| Rank | Prev Week | Game | Score | Hours Played |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | World of Warcraft | 56.3 | 51,754 |
| 2 | 2 | Star Wars: The Old Republic | 9.3 | 8,536 |
| 3 | 3 | Aion | 6.5 | 6,013 |
| 4 | 4 | Eve Online | 4.9 | 4,474 |
| 5 | 6 | Lord of the Rings Online | 4.0 | 3,659 |
| 6 | 5 | Tera | 3.8 | 3,527 |
| 7 | 7 | Metin 2 | 3.4 | 3,080 |
| 8 | 8 | APB: Reloaded | 3.2 | 2,903 |
| 9 | T10 | The Secret World (Beta) | 2.6 | 2,399 |
| 10 | 9 | Need For Speed World | 2.5 | 2,312 |
| 11 | NR | D.C. Universe Online | 1.8 | 1,691 |
| 12 | T10 | Maple Story | 1.7 | 1,572 |
For the second consecutive week the hours the Xfire community spent playing MMORPGs increased. The 2.9% increase was led by World of Warcraft's solid 5.8% gain along with the interest in The Secret World's last open beta weekend. The week's big loser was Tera which saw a 15.5% drop in the amount of time spent playing the game.
The Diablo Effect Is Over? In the overall Xfire game charts Diablo 3 is now ranked #3 with the number of hours played Sunday down almost 60% from the first Sunday after the game's launch. World of Warcraft inched it's way back up to the #4 spot overall Sunday and has a good chance of staying there for the foreseeable future. Is it still having an effect on the MMORPG genre? According to the Xfire charts, the answer is arguably yes.
The game most affected by Diablo 3 because of a promotion, World of Warcraft, is still down 15.5% in time played than before the launch of Diablo 3. Overall, the time the Xfire community spends playing MMORPG's is down 15.8%. While one could argue that other factors, such as summer and the weakness of Star Wars: The Old Republic have contributed to the overall weakness in MMORPG numbers, the fact that the overall numbers so closely match with WoW's decline does lead some credence to believing the Diablo Effect is still having an influence.
Heroes Wanted: D.C. Universe Online made its first appearance in The Digital Dozen this week, coming in at #11. Games like DCUO show the weakness of using Xfire to give a definitive listing of the popularity of MMORPGs, as the SOE offering is available in both PC and console versions. Xfire only counts PC time played. DCUO is undoubtedly more popular than some of the games that rank ahead of it, but until game companies come around to CCP's level of openness about concurrency numbers I'll just have to rely on Xfire to give an approximation.
I am confused by you describing the weakness of SWTOR. It looks from your table that SWTOR is twice as active as EVE, and second only to WOW.
ReplyDeleteDo you define weakness as not having WOW levels of players? If so, you should use that terminology consistently. As it is, you sound biased.
Pretty sure "weakness" is defined in terms relative to the expectations generated by having a $200 million budget.
ReplyDeleteLet me define weakness. I don't consider a game weak based on how popular it is. For example, DCUO had a very strong showing last week, jumping 9.8% and making it onto the list for the first time. In fact, based on the showing I singled it out for comment.
ReplyDeleteLet me explain why I believe SWTOR is showing weakness. Since 13 May, the Sunday before D3 launched, all MMORPGs saw a drop of 15.9% in hours played. In that same time, SWTOR has seen a drop of 33%. If we go back to the beginning of EA's fiscal year of 1 April, SWTOR has seen a decline in hours played of 60.2%. And since the beginning of the calendar year, SWTOR has seen a drop in hours played of 88.8%. I think the numbers show that while SWTOR still has a huge player base, it is in a very weak state right now and because of the initial size of the player base has been a large contributor to the decline of the overall MMORPG player base, at least amongst Xfire users.
I'm sorry I can't always write nice things about SWTOR like I did last week when its numbers jumped over 13%. I have to call'em like I see'em and the news for SWTOR is usually bad.
"was lead" and "was led" don't mean the same thing
ReplyDeleteThank you. Fixed.
DeleteI think it would be interesting if you added Raptr community stats as well. Although both suffer from biases inherent in the population, the differences are interesting.
ReplyDeleteWorld of Warcraft (PC)
114,450 hrs
TERA (PC)
62,923 hrs
Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC)
32,992 hrs
World of Tanks (PC)
21,368 hrs
RuneScape - MMORPG - The No.1 Free Online Multiplayer Game (Web)
16,793 hrs
RuneScape (PC)
14,234 hrs
CastleVille (Web)
13,421 hrs
EVE Online (PC)
13,019 hrs
Rift (PC)
12,923 hrs
DC Universe Online (PC)
9,859 hrs
The Lord Of The Rings Online (PC)
9,305 hrs