| Rank | Prev Week | Game | Score | Hours Played | +/- % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | World of Warcraft | 38.4 | 7,865 | -3.0 |
| 2 | 2 | Guild Wars 2 | 16.0 | 3,282 | +6.8 |
| 3 | 3 | Star Wars: The Old Republic | 9.0 | 1,851 | -0.5 |
| 4 | 4 | Elder Scrolls Online | 8.7 | 1,781 | +1.7 |
| 5 | 5 | Final Fantasy XIV | 6.8 | 1,394 | -8.5 |
| 6 | 6 | EVE Online | 4.4 | 902 | -1.0 |
| 7 | 8 | Aion | 4.1 | 847 | +18.8 |
| 8 | 7 | Tera | 3.6 | 734 | -5.0 |
| 9 | 9 | Runescape | 2.5 | 512 | +8.2 |
| 10 | 10 | Neverwinter | 2.4 | 494 | +5.3 |
| 11 | -- | RIFT | 2.1 | 432 | +5.1 |
| 12 | 11 | Planetside 2 | 1.9 | 389 | -16.0 |
Total Digital Dozen Hours: 20,483
The decline in the interest in MMORPGs (or at least the membership) of the Xfire community slowed to a crawl on Sunday. The 0.2% decline in the time spent playing the most popular games was led by World of Warcraft, which witnessed a decline of 243 hours. Almost offsetting the loss was the gain in playtime seen in Guild Wars 2 (+208 hours). APB: Reloaded fell off the list this week, replaced by RIFT after a one-week absence.
Not Enough - Blizzard always seems to drop some type of news or launch event whenever a competitor launches a game, and last Thursday was no different. On the day that Elder Scrolls Online conducted its full launch, Blizzard announced that alpha testing of Warlords of Draenor began. But that didn't seem to help with Xfire members too much since players are not invited to this phase of testing. Perhaps when beta testing begins Blizzard will see more interest. Speculation is that beta testing will begin sometime around 3 June.
Big Sale - Guild Wars 2 saw a big increase in playtime on Sunday as ArenaNet launched its biggest sale of the game yet. From 4-13 April the Digital Heroic and Digital Deluxe editions are both 50% off. This is a smart marketing move as season 2 of the Living Story should launch soon. Hmmm. The sale began on the same day that Elder Scrolls Online launched. Is there a trend?
Counter-programming Done Right - NCSoft's Aion racked up the biggest percentage gain in the number of hours played by Xfire members on Sunday. The Brave the Dredgion Event began on 2 April and will run through 16 April. The event, which is available for those level 46 and above, offers a new PvPvE instance to combat the NPC faction and even each other.
IMHO, you need reread what you wrote last week: "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."
ReplyDeleteThe "at least third place" undoubtedly not resulted. I will mantain what I am saying about ESO: the smooth launch is bad news and not good news. I foresee ESO numbers falling after the one month free time.
You're right. I really thought it would come in third. It wasn't a smooth launch, though. There were a lot of issues.
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