Most Played PC Games: June 2014 — WildStar on the Rise

Salute

 

http://caas.raptr.com/most-played-pc-games-june-2014-wildstar-on-the-rise-steam-summer-sale-aftermath/

TankYou88

Very nice. Im happy for Carbine. Almost everything I hear about it is praise.

Salute

Except in this forum

Tbh i want every new game to get good critics, scores and comments in general. I m so sick and tired of old games and the eternal discussion about them. WoW or EQ does better than WS, DAoC than ESO etc etc. I want the new games get their chances to evolve and give us something new.

Aeonblades

Originally posted by Torvaldr

Interesting data. It will be more interesting to see how it does in July. Also of interest to me is how far ESO has tanked and as a result of Wildstar and Skyrim. I seriously doubt that game will be in the top 20 next month.

Of even greater surprise to me is how well FFXIV and GW2 have held up over time. Those games also deserve some recognition for that.

Agreed, July will give a better picture of Wildstar imo. I have already dropped out myself, but if they end up fixing my small gripes with the game, I very well could be back to play Wildstar again. Until the free month is completely done and over, I wouldn't hold my breath. I'm also a little leery about Raptr and xFire ratings in general, because the programs aren't very widely used and are more for PC gaming enthusiast, so it makes sense a new AAA MMO would do well it's first month of release on a program designed for and used by mostly PC gaming veterans.

 

Make no mistake, either way I am very happy for Carbine and WildStar and hope it brings people joy for years to come.

CrazKanuk

Originally posted by Torvaldr

I don't like drawing broad conclusions from raptr or xfire either. I think they could be indicative of a larger trend or influence, but certainly nothing reliable enough to paint the entire industry with.

What interests me most about this data though is that they know where each individual member is spending their playtime with regards to their entire library. So if someone played a lot of WoW and then stopped to play Wildstar they can assemble that information in a much more reliable manner, even if just for their user base. That will also tell them if Wildstar numbers drop off what games people returned to. That sort of data is likely invaluable and I wonder if publishers pay them for that access.

Same, and same. You could never draw a conclusion off of this, especially when 8 or 10 months ago WoW was at like 3% and now it's at 7ish. WoW should be able to stand as a yardstick for this type of measure, but if nothing else, the variability only goes to illustrate further how volatile these types of stats are. 

 

I suppose that, if nothing else, it shows that there is definitely an active user base in Wildstar right now. Making any other assumption is a mistake. 

Salute

Originally posted by Torvaldr

Interesting data. It will be more interesting to see how it does in July. Also of interest to me is how far ESO has tanked and as a result of Wildstar and Skyrim. I seriously doubt that game will be in the top 20 next month.

Of even greater surprise to me is how well FFXIV and GW2 have held up over time. Those games also deserve some recognition for that.

 

ESO was on the 5th place the first days of launch and now is on 37th.

FFXIV is growing indeed (14th) and GW2 (20th) is doing just fine by holding a steady population but its B2P and its on another category

kitarad

Good for Wildstar but look at League of Legends and WoW still holding their top positions with LoL ahead by quite a lot.

gervaise1

On the rise is somewhat misleading .... if a game's launch fails to attract more people than it had in beta that would be a poor launch indeed. And:

• the number 6 position and 2.86% position is lower than the number 5 position and 3.78% than TESO had
• the game (cleverly) launched with the 3 seven day passes - so play time / player numbers is probably inflated

Now if Wildstar manages 3.78% next month the title would certainly be merited.

 

That said its probably better to be up there in the chart then not .....

 

.....as long as we remember that we have to treat the numbers with a huge margin of error. Case in point WoW:

• Raptr February: 7.68%
• Raptr March: 9.36%; WoW playtime up 30% (although in the report it also said Raptr users up 23%)
• Raptr April: 8.56%

So solid growth for WoW? A rise of 0.9% (about 12%) after all.

 

No. Activision reported a drop of 200k subs over the same period in their quarterly report dated May 6th. Maybe those new Raptr users played more WoW.

 

Doesn't invalidate the numbers - they are a sample (more correctly samples from a variable population). Just a reminder not to draw to much from them.

DamonVile

If you look at steam any game they offer is in pretty much the same place. How many people actually play is anyone's guess but I think these tools work well enough when trying to see what gets played more.

jdlamson75

Originally posted by Torvaldr

I don't like drawing broad conclusions from raptr or xfire either. I think they could be indicative of a larger trend or influence, but certainly nothing reliable enough to paint the entire industry with.

What interests me most about this data though is that they know where each individual member is spending their playtime with regards to their entire library. So if someone played a lot of WoW and then stopped to play Wildstar they can assemble that information in a much more reliable manner, even if just for their user base. That will also tell them if Wildstar numbers drop off what games people returned to. That sort of data is likely invaluable and I wonder if publishers pay them for that access.

