The Digital Dozen: 26 November 2013

The rankings of the top twelve MMORPGs as determined by the players of the Xfire community from play on Sunday, 24 November 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	45.0	14,212	-4.0
2	2	Guild Wars 2	12.5	3,951	-15.9
3	3	Star Wars: The Old Republic	9.2	2,916	-2.2
4	4	Final Fantasy XIV	7.1	2,233	-2.8
5	6	EVE Online	5.4	1,714	+38.7
6	9	Lord of the Rings Online	4.6	1,445	+65.5
7	5	Aion	4.2	1,330	+3.8
8	8	RIFT	3.2	1,007	+0.4
9	7	Tera	2.9	912	-22.0
10	10	Planetside 2	2.7	841	+9.8
11	11	Infestation: Survivor Stories	1.6	514	-14.9
12	--	APB: Reloaded	1.5	480	+7.1

 

Total Digital Dozen Hours: 31,555

 

The slow decline in the amount of hours the Xfire community plays MMORPGs continued on Sunday.  The 2.1% drop in the number of hours played compared to the week before was led by Guild Wars 2, which experienced a drop of 749 hours.  Lord of the Rings Online led all games attracting players with a rise of 572 hours compared to the week before.  APB: Reloaded rejoined The Digital Dozen this week after a one week absence while Neverwinter fell back off the list.

Helm's Deep Launched - Over the past few weeks I noted Turbine's promotion of boosted XP gains in order to get as many players ready to enter The Lord of the Rings Online Helm's Deep expansion content at launch as possible.  The strategy worked as LOTRO achieved its highest Digital Dozen score since the list began in February 2012.  The increase in playtime Sunday was magnified as Turbine's data center experienced a power outage on the 17th, which delayed the launch of the expansion until last Wednesday.

Not Hungry - Apparently players of Tera were not enamored of what En Masse put on the menu this weekend.  In addition to introducing pig mounts last week, En Masse also offered players custom food skins for their weapons in the cash shop over the weekend.  Perhaps if bacon were offered, players would have logged in more.

Ludicrous Speed - EVE Online also launched an expansion last week that brought players back to the game.  Titled Rubicon, the expansion introduced new ships, space structures and PvE content designed to lead players along a path to new space in a few years.  Oh, and players also got to experience some newly balanced ships.  All ships received changes to warp speed, with interceptors receiving what some call "ludicrous speed".  I believe many players logged in just to experience the sensation.