| Rank | Prev Week | Game | Score | Hours Played | +/- % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | World of Warcraft | 39.5 | 8,108 | -15.3 |
| 2 | 2 | Guild Wars 2 | 15.0 | 3,074 | +2.5 |
| 3 | 3 | Star Wars: The Old Republic | 9.1 | 1,861 | -13.1 |
| 4 | -- | Elder Scrolls Online | 8.5 | 1,752 | -- |
| 5 | 5 | Final Fantasy XIV | 7.4 | 1,524 | +37.9 |
| 6 | 4 | EVE Online | 4.4 | 911 | -25.6 |
| 7 | 7 | Tera | 3.8 | 773 | +1.7 |
| 8 | 6 | Aion | 3.5 | 713 | -15.6 |
| 9 | 8 | Runescape | 2.3 | 473 | -23.3 |
| 10 | 9 | Neverwinter | 2.3 | 469 | -17.4 |
| 11 | 11 | Planetside 2 | 2.3 | 463 | -1.3 |
| 12 | -- | APB: Reloaded | 2.0 | 413 | +2.5 |
Total Digital Dozen Hours: 20,534
The downward slide of the Xfire community's interest in MMORPGs continued Sunday as the time members spent playing the twelve most popular games in the genre fell by 3.7%. The games suffering the biggest declines in playtime were World of Warcraft (-1467 hours) and Eve Online (-313 hours) while the game seeing the biggest gain apart from the early launch of Elder Scrolls Online was Final Fantasy XIV (+419 hours). APB: Reloaded joined ESO as the newcomers to the list while RIFT and Lord of the Rings Online dropped off. APB: Reloaded is making its first appearance in 18 weeks while RIFT ends a run of 27 weeks on The Digital Dozen.
Reaper of Hours: A big factor in the overall drop in playtime this week was probably the launch of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls on 25 March. The time Xfire members spent playing the game jumped from 13,559 hours on 23 March to 22,617 hours Sunday. I would not find it surprising if the Blizzard game drew players away World of Warcraft, causing a large drop for that game.
Early Success: Elder Scrolls Online began its early access period on Sunday. From what I've heard the game not only had a smooth launch, but did quite well in The Digital Dozen rankings. The fourth place showing will undoubtedly result in at least a third place showing next Sunday, with a remote possibility of second. Not as good as Guild Wars 2's debut, but still a very solid start.
Successful Counter-programming: While Blizzard is famous for throwing out something new whenever a competitor launches a new product (see the release of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls), the WoW developers are not the only ones. Square Enix came out with Final Fantasy XIV: Through the Maelstrom (aka Patch 2.2) on 27 March. Square Enix added dungeons, new hard mode dungeons, and a new maximum difficulty dungeon. The additions worked as FFXIV saw an increase in playtime Sunday of 37.9%.
