| Rank | Prev Week | Game | Score | Hours Played | +/- % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | World of Warcraft | 37.1 | 6,587 | 0.0 |
| 2 | 2 | Guild Wars 2 | 17.0 | 3,025 | +7.3 |
| 3 | 3 | Star Wars: The Old Republic | 9.2 | 1,641 | -10.4 |
| 4 | 6 | Final Fantasy XIV | 5.9 | 1,056 | +6.8 |
| 5 | 4 | Elder Scrolls Online | 5.6 | 997 | -8.0 |
| 6 | 7 | Tera | 5.2 | 925 | +8.4 |
| 7 | 5 | EVE Online | 4.7 | 841 | -17.3 |
| 8 | 8 | Aion | 3.8 | 679 | -16.8 |
| 9 | 12 | Metin 2 | 3.6 | 637 | +68.5 |
| 10 | 11 | Runescape | 2.9 | 518 | +13.1 |
| 11 | 10 | Neverwinter | 2.6 | 464 | -1.7 |
| 12 | -- | Maple Story | 2.3 | 397 | +98.5 |
Total Digital Dozen Hours: 17,767
The Memorial Day weekend in the United States witnessed something unusual. On Sunday, the Xfire community spent almost the same time playing the top MMORPGs as it did the week before. The 28 hour (-0.2%) drop in time spent playing these games was led by the end of Wildstar's open beta period while increased interest in Metin 2 (+259 hours) and Guild Wars 2 (+205 hours) almost made up for the loss. Replacing Wildstar on the list was Maple Story, making its first appearance in The Digital Dozen since late January.
An In-game Holiday - Guild Wars 2 sparked increased interest in the Xfire community with the launch of the Festival of the Four Winds last Tuesday. The patch continues the Living Story as the Zephyrites have returned to support Lion's Arch and the Queen has reopened the Crown Pavilion to show her support for the recovering port city. Or, in other words, players wishing to experience the content don't have all the time in the world to do so.
Winter Is Coming - Metin 2 usually does not generate much press, but last Tuesday Gameforge released Update 2.2, Dungeon Nemere´s Watchtower. The content is apparently a hit as Xfire members who played Metin 2 spent an average of 6 hours logged into the game. Of course, the excitement will wane, so I'm interested to see how long the PvP-centric game will remain on the list.
The Continuing Saga - While other games had bigger declines, all eyes are on Elder Scrolls Online and its shaky launch. Last week saw the launch of patch 1.1.2 and the introduction of Craiglorn. Usually new content results in a rise in play time, but ESO experienced an 8% drop in playtime by Xfire members. Any difficulties with the patch, however, were overwhelmed in the mainstream gaming press by the news that Zenimax has left open the possibility that ESO will not launch on consoles this year. Pretty bad news for a game with such a popular IP.
17 percent drop in Eve??
ReplyDeleteI don't think there was a huge spike the previous week to explain such a drop this week
Seems odd.
Actually, EVE, along with Aion, has a history of dropping a lot of hours on U.S. holiday weekends. It's gotten to the point I don't really think it's a big deal anymore. But if I didn't have 3 bigger stories, I probably would have pointed it out.
DeleteLooking at the 3 year trend it becomes very apparent why CCP has suddenly become interested in player retention!
ReplyDeletehttp://imgur.com/ZGlPJXZ