A Look At EVE Online Activity In December 2024

Another year is in the books. I think EVE Online had a so-so year. While much better than two years ago, 2024 kind of sputtered, with revenue growth coming from the new SKINR system rather than attracting more players to the game. Perhaps I'm wrong and my perceptions of the game are off since nowadays I do more planetary interaction and hauling gameplay than anything else. So let's jump into the latest available statistics and take a look.

First up is Jester's full year graph on average concurrent users. At the end of 2023 the graph showed a rise in the fourth quarter of the year up to around 23,000 ACU. Last year saw the number of accounts logged in hang around the 23,000 mark except during the summer. After a year in which Viridian did very well, the summer slump returned in 2024. And after an expansion bump, the ACU returned to around 23,000 at the end of 2024. The one noticeable difference is that in December 2023 the trend was increasing while at the end of 2024 the trend was decreasing.

Data from Dotlan Maps

Performing a month-over-month comparison, one would hope ship explosions would increase in the first full month after an expansion. The only security band in known space to see an increase was in low sec. First, the decrease in the other two bands might indicate a lack of interest in the new content in Revenant, with some players returning to low sec. Second, perhaps my disinterest in Winter Nexus isn't a minority opinion after all, especially with so many SKINR materials sprinkled throughout the event. And finally, perhaps especially true in null sec, players were taking a break before the big un-bluing of the major coalitions from each other beginning on New Year's Day.

Data from Dotlan Maps

Looking back to December 2023, the trends were increasing everywhere except for killing NPCs in high sec and other players in low security space. With two expansions in 2024 more focused on null sec than anywhere else, the dip in player-owned ship explosions in low sec was expected. But the year-over-year, as well as month-over-month drop in NPC deaths in high sec might indicate an issue or two with this year's Winter Nexus event.

Data from Dotlan Maps

Speaking of looking back in time, what about the explosions for the entire year? As one might expect, numbers of explosions were up across the board except in low sec. While the PvE changes took hold from 18 months of low sec heavy expansions, player ship deaths did drop by 5.5%. Still, the number of NPCs killed by null sec players increased by one-third in 2024 compared to 2023. The downward trends at the end of 2024 are a concern, but just looking at the year as a whole the growth looked good. Or, in other words, we had another year of, "Yeah, but..."