On Monday CCP Games released the March Monthly Economic Report (MER) for EVE Online. As this post will look at a major influence on the New Eden money supply I want to take a quick look at the developers' main takeaways from last month's MER.
Economic Summary
- Production has stabilized and we’ve seen a marked increase in Mining, especially in Null Sec.
- The Bounty Faucet also saw a dip in March, while Market Tax Sinks have increased.
Okay, not the longest list considering the studio released a major mid-expansion patch in the middle of the month. But the surge of interest in the patch did bring players back into the game. And that movement affects the New Eden money supply, specifically the metric known as the Active ISK Delta.
The Active ISK Delta is the net effect on the money supply of players leaving and returning to the game, including all GM actions. In March, the Active ISK Delta was the 2nd biggest ISK sink in EVE thanks to the mid-expansion patch. The patch affected the Active ISK Delta's ranking in two ways. First, with players returning or sticking around to see the new content, the Active ISK Delta was only -20.6 trillion ISK. Put into context, only 0.9% of the money supply left the game economy due to player movement into and out of the game. Since 2018 the average percentage was 1.8%, meaning the developers cut the negative Active ISK Delta in half when inflation of the money supply is factored into the calculation.
The other reason for the Active ISK Delta falling to second place was the increase of the base sales tax from 4.5% to 7% in the patch. The move vaulted transaction taxes into first place on the list as the amount of tax collected jumped 63%, from 22.7 trillion ISK in February to 37 trillion ISK in March.
Can the Active ISK Delta give any insight into why the developers felt a tax increase was needed? Just from observation over the past few years the developers are worried about inflation and the growth of the money supply. Even with the tax increases the New Eden money supply grew by 0.9% in March.
Now comes the amusing question. If the developers were looking for zero growth in the money supply, they only failed to achieve zero growth due to the Active ISK Delta only removing 0.9% of the game's ISK instead of the 7-year average of 1.8%. Is whoever is overseeing the economy really that dialed into the workings of EVE's economy, or was the 0.9% difference just a coincidence?