EVE Online Player Concurrency Thru Three Quarters Of 2026

We are now 9 months into 2026 and time to check on one of my biggest predictions. Will Jester's charts show a daily average concurrent user mark for 2026 of over 24,000. The reason is that during the lockdown year of 2020 the average was 24,015. A few years ago people would claim EVE was dying because the ACU harkened back to 2006. After 4 years of the return to the two expansions per year release schedule I'd like to move the year up to 2014.

The first thing I noticed is that while activity didn't go up much in September, at least we didn't see a decline.

Jester's 2026 ACU graph

The 7 day average went up at the beginning of the month and dipped at the end. But in the last week the trend seemed on the upswing. I'd say the Cradle of War major update didn't move the needle much on interest in the game. Hopefully the changes set the foundation for the upcoming winter expansion.

Jester's 4-year comparison graph

But the small increase in the 30-day ACU shows the number of accounts logged in is back over 2000 more than at the end of summer in both 2024 and 2025. The question is, can the upcoming Crimson Harvest event (October), winter expansion (November), and Winter Nexus event (December) maintain the margin?

Jester's Daily Average Concurrent User Chart Per Year

Right now my prediction is correct with an ACU of 24,407. But I'd really like to see the figure climb back up to an average of 25,000 accounts logged in at any one time, if only to see another prediction come true: a PCU (peak concurrent users) mark of 42,500. I know, a number not seen since 2017. But I'd like to get two predictions right.