The Digital Dozen: 4 June 2013

The rankings of the top twelve MMORPGs as determined by the players of the Xfire community from play on Sunday, 2 June 2013.  For more details about the methodology, click here.  Historical data can be found here.

Rank	Prev Week	Game	Score	Hours Played	+/- %
1	1	World of Warcraft	41.8	20,840	+3.5
2	2	Guild Wars 2	16.5	8,218	-1.7
3	3	Star Wars: The Old Republic	10.2	5,064	-6.0
4	4	Neverwinter	7.8	3,864	-18.3
5	6	Aion	4.9	2,437	+10.7
6	7	Tera	4.5	2,245	+5.7
7	10	RIFT	3.0	1,502	+18.9
8	8	Planetside 2	2.6	1,310	-24.2
9	9	Lord of the Rings Online	2.6	1,276	-3.8
10	--	Need For Speed World	2.2	1,116	+30.1
11	11	APB: Reloaded	2.2	1,093	-1.5
12	5	EVE Online	1.8	890	-64.0

 

Total Digital Dozen Hours: 49,855

Sunday saw a 4% decline in the amount of time spent by the Xfire community playing the 12 most popular MMORPGs as determined by the community.  The decline was led by EVE Online (-64%), Planetside 2 (-24.2%) and Neverwinter (-18.3%).  Games experiencing significant boosts in interest were Need For World Speed (+30%), RIFT (+18.9%) and Aion (+10.7%).

Down But Not Out - Most of this week's decline is due to the DDoS attack experienced by EVE Online over the weekend.  While CCP took the servers down as a precaution, players managed to play long enough to keep EVE from dropping completely out of the Digital Dozen.  EVE remains one of four games (World of Warcraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Aion are the others) that have remained on the list since its inception in February 2012.  Expect the numbers to jump next week as the next expansion, Odyssey, launches today.

Climbing Out Of The Hole - RIFT continues to build momentum towards its free-to-play launch on 12 June.  This week's 18.9% increase was aided by a promotion inviting those who had previously purchased the game to come back and play for a weekend.  Judging by the crowds in the starter areas the F2P launch could get crowded.

Coming Back To Earth - EVE was not the only sci-fi themed game to experience a big drop in the time the Xfire community spend playing it on Sunday.  Planetside 2's hours played dropped 24.8% following the double-XP Memorial Day weekend.  Unlike EVE, though, the drop brings the game back to reality and last Sunday's numbers probably won't occur again until the Independence Day weekend in the U.S.