A Look At The Active ISK Delta In September 2024

With the end of September another fiscal quarter is in the books. Before we get financial reports from everyone from game companies to the Federal Reserve, CCP Games has published EVE Online's in-game monthly economic report for September 2024. As usual I will focus on the Active ISK Delta with a little information to put the figure into historical perspective.

The Active ISK Delta is the net effect on the New Eden monetary supply of players leaving and returning to the game. The Active ISK Delta also includes any reductions due to any and all GM actions. In September, 65.3 trillion ISK left the economy from the movement of players into and out of the game. The change made the Active ISK Delta the biggest ISK sink in the game, dwarfing the 18.7 trillion ISK removed from the economy through transaction taxes.

Normally CCP would like to see players returning to the game in September. But if the Active ISK Delta is any indication, more players left the game in September than in August. The amount of ISK leaving the game actually rose from 35.5 trillion ISK in August. Now, the change could also indicate fewer left the game, but that those who did were longer term players. Either way, not really a good sign.

Being the end of September, I looked at the total Active ISK Delta over the 3rd quarter of 2024. For the information I have going back to the beginning of 2018, Q3 saw the smallest Active ISK Delta over the past 7 years at -240.5 trillion ISK. The ISK removed from the game by players not logging in for 30 days and GMs confiscating ISK was 10.7% of the money supply on 1 July 2024. Overall, the New Eden money supply fell by 1.7% during the course of the 3rd quarter.

While the money supply was falling, did that mean player activity declined as well? A quick look at the ISK velocity shows the answer is no. The overall velocity of ISK reached 0.5 again, meaning that the level of trade in September was in the neighborhood of 1.1 quadrillion ISK. Converted to something more tangible, that is approximately 386,000 months of game time using the Jita average on 30 September. For those who like real money conversions, the amount of trade is approximately $2.1 million if the game time is purchased at the 3 month rate in the cash shop.

Believe it or not, year-over-year less ISK left the economy as measured by the Active ISK Delta. The historical average value in September since the introduction of a free-to-play option is -40 trillion ISK. This year's figure improved upon last year's total of -78.1 trillion ISK by 12.8 trillion. So perhaps the trend is more positive than the rest of the metrics I'm looking at would leave one to believe.

Combining data sources helps paint a cleaner picture of the activity inside EVE Online. The data from Dotlan Maps showed a decline in activity in September. The Active ISK Delta then showed a record amount of ISK leaving the game as players fell inactive. But the remaining players didn't really let up on the economic activity as seen by the increasing velocity of ISK during September. Are we set up for a big reaction to the winter expansion when CCP finally announces the expected new content drop? To tell the truth, the game possibly is healthier than last year so we'll have to see.