Constantinople at its fall.

and in a comment on a subsequent post

I haven't investigated the population of Mordor. I don't think there's enough scraps of information to produce more than a vague guess. Hundreds of thousands of slaves and hundreds of thousands of orcs and other creatures at its height certainly.

though it's not clear what this estimate is based on: the size of the army or more 'civilian' means (like availability of arable land, settlements etc).

So based on pure relative population sizes (even allowing for the fact some of these are rough estimates), there is no way to have tens of millions of combatants/deaths in the War of the Ring.

Both of those wars were fought on a scale far exceeding the War of the Ring: a world population of over two billion in WWII, just under two billion in WWI, with many countries supplying combatants (and many non-combatants being killed with bombing raids etc), with half a decade of intense fighting in multiple theatres and fronts.

The War of the Ring was mostly fought over a shorter time period (just under a year: Appendix B has 20th June 3018 for Sauron attacking Osgiliath, and then 25th March 3019 for the destruction of the Ring) relatively localised (all the action happens in Gondor, just north around southern Mirkwood, and Dale), smaller regional population (major population centres of Minas Tirith, Lothlorien, Dale are are far cry from 20thC London, Berlin, Tokyo, Rome etc). I should also add that the warfare seems to be largely unmechanised (Grond and siege weapons notwithstanding), and so with mostly hand-to-hand combat, it is quite difficult to kill tens of millions of people in only a handful of relatively short-lived battles, even if they are somewhat large.

Around the year 1000, the population of Europe is estimated to be ~56 million, and in 1500 only 90 million, and the west of Middle-earth, which is roughly a medieval society, seems less populated than medieval Europe.

To contrast, A number of people have tried to estimate the various populations of Middle-earth, Googling around I find this one looking at Gondor (and Rohan), which takes into account a relation with our world:

In many ways Gondor mirrors the medieval Byzantine Empire, both consciously (Tolkien even referred to Minas Tirith as such) and unconsciously, in terms of relative geography, age, level of civilisation, political structure, level of technology etc . Minas Tirith and Osgiliath between them even have great similarities to the ancient city of Constantinople. So, the Byzantine Empire is a good means of taking various parallels to Gondor. One would be the size of Minas Tirith. At its height Osgiliath would probably have had a population around 500,000 (equivalent to Constantinople at its height), but after long centuries of decline, plague and war, by the time of LotR the population of Minas Tirith would quite probably have declined to around 50,000, with the entire Pelennor and near surroundings supporting perhaps 100,000. Taking into account that the city was evacuated of women and children prior to Sauron's attack, the actual population during the siege may have numbered no more than 30,000, which again would map with the population of Constantinople at its fall.

and in a comment on a subsequent post

I haven't investigated the population of Mordor. I don't think there's enough scraps of information to produce more than a vague guess. Hundreds of thousands of slaves and hundreds of thousands of orcs and other creatures at its height certainly.

though it's not clear what this estimate is based on: the size of the army or more 'civilian' means (like availability of arable land, settlements etc).

So based on pure relative population sizes (even allowing for the fact some of these are rough estimates), there is no way to have tens of millions of combatants/deaths in the War of the Ring.

Both of those wars were fought on a scale far exceeding the War of the Ring: a world population of over two billion in WWII, just under two billion in WWI, with many countries supplying combatants (and many non-combatants being killed with bombing raids etc), with half a decade of intense fighting in multiple theatres and fronts. The War of the Ring was mostly fought over a shorter time period (just under a year: Appendix B has 20th June 3018 for Sauron attacking Osgiliath, and then 25th March 3019 for the destruction of the Ring) relatively localised (all the action happens in Gondor, just north around southern Mirkwood, and Dale), smaller regional population (major population centres of Minas Tirith, Lothlorien, Dale are are far cry from 20thC London, Berlin, Tokyo, Rome etc). Around the year 1000, the population of Europe is estimated to be ~56 million, and in 1500 only 90 million, and the west of Middle-earth, which is roughly a medieval society, seems less populated than medieval Europe.

Both of those wars were fought on a scale far exceeding the War of the Ring: a world population of over two billion in WWII, just under two billion in WWI, with many countries supplying combatants (and many non-combatants being killed with bombing raids etc), with half a decade of intense fighting in multiple theatres and fronts. 

The War of the Ring was mostly fought over a shorter time period (just under a year: Appendix B has 20th June 3018 for Sauron attacking Osgiliath, and then 25th March 3019 for the destruction of the Ring) relatively localised (all the action happens in Gondor, just north around southern Mirkwood, and Dale), smaller regional population (major population centres of Minas Tirith, Lothlorien, Dale are are far cry from 20thC London, Berlin, Tokyo, Rome etc). 

Around the year 1000, the population of Europe is estimated to be ~56 million, and in 1500 only 90 million, and the west of Middle-earth, which is roughly a medieval society, seems less populated than medieval Europe.

To contrast, A number of people have tried to estimate the various populations of Middle-earth, Googling around I find this one looking at Gondor (and Rohan), which takes into account a relation with our world:

In many ways Gondor mirrors the medieval Byzantine Empire, both consciously (Tolkien even referred to Minas Tirith as such) and unconsciously, in terms of relative geography, age, level of civilisation, political structure, level of technology etc . Minas Tirith and Osgiliath between them even have great similarities to the ancient city of Constantinople. So, the Byzantine Empire is a good means of taking various parallels to Gondor. One would be the size of Minas Tirith. At its height Osgiliath would probably have had a population around 500,000 (equivalent to Constantinople at its height), but after long centuries of decline, plague and war, by the time of LotR the population of Minas Tirith would quite probably have declined to around 50,000, with the entire Pelennor and near surroundings supporting perhaps 100,000. Taking into account that the city was evacuated of women and children prior to Sauron's attack, the actual population during the siege may have numbered no more than 30,000, which again would map with the population of Constantinople at its fall.

and in a comment on a subsequent post

I haven't investigated the population of Mordor. I don't think there's enough scraps of information to produce more than a vague guess. Hundreds of thousands of slaves and hundreds of thousands of orcs and other creatures at its height certainly.

though it's not clear what this estimate is based on: the size of the army or more 'civilian' means (like availability of arable land, settlements etc).

So based on pure relative population sizes (even allowing for the fact some of these are rough estimates), there is no way to have tens of millions of combatants/deaths in the War of the Ring.