| Rank | Prev Week | Game | Score | Hours Played | +/- % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | World of Warcraft | 45.1 | 43,767 | -13.1 |
| 2 | 2 | Guild Wars 2 | 29.3 | 28,450 | +8.3 |
| 3 | 3 | Star Wars: The Old Republic | 4.6 | 4,451 | -1.4 |
| 4 | 7 | Metin 2 | 3.5 | 3,366 | +15.0 |
| 5 | 4 | Aion | 3.5 | 3,365 | -4.6 |
| 6 | 5 | Lord of the Rings Online | 3.2 | 3,108 | -10.0 |
| 7 | 6 | Eve Online | 3.0 | 2,874 | -9.8 |
| 8 | 8 | APB: Reloaded | 2.2 | 2,153 | -0.7 |
| 9 | -- | The War Z (Alpha) | 1.5 | 1,482 | -- |
| 10 | 10 | Planetside 2 (Beta) | 1.4 | 1,403 | -14.7 |
| 11 | 9 | Need For Speed World | 1.4 | 1,365 | -24.6 |
| 12 | 12 | Vindictus | 1.3 | 1,266 | +4.0 |
The number of hours spent playing MMORPGs by the Xfire declined for the fourth consecutive week, declining Sunday by 4.8% compared to the previous Sunday. Of the games not in alpha or beta the biggest gainers were Metin 2 (+15%) and Guild Wars 2 (+8.3%). The games seeing the biggest drops percentage-wise were Need for Speed World (-24.6%), World of Warcraft (-13.1%) and Lord of the Rings Online (-10%).
The Expansion Crash - This week saw a typical example of what currently happens after an expansion. For subscription games the big declines in player interest take place about 4 weeks after an expansion's launch as the first month ends and players begin to unsubscribe. World of Warcraft followed that pattern with the number of hours played declining by 13.1% as the Mists of Pandaria reached the 30-day mark.
The Zombie Apocalypse - The zombie survival game The War Z is now available to play. Xfire considers the game an MMORPG so the game makes the list. The web site lists the game has having alpha support which makes the game the first alpha to make the Digital Dozen.
Metin 2 - Metin 2 is a free-to-play that has hung around the middle of the Digital Dozen since I created the list back in February. This week saw the game reach the #4 position on the basis of a 20% bonus promotion when buying ZP, the cash shop currency. The promotion lasts until 7 November so the 11th, the first Sunday after the promotion ends, will show if the promotion leads to a lasting player gain.
Silence can say a lot more than one thousand words. You wrote about teh growth of Metin 2, but forgot to wrote about the growth of GW2. I know it happened, evidently, as result of the halloween event. The question is how GW2 will behave at the next weeks. It will return to the trend of lower horus played? Or the new content everyone know will come at november will mantain that recuperation we just saw this weekend?
ReplyDeleteActually I didn't forget to write about GW2. I usually only write about a maximum of three items. After 7 consecutive weeks in which GW2 saw double-digit percentage losses I probably would have written about this week's gain if The War Z hadn't emerged. I hadn't written a blurb about Metin 2 yet and it really deserved one when it reached #4.
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