Flying Solo In EVE: Prelude To Fanfest 2026

Last week was a pretty momentous week in the history of Fenris Creations, the studio formerly known as CCP Games. In a week normally focused around celebrating the launch of EVE Online (including associated sales) the business side came to the fore. But before looking ahead to the start of Fanfest on Thursday, let's take a quick look back at last week.

ACU up a bit last week

Last week hit a peak that probably won't be matched until the launch of the expansion. The celebrations of the 23rd anniversary of the launch of EVE Online saw the weekly average number of concurrent users logged into the game reach 26,000 +/- 500, another rise from the previous week. With the peak concurrent users for the week only 36,252 though, I'd guess the numbers came in at the lower range of the spread.

I think the long slog to completing tier 5 of the Capsuleer Day event activities might have had something to do with the lower numbers. I don't really feel like reaching the end of the event track on a second character. I started but not enthusiastically.

The price of PLEX up slightly last week

With the celebrations on-going and the Capsuleer Day event handing out a lot of PLEX, the market volumes went down. The amount of PLEX traded on the global PLEX market fell by 3.8% last week, with players spending 5.1% less exchanging PLEX for in game currency. I am waiting for the Fanfest sales to kick in over the weekend to influence the PLEX market for good or for ill.

Stats through the end of week 19

Normally I was start reviewing the first 10 days or so of the Capsuleer Day event, but another celebration occurred. The 23rd anniversary of the launch of EVE Online now marks the rebranding of CCP Games to Fenris Creations. Was the opening of EVE Fanfest a week later taken into account with the rebranding move or simply a coincidence? I'll go with the former.

I almost wish I was at Fanfest with access to the press events this year. Although, to be honest, I'd probably get tired of all the "FC" jokes that will be told at the event as everyone at Fenris gets a name change. Hopefully, though, press will do interviews with everyone from the senior director of Google DeepMind to some of the venture capitalists making the studio's escape from Anyang possible.

Since this year's article about the streaming schedule is up I thought I'd highlight the sessions I'll have an immediate interest in (all times in GMT/UTC):

Friday

13:00 UTC - The Infinite Game: FC Hellmar and Adrian Boloton Senior director at DeepMind. Opening remarks by the President of Iceland Halla Tómasdóttir.

16:30 UTC - EVE Fanfest Keynote: Some say it’s the highlight of the year. Others say it’s the highlight of the decade. Join Fenris developers live for the latest updates from the EVE Universe. Get an exclusive look at this summer’s expansion for EVE Online, new developments for EVE Vanguard and EVE Frontier, fresh updates on the Capsuleer Edda, and more.

Saturday

10:00 UTC - EVE Vanguard Keynote: Get the latest updates on what’s coming in EVE Vanguard, including new features, evolving gameplay systems, and the vision shaping the future of EVE’s upcoming extraction-adventure.

14:00 UTC - EVE Frontier Keynote: Awake eternally for a cold and hostile look at the past, present, and future of the EVE Frontier universe.

15:00 UTC - [Redacted] Expansion Unlocked: Get a much closer look at the EVE Online expansion coming this summer.

I know, more of a business interest than anything, but now that Fenris is independent again its more important than ever to see how the rebranded company plans on making money and staying independent.