TV ratings are collected from a small sample of US citizens and extrapolated to encompass the entire population.  Voter polls use the same method.  Are these not reliable enough to paint the entire "industry" with?  If that's the case, you might want to tell the people spending millions/billions of dollars on advertising and such.

Quesa

I really don't think any of these 'reports' will matter much until the next big AAA MMO is released so we can see how it fairs against another new release.  I've heard it's a good game, not great but good, from a lot of people but it's really been the last big-title game to get released and the way today's gamers flock to the newest big game it's hard to take these things seriously.

Lets see how it looks when EQNext or ArcheAge gets released, not to mention MMOGs like Star Citizen.

laserit

Originally posted by jdlamson75

Originally posted by Torvaldr

I don't like drawing broad conclusions from raptr or xfire either. I think they could be indicative of a larger trend or influence, but certainly nothing reliable enough to paint the entire industry with.

What interests me most about this data though is that they know where each individual member is spending their playtime with regards to their entire library. So if someone played a lot of WoW and then stopped to play Wildstar they can assemble that information in a much more reliable manner, even if just for their user base. That will also tell them if Wildstar numbers drop off what games people returned to. That sort of data is likely invaluable and I wonder if publishers pay them for that access.

TV ratings are collected from a small sample of US citizens and extrapolated to encompass the entire population.  Voter polls use the same method.  Are these not reliable enough to paint the entire "industry" with?  If that's the case, you might want to tell the people spending millions/billions of dollars on advertising and such.

As far as political polls go: you can take them with a grain of salt. A very significant portion of the population is sick to death of political poling and will outright lie to pollsters. Our last provincial election here in British Columbia totally threw the pollster's on their heads and made a moron of a politician have to make a very embarrassing and unplanned concession speech for an election he thought was in the bag.

 

Which pleased me tremendously.

Quesa

Originally posted by jdlamson75

Originally posted by Torvaldr

I don't like drawing broad conclusions from raptr or xfire either. I think they could be indicative of a larger trend or influence, but certainly nothing reliable enough to paint the entire industry with.

What interests me most about this data though is that they know where each individual member is spending their playtime with regards to their entire library. So if someone played a lot of WoW and then stopped to play Wildstar they can assemble that information in a much more reliable manner, even if just for their user base. That will also tell them if Wildstar numbers drop off what games people returned to. That sort of data is likely invaluable and I wonder if publishers pay them for that access.

TV ratings are collected from a small sample of US citizens and extrapolated to encompass the entire population.  Voter polls use the same method.  Are these not reliable enough to paint the entire "industry" with?  If that's the case, you might want to tell the people spending millions/billions of dollars on advertising and such.

I don't think anyone is an authority on whether collecting a very small group and calling it 'representative' of the entire population.

I will say that the collection of ratings is quite archaic as they generally select small groups of people from the cable/black-boxes when the ability to pull viewing activity on a massive scale that companies such as Comcast have the ability to do already.  Additionally, there is a growing trend of streamers over those who watch cable tv, dubbed as cord cutters, and as the older generation dies off, this trend will accelerate.  Cable TV companies are already collectively losing damn near a million tv subscribers a year.

So while I can't refute the findings nor have the inclination, the entire system is crumbling and I highly doubt it's an accurate method of collecting information from a population that is rapidly changing how we consume entertainment.

I personally haven't touched cable tv for about 3 years and shifted all of my savings over to Netflix and Amazon Prime.  A lot of TV series are starting to offer their past seasons for free to streamers as well.  The whole thing industry is changing.

rojoArcueid

Most played PC games using Raptr. OP, your title is a bit misleading.... this is Raptr users only. How many people are represented by those percents? that number matters a lot more than showing a percent based on people using a single gametime tracker.

nbtscan

I'd rather see this again in three months when the people who joined not knowing what they were getting into with the hardcore endgame heavy content stop playing.

gervaise1

Originally posted by Quesa

Originally posted by jdlamson75

Originally posted by Torvaldr

 

I don't think anyone is an authority on whether collecting a very small group and calling it 'representative' of the entire population.

I will say that the collection of ratings is quite archaic as they generally select small groups of people from the cable/black-boxes when the ability to pull viewing activity on a massive scale that companies such as Comcast have the ability to do already.  Additionally, there is a growing trend of streamers over those who watch cable tv, dubbed as cord cutters, and as the older generation dies off, this trend will accelerate.  Cable TV companies are already collectively losing damn near a million tv subscribers a year.

So while I can't refute the findings nor have the inclination, the entire system is crumbling and I highly doubt it's an accurate method of collecting information from a population that is rapidly changing how we consume entertainment.

