| Rank | Prev Week | Game | Score | Hours Played | +/- % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | World of Warcraft | 47.6 | 14,568 | +0.9 |
| 2 | 2 | Guild Wars 2 | 12.5 | 3,823 | -6.2 |
| 3 | 3 | Star Wars: The Old Republic | 8.9 | 2,740 | -4.6 |
| 4 | 4 | Final Fantasy XIV | 7.3 | 2,227 | -8.0 |
| 5 | 5 | EVE Online | 3.8 | 1,167 | -16.6 |
| 6 | 6 | Aion | 3.7 | 1,137 | -11.4 |
| 7 | 7 | Tera | 3.6 | 1,133 | -3.6 |
| 8 | 8 | Lord of the Rings Online | 3.2 | 972 | -9.1 |
| 9 | 9 | Neverwinter | 3.1 | 952 | +10.3 |
| 10 | 11 | Planetside 2 | 2.4 | 736 | -2.5 |
| 11 | 10 | RIFT | 2.3 | 701 | -13.1 |
| 12 | 12 | Runescape | 1.6 | 485 | -27.7 |
Total Digital Dozen Hours: 30,621
The Xfire community resumed its slow decline in playing MMORPGs on Sunday, with this week's decline in playing the 12 most popular games declining by 3.7%. Ten of the twelve games lost ground, with Guild Wars 2 (-253 hours) and EVE Online (-233 hours) leading the way. The two games that attracted more time played Sunday were World of Warcraft (+134 hours) and Neverwinter (+89 hours).
Server Merges and Hotfixes - On Thursday Blizzard connected six sets of World of Warcraft realms. As far as I can tell, "connecting realms" is very close to actually merging the servers. Combined with the deployment of hotfixes on Friday, was that enough to keep the overall player base interested. I don't know, but the Xfire community actually spent slightly more time on Sunday playing WoW as compared to the week before.
Don't Blame Elder Scrolls - Despite conducting a beta test weekend, I highly doubt that Elder Scrolls Online is the cause of the across the board drop in playtime Sunday. Usually when a beta has that type of effect, the game is visible in the Xfire rankings. I didn't see that Sunday.
I honestly believe, that the decline in MMORPGs activity due to a natural evolution of the internet. 10-12 years ago MMO's were an excellent way to make connections with other human beings. MMO's were before facebook, before blogs, before, tumblr, reddit, & steam. The Teen to Young Adult have dozens of more options to make connections that averaged gamer did not have even 7 years ago. Plus, there are soooooooooooooo many more choices now. This not only divides up the population per game but also leads to a "Lets try the newest shiny" play style.
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