Trendspotting: POE Playerbase almost halved on Steam alone since the release of Awakening

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RagnarokChu wrote:

It's a bad summary if people can't read graphs properly
When the game was first released:
Oct 2013: 32k players
Slowly dropped down to 15kish by Jan 2014
Every large version update had a bump in players which then the playerbase would half again.
Jul 14 update boost back to 24k
Slow crawl all the way down to 5k players in the 1.3 version of the game before 2.0 update.
Shoot back up to 32k players again (exact same numbers as release) when 2.0 is released.
Get cut in half similar to the oct 2013 to jan 2014 when the game was in the prime.
~.~?
Legit we have the same 10k people in the game (steam version) we always had basically unless more people are retained because of 2.0
Version 1.3 had the lowest playerbase of 5k for a couple of months out of any PoE version.
Like at least read the entire god damn steam chart LOL

You've got obviously no clue about business and how to turn numbers into a trend analysis :)
Hint: Why are quarterly numbers so significant in the world of business?

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BestUsernameEver wrote:

You've got obviously no clue about business and how to turn numbers into a trend analysis :)
Hint: Why are quarterly numbers so significant in the world of business?

Doesn't apply here because GGG isn't a public holding company. If they were, they would schedule and structure their updates/expansions differently and we would see different numbers :)

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Xavderion wrote:

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BestUsernameEver wrote:

You've got obviously no clue about business and how to turn numbers into a trend analysis :)
Hint: Why are quarterly numbers so significant in the world of business?

Doesn't apply here because GGG isn't a public holding company. If they were, they would schedule and structure their updates/expansions differently and we would see different numbers :)

It was a metaphoric example to piont out the interaction and the importance of numbers and analysis for businesses.

Even the most basic bookkeeping would be a simplified version of the "analysis" part :)



But enough of it, let's stick to topic please.

Someone bothered to check challenge league levels?
Warbands: 15000 chars >86
Tempest: 15000 chars >81 (though thousands of dead in there)

To me, this looks pretty healthy, even if many players have multiple chars.
A ton of players are dedicating a ton of time into this game.

The Warbands top 15000 is already at a point that was normally reached way later in a league.

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Peterlerock wrote:

Someone bothered to check challenge league levels?
Warbands: 15000 chars >86
Tempest: 15000 chars >81 (though thousands of dead in there)

To me, this looks pretty healthy, even if many players have multiple chars.
A ton of players are dedicating a ton of time into this game.

The Warbands top 15000 is already at a point that was normally reached way later in a league.

Is this a good thing? I got 87 and 93 so far but dont play very much anymore.(since about 2 weeks back)

My friends who are around lv90 also stopped playing (because of the inability to get higher lvl maps and the new exp penalty making farming lower maps worthless).

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Zhatan wrote:

Is this a good thing?

Don't know, don't care.

All I'm saying is: these numbers show that the game gets played a lot.
So player base looks pretty healthy.

The only important thing is money. Real money. Play time is only a predictor of that. The fact that people stop playing after a few weeks actually saves GGG money. They probably didn't support anyway, and likely wouldn't support in the future.

I'd look at the swanky new offices and see that they're doing alright financially.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

I'd look at the swanky new offices and see that they're doing alright financially.

Their hideout upgrade can support many more masters.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

I'd look at the swanky new offices and see that they're doing alright financially.

This. After several years of the game being out, they're not only surviving, but still growing.

As for some of the other comments earlier in the thread:

Quarterly numbers are probably just a convenient way of breaking down the sales and comparing one block of time to the previous one or comparing results to a similar time in the previous year. With the way this game works, comparing results between one SEASON or one expansion to the previous ones is far more accurate as a way of assessing the game's continued performance. And by that measure, the game still seems to be doing fine.
Time is arbitrary and while businesses might(for various legal/regulatory reasons etc) need to follow certain standards such as "quarterly earnings", that doesn't mean we should be bound by those standards and not look at some other patterns that make more sense in a different context.

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Is this a good thing? I got 87 and 93 so far but dont play very much anymore.(since about 2 weeks back)

My friends who are around lv90 also stopped playing (because of the inability to get higher lvl maps and the new exp penalty making farming lower maps worthless).

If you played enough to get that far, I'd say it's fine. Some people will play a huge amount in the beginning, either burn themselves out or just achieve all their goals for one season, and take a break. As long as most of them come back for the next season, there's no problem. The whole concept of temp leagues means things will be cyclical like this. Other players will go at a slower pace and play for most or all of the league. Either way, it means they're spending a significant amount of time playing the game(and presumably at least some of them are buying supporter packs along the way).

I don't concern myself too much about what other people are doing. I came back when they announced desync was being fixed. I don't play through steam so I don't show up on the chart. I purchased a supporter pack and I assume that counts for something. I'll continue to support them when I can afford to.