I personally haven't touched cable tv for about 3 years and shifted all of my savings over to Netflix and Amazon Prime.  A lot of TV series are starting to offer their past seasons for free to streamers as well.  The whole thing industry is changing.

I could give you an explanation but:

• you are correct that things have changed and continue to change; this makes the margins for error higher;
• some of the money is spent attempting to put together a small population that is representative of the population at large. What's know as a scientific sample. With polls being conducted in an attempt to demonstrate that the audience that Neilsen (or whoever) draws the data from is representative.
• Not easy though and the historic "game sales" figures that Neilsen produce came in for a lot of criticism from EA, Activision etc. a couple of years back.  
• Rough ride!

 

The Raptr players do not form a scientific sample. People simply sign up. Still it is a sample - but you have to allow bigger error margins. And being an uncontrolled sample the 30 million accounts could be 10 million active this month, a different 10 million the previous month and a different 10 million the month before. So different samples so you even have to be careful discussing trends. 

 

Bottomline: Caveat Emptor. Buyer beware. Good news that Wildstar is up in the top ten but don't get carried away. Same will apply if it falls out of the top 20. Just remember: big error margin.

Quesa

Originally posted by gervaise1

Originally posted by Quesa

Originally posted by jdlamson75

Originally posted by Torvaldr

 

I don't think anyone is an authority on whether collecting a very small group and calling it 'representative' of the entire population.

I will say that the collection of ratings is quite archaic as they generally select small groups of people from the cable/black-boxes when the ability to pull viewing activity on a massive scale that companies such as Comcast have the ability to do already.  Additionally, there is a growing trend of streamers over those who watch cable tv, dubbed as cord cutters, and as the older generation dies off, this trend will accelerate.  Cable TV companies are already collectively losing damn near a million tv subscribers a year.

So while I can't refute the findings nor have the inclination, the entire system is crumbling and I highly doubt it's an accurate method of collecting information from a population that is rapidly changing how we consume entertainment.

I personally haven't touched cable tv for about 3 years and shifted all of my savings over to Netflix and Amazon Prime.  A lot of TV series are starting to offer their past seasons for free to streamers as well.  The whole thing industry is changing.

I could give you an explanation but:

• you are correct that things have changed and continue to change; this makes the margins for error higher;
• some of the money is spent attempting to put together a small population that is representative of the population at large. What's know as a scientific sample. With polls being conducted in an attempt to demonstrate that the audience that Neilsen (or whoever) draws the data from is representative.
• Not easy though and the historic "game sales" figures that Neilsen produce came in for a lot of criticism from EA, Activision etc. a couple of years back.  
• Rough ride!

 

The Raptr players do not form a scientific sample. People simply sign up. Still it is a sample - but you have to allow bigger error margins. And being an uncontrolled sample the 30 million accounts could be 10 million active this month, a different 10 million the previous month and a different 10 million the month before. So different samples so you even have to be careful discussing trends. 

 

Bottomline: Caveat Emptor. Buyer beware. Good news that Wildstar is up in the top ten but don't get carried away. Same will apply if it falls out of the top 20. Just remember: big error margin.

I completely get that, I understand how, on a high level, statistics are generated (not that I enjoyed my statistics classes AT ALL), I'm just saying it's hard for me to take even Neilsen's reports without skepticism because of how consumption of entertainment has so rapidly changed over the past decade.

As for Raptr, I don't know nor do I care all that much.  This post was just rambling about TV ratings and such.

Distopia

Originally posted by gervaise1

Originally posted by Quesa

Originally posted by jdlamson75

Originally posted by Torvaldr

 

I don't think anyone is an authority on whether collecting a very small group and calling it 'representative' of the entire population.

I will say that the collection of ratings is quite archaic as they generally select small groups of people from the cable/black-boxes when the ability to pull viewing activity on a massive scale that companies such as Comcast have the ability to do already.  Additionally, there is a growing trend of streamers over those who watch cable tv, dubbed as cord cutters, and as the older generation dies off, this trend will accelerate.  Cable TV companies are already collectively losing damn near a million tv subscribers a year.

So while I can't refute the findings nor have the inclination, the entire system is crumbling and I highly doubt it's an accurate method of collecting information from a population that is rapidly changing how we consume entertainment.

I personally haven't touched cable tv for about 3 years and shifted all of my savings over to Netflix and Amazon Prime.  A lot of TV series are starting to offer their past seasons for free to streamers as well.  The whole thing industry is changing.

I could give you an explanation but:

• you are correct that things have changed and continue to change; this makes the margins for error higher;
• some of the money is spent attempting to put together a small population that is representative of the population at large. What's know as a scientific sample. With polls being conducted in an attempt to demonstrate that the audience that Neilsen (or whoever) draws the data from is representative.
• Not easy though and the historic "game sales" figures that Neilsen produce came in for a lot of criticism from EA, Activision etc. a couple of years back.  
• Rough ride!

