8 replies to this topic

[Dogstar]

I was looking at the Jarl's global stats and it's obvious that there's been a massive drop in player numbers since season 23: https://leaderboard.isengrim.org/stats

But what I don't know is what happened to make 20,000 players stop playing this game over a few months?

So how do the seasons align with dates, mech releases, patches that buffed or nerfed things, and major changes?

e.g. It's all very well saying things like 'LRM buffs drove loads of players away' but does that line up in any meaningful way with the player numbers and the patches?

Edited by Dogstar, 03 October 2018 - 07:45 AM.

[El Bandito]

Wasn't season 23 May, before everyone was off for vacation? That could partly explain it. We are starting to see some rebound in Season 27--which is September, now that summer is over.

New player numbers are dropping though, so that's gonna hurt the replenishment rate.

[darqsyde]

HBS Battletech released April 24. I would imagine that has/had something to do with it.

[Jman5]

You can spot the major content releases by those big temporary spikes in player numbers. Season 22/23 was the introduction of Solaris. Plus BATTLETECH came out around that time too.

This is a pretty common thing for all games. Content release sees a big spike in player numbers, then it drops. It's probably more accurate to say that the population numbers declined from about 30k to 23k.

As to the why, I couldn't tell you. I imagine for some they didn't like the direction the game was going. For others they just grew bored with the game and moved on. Maybe something with the GDPR means certain players have been able to opt-out of being tracked.

My personal opinion is that as long as you can find matches, don't get too wrapped up in the fact that an old game is bleeding players. Only PGI can improve their player numbers and no amount of frustration and internet posts can change it. Your best bet is to just play the game if you enjoy it, or don't if you're not having fun.

[Corbon Zackery]

After about 8,000 matches with over 100 different mechs over a 5 year period.

Even the best FPS games lose numbers.

The fact that we have a server base with over 6,000 people per day playing for at least a hour a day makes this a very successful game.

Question is how do we keep the server numbers at this level without splitting the server population into smaller and smaller bases.

World of Warships made that mistake with a mode called Arms Race and the population was not big enough.

I think the biggest change that needs to be made is the map voting system Its cut match selection down to 4 to 6 maps. Everyone gets tired of playing the same map over and over again its just doomed FPS before. I feel bad for the developers who spent time creating great maps that no one plays anymore.

[Daggett]

Dogstar, on 03 October 2018 - 07:44 AM, said:

But what I don't know is what happened to make 20,000 players stop playing this game over a few months?

You are interpreting the chart wrong. You can't take a spike and compare it to only one datapoint. What's important is the big picture, the blue trend-line that's crossing the diagram.

Imagine you would have looked at the statistics during season 23's player spike. It would have looked like the game has won 10K players within three seasons which is equally false than your assumption that it lost 20K within three seasons.

What's true is that the game is indeed slowly losing players (about 10K over 24 months), but that's normal for such a niche game. Only very few games (mostly hyped mainstream games like Minecraft) can sustain or even increase their playerbase over very long time-spans.

Edited by Daggett, 04 October 2018 - 10:54 AM.

[Dogstar]

Daggett, on 04 October 2018 - 10:52 AM, said:

You are interpreting the chart wrong.

No, I don't think so. If those were stock values for a company then the shareholders would be screaming bloody murder.

It's also unlikely to be a 'summer dip' if you look back over the chart then there aren't any similar sized changes over such a long period.

What we are seeing is PGI giving up on the game, trying to cash in on as many mechpacks as they can, and letting it crash.

[Daggett]

Dogstar, on 04 October 2018 - 10:59 AM, said:

No, I don't think so. If those were stock values for a company then the shareholders would be screaming bloody murder.

Of cause because it's clear that MWO will probably not be able to stop losing players in the long run.

Remember: I agree that MWO is losing players. I just disagree on your assumption that it's 20K within three months and provided a nice example on how easy it is to misinterpret statistics.

Yes, the last three months have had low active players. But seriously it's too early to tell if it stays this way.

To stick with your comparison: Would you sell all your shares every time a company's stock value goes down?

Look at google's / alphabets current stock value chart:


Look at that massive downfall today. They must be giving up for sure, and letting it crash. Sell now before it's too late!

Edited by Daggett, 04 October 2018 - 11:41 AM.

[Mystere]

Daggett, on 04 October 2018 - 11:39 AM, said:

Look at google's / alphabets current stock value chart:


Look at that massive downfall today. They must be giving up for sure, and letting it crash. Sell now before it's too late!

Anyone who does not realize the Y-axis is not at 0 deserves to lose money.

Edited by Mystere, 04 October 2018 - 03:28 PM.