The Digital Dozen: 3 December 2013

The rankings of the top twelve MMORPGs as determined by the players of the Xfire community from play on Sunday, 1 December 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	45.7	14,263	+0.4
2	2	Guild Wars 2	13.3	4,163	+5.4
3	3	Star Wars: The Old Republic	10.9	3,401	+16.6
4	4	Final Fantasy XIV	6.0	1,870	-16.2
5	5	EVE Online	4.7	1,480	-13.6
6	6	Lord of the Rings Online	3.8	1,196	-17.2
7	7	Aion	3.7	1,151	-13.5
8	9	Tera	3.2	1,012	+11.0
9	8	RIFT	3.1	960	-4.7
10	10	Planetside 2	2.0	614	-27.0
11	--	Neverwinter	1.9	587	+27.9
12	--	Need For Speed World	1.7	540	+19.7

 

Total Digital Dozen Hours: 31,237

The slow decline in the amount of hours the Xfire community plays MMORPGs continued on Sunday.  The 1% drop in the number of hours played compared to the week before was led by Final Fantasy XIV, which experienced a drop of 463 hours.  Star Wars: The Old Republic led all games attracting players with a rise of 485 hours compared to the week before.  Need for Speed World and Neverwinter rejoined the list this week.  Need for Speed World made its first appearance in nine weeks.  Games dropping off the list were Infestation: Survivor Stories and APB: Reloaded.

Commercialism And Thanksgiving - Normally when a holiday comes around, SOE games see a rise in time the Xfire community spends in the games.  So what happened Sunday to Planetside 2?  Simple.  Instead of having an double xp weekend, Planetside 2 held Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.  With no draw to play on a holiday weekend, the time played on Sunday dropped 27% from the week before.

Pre-Patch Boost - While EVE Online and Lord of the Rings Online both experienced drops before the launch of their expansions two weeks ago, Star Wars: The Old Republic is seeing a big boost.  With subscribers getting access to Galactic Starfighter today, SWTOR will probably experience another boost in interest next Sunday.