 

The Raptr players do not form a scientific sample. People simply sign up. Still it is a sample - but you have to allow bigger error margins. And being an uncontrolled sample the 30 million accounts could be 10 million active this month, a different 10 million the previous month and a different 10 million the month before. So different samples so you even have to be careful discussing trends. 

 

Bottomline: Caveat Emptor. Buyer beware. Good news that Wildstar is up in the top ten but don't get carried away. Same will apply if it falls out of the top 20. Just remember: big error margin.

The biggest hurdle in analyzing such statistics, is it's hours played. MMO's and other online games dominate these charts for a reason. It really doesn't represent how many people are playing a game, as much as how long the play sessions are of those playing a lot.

WIldstar is a hardcore dungeon/raiding game, one dungeon run in these games can take quite a bit of time,  you have the basement dwellers who put in 12 hours a day in these types of titles, so on and so forth. It was also wildstars launch month as others have pointed out. We'll see how it pans out in the months ahead on whether it continues to rise on said charts. I'm sure there will be decline before any real long term rise starts, as the decline is normal. It's word of mouth that will entice future growth, if turns into anything like WOW.

On a related note. You'll probably see a rise in Raptr users now that AMD Gaming Evolved™  is using it as it's tracker. And has tied it to a automatic optimizer for many premiere games on your desktop. Points for free games/DIscounts will help to spread it around as well.

 

 

 

SpardaX

A lot of people dont use those programs or websites and what people play is always fluctuating. So no, this doesnt tell us much just that the game is ok for its first month release, that list only shows me that LOL is still the most played game in the world.

severius

Good for wildstar I spose.  I think it would be more accurate to say that Wildstar is gaining traction with gamers who install and allow a third party app like Raptr to track what they do and for how long. 

lunatiquez

Originally posted by rojoArcueid
Most played PC games using Raptr. OP, your title is a bit misleading.... this is Raptr users only. How many people are represented by those percents? that number matters a lot more than showing a percent based on people using a single gametime tracker.

This is what I was about to say. I used Raptr for once, when Rift offered event integrated with Raptr. After that, uninstall and never look back. What's the use anyway.

Shaigh

On the top 20 list there are 5 MMO's, 4 are P2P, 1 is B2P, 0 are F2P.

 

....and they said P2P was dead

Distopia

Originally posted by severius
Good for wildstar I spose.  I think it would be more accurate to say that Wildstar is gaining traction with gamers who install and allow a third party app like Raptr to track what they do and for how long. 

That's the funny thing about these programs it doesn't even mean they have a larger install base than the next game, 1 person playing an MMO 12 hours is the same as 12 playing something else for 1, so on and so forth.

ON a related note..During what time period would you say that most put the most time into an MMO?

I'm not saying W* is not doing well by any means, this just isn't the way to tell. Not during the first month anyway.

Distopia

Originally posted by SpardaX
A lot of people dont use those programs or websites and what people play is always fluctuating. So no, this doesnt tell us much just that the game is ok for its first month release, that list only shows me that LOL is still the most played game in the world.

I'd never really used it before the latest catalyst update I installed, it came along with it I guess, because when it was finished something called AMD Gaming Evolved opened up, its attached to raptr in some way which I already had installed, just never used it..

Volgore

Wildstar's popularity went down incredibly FAST on twitch. The game is already way behind much older titles such as Team Fortress 2, Gary's Mod, Bioshock and even some curious games i've never heard of.

As i type this, Borderlands 2 has 2.6k viewers and Wildstar has only 343 (!!).

And yes, Twitch is very well an indicator of a game's popularity and whatever you might post to excuse Wildstar's poor numbers (summer break, working hours blabla) should then apply to every other game on Twitch as well.

TankYou88

Originally posted by Volgore

Wildstar's popularity went down incredibly FAST on twitch. The game is already way behind much older titles such as Team Fortress 2, Gary's Mod, Bioshock and even some curious games i've never heard of.

As i type this, Borderlands 2 has 2.6k viewers and Wildstar has only 343 (!!).

And yes, Twitch is very well an indicator of a game's popularity and whatever you might post to excuse Wildstar's poor numbers (summer break, working hours blabla) should then apply to every other game on Twitch as well.

A few things wrong with that.

1 Twitch is about watching other people, not playing. So it doesnt indicate how many people are playing instead of watching.

2 You are looking at 1 hour of watching not a full days. Its 10am in California right now, meaning most gamers are asleep. Wildstar might not be as popular in other countries where it is prime time for playing and watching. So just because you take a small sample time doesnt show the time throughout the day for games that are popular in different areas.

3 Right now Wildstar views are at 1100 which just proves 2 right since it almost tripled in the time it took you to post.