| Rank | Prev Week | Game | Score | Hours Played | +/- % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | World of Warcraft | 43.1 | 8,116 | +25.3 |
| 2 | 2 | Guild Wars 2 | 13.5 | 2,538 | +23.9 |
| 3 | 3 | Star Wars: The Old Republic | 8.6 | 1,620 | +18.2 |
| 4 | 4 | Final Fantasy XIV | 6.6 | 1,234 | +15.9 |
| 5 | 5 | Wildstar | 5.7 | 1,071 | +2.7 |
| 6 | 6 | EVE Online | 4.2 | 795 | -5.1 |
| 7 | 7 | Tera | 4.2 | 791 | +18.6 |
| 8 | 8 | Aion | 4.1 | 781 | +24.2 |
| 9 | 10 | Runescape | 3.5 | 657 | +58.7 |
| 10 | 12 | Lord of the Rings Online | 2.7 | 512 | +73.0 |
| 11 | -- | RIFT | 2.1 | 387 | +98.5 |
| 12 | 9 | Elder Scrolls Online | 1.7 | 324 | -25.9 |
Total Digital Dozen Hours: 18,826
Sunday saw the Xfire community return to playing its favorite MMORPGs following the end of the World Cup. The 20.7% increase in the time spent logged into these games was lead by World of Warcraft (+1641 hours) while only two games, Elder Scrolls Online (-113 hours) and EVE Online (-43 hours) saw a decline in interest. Neverwinter fell off the list, replaced by RIFT.
The World Cup Effect - I've made a lot out of the decline of the decline in the Xfire numbers this year, but now that the World Cup is over, did the numbers bounce back? The answer is a resounding yes. Sunday witnessed Xfire members spending 20.7% more time playing MMORPGs than the weekend before. Comparing Sunday with 8 June, the last Sunday before the beginning of the World Cup, also finds a favorable comparison. From that date, the amount of time the Xfire community spent logged into its favorite MMORPGs only declined by 1%. Compared to the huge declines earlier this year, that is a victory.
But What Happened In WoW? - A big question I was unable to answer concerns the king of MMORPGs, World of Warcraft. I was unable to find a reason for the 25.3% increase in playtime. The increase appears driven by the amount of time playing WoW. Players spent 5.8 hours logged in. Did players watch so much World Cup that they were catching up on lost time?
Are ESO Players Steamed? - Despite having a reported 772,374 subscribers in June, Elder Scrolls Online is at the bottom of the Digital Dozen this week. Is this just another sign of the weakness of Xfire? On Thursday, Zenimax made ESO available for sale on Steam. I always figured the numbers would drop once ESO was released for console, but I never considered that Bethesda would release the game on Steam. I guess that many players who play their games through Steam wouldn't bother to put on another tracking source like Xfire or Raptr.
