MMOData.net

MMOData Charts version 3.6 is Live !

2012-02-20T14:30:00.007-08:00

Hey all,

We have some new numbers again.

Most important is of course Star Wars The Old Republic, which had a strong start with 1,7m subs at the beginning of Februari 2012. However there are some indications that numbers are gowing down a bit, I will keep a close eye on it, especially now between 20/02/2012 and 23/02/2012, when the bulk of the players have to resubscribe for the second time since release.

Then on to EVE Online, they went back to their roots, and despite the launch of SWTOR, the only serious competition in sci-fi mmorpg's since the launch of EVE, it's holding ground.
It looks like EVE is on route to full recovery, and SWTOR seems to be just a bump in the road. I can even imagine that SWTOR may become the boost that EVE needs to get back to their previous 370k and then over the 400k subs.

How is that you may ask, well, another interesting trend is that the Sci-Fi subgenre has grown substantially because of SWTOR, and once the novelty wears off, people may choose Sci-Fi again and pick EVE, and leave all the fantasy mmorpg's for what they are.

Now then, where did all these SWTOR subs come from? Well there is definatly a good chunk of WoW players that switched sides. If we look at the Western market, then SWTOR is close to half the numbers of WoW now. However after the initial bleed WoW seems to be stabilized. And I believe SWTOR also introduced a good chunk of new mmorpg'ers, expanding the market.

Meanwhile I am already planning v3.7
I am trying to get some numbers for Star Trek, now that they went F2P. They got a serious boost in Active Accounts, no doubt about it. I may be able to make an estime for v3.7
I also got some weird numbers on Runescape, so I will investigate that.
And I will take another look at the Asian market and see if I can digg up some more PCU's from there.

To wrap things up, here are the version notes :

Version 3.6 notes :

General Changes :

- Added SWTOR to the 1m+ subscription chart.
- Removed WoW Global from the PCU chart and replaced it with WoW East and WoW West.
- Removed the WoW chart ( there is not enough information to have seperate listings for WoW NA and WoW EU ).
- Added WoW West and WoW East to the 1m+ chart.
- Added subscription / active account datapoints for WoW, EVE, SWTOR, WoW East and WoW West, Rift, LOTRO, Aion, SWG.
- Downgraded Rift accuracy rating from B to C.
- Added PCU datapoints for EVE, Second Life.
- Expanded sheets and charts to March 2012.
- Updated the Total Subs chart.
- Lowered the rank of Rift on the charts, it was higher ranked than it should have been. ( Rank on the list is determined by peak subscriptions of all time ).
- Added various entries to the Glossary.
- Made several small cosmetic changes to the site.

Internal Changes :

- Added various sources and information as notes in the dataset.
- Merged EVE, SL and WoW sheets into Subs and PCU sheets, simplyfying the overall dataset.
- Removed market share dataview.
- Improved Checks and Sums.

Update :

Looks like I made a mistake on the WoW East / WoW West distibution.
Besides that, I will rate WoW East and WoW West seperatly from now on, it will receive a B-rating.
Expect a new verion soon rectifying this mistake and also new numbers for EVE, showing a nice growth.
This on top of the already mentioned additions for v3.7
V3.7 is expected to be released on March 2, 2012.

Version 3.6 in the works

2012-02-03T12:28:00.000-08:00

Hey all

It has been a while, I have mainly been waiting for some numbers on Star Wars The Old Republic before releasing new charts. And my prayers have been heard :p

They have 1,7m subscribers resubscribing after the first month, out of 2m copies sold, thats pretty impressive.

source : Reuters

Besides the SWTOR addition to the charts there will be new numbers for EVE Online, Second Life and some others.

Expect v3.6 to be released soon(tm)

Update :

Some people claimed that the 1,7m subs are from December. This is actually incorrect.
Here is a quote from EA from the Q3 conference call, note that this conference call is held on Februari 1, 2012 :

"Let me offer some metrics on purchase and subscription that will help you understand this business. As John stated, we have sold through two million units of the game since December.
We currently have a little over 1.7 million active subscribers. The rest have either not started playing yet or have opted out."

Currently means like right now and "or have opted out" means that this is after the first 30 days since release, when the first batch of players could have opted out on their subscription.

Well EA could also be lying on their Q3 report, but I doubt that.
Anyone can check the Q3 quarterly results conference call on the EA website.

MMOData Charts version 3.5 is Live !

2011-10-09T13:39:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

This is only a small update, and way later than it should have been, nonetheless, here it is.

Most interesting is that EVE is holding on to it's subs, at least up to July 2011, altho the PCU is dropping. We will have to wait and see if the PCU drop is only due to the summer holidays or if there is a more structural problem with subscriptions.

Meanwhile CCP is working hard to get the veterans back on board :
a letter to the followers of eve
eve updating - winter expansion 2011

Moving on to World of Warcraft, Blizzard can not curb the downard trend it started in May and hits a new low at 11,1m subs, however if this trend continues, WoW will live on for a good while.

Actually, I think both EVE and WoW are still one of the more alive MMORPG's on the market, and with the right adjustments they can have a bright future.

Version 3.5 notes :

General Changes :

- Added subscription datapoints for :
Eve Online, World of Warcraft
- Added following MMORPG's to the PCU 0-500k chart :
Tera Korea, ZT Online II
- Added PCU datapoints for :
Eve online, Second Life, Westward Journey Online II, World of Warcraft
- Expanded charts, sheets and formulas to December 2011

Will CCP save EVE? Emergency CSM meeting ( edit : results are in )

2011-06-30T14:40:00.000-07:00

After the EVE meltdown, CCP called for an emergency CSM meeting.

MadOverlord aka Trebor from the CSM gives us some hope.

Lets pray EVE gets saved.

edit :

And this is what CCP and the CSM has come up with :
CCP - CSM meeting Devblog

It is not perfect, far from it, but it is a step in the right direction.
I am still puzzled as to why they just can't simply return the old hangar view with a "disembark to captain quarters" button, but we will have to wait and see what they come up with.

MMOData Charts version 3.4 is Live !

2011-06-26T15:33:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

With me having more time to spare, I pulled MMOData from maintenance mode and went back to full throttle.

Most important change for the future is the addition of Active Accounts, which will allow me to list more MMORPG's overall. From now on, all MMORPG's will be marked as AA ( Active Acounts ) or SS ( Subscriptions ), so it is easy to see the difference. Clearly Subscriptions are more important but it is interesting to see Active Accounts as well I believe.

Most interesting additions right now are of course the newly released Rift and the decline of WoW. I received a usable datapoint for Rift right before the deadline so there you go.

WoW going from 12 million to 11,4 million is to me a result of making the game to easy to max level. You can't even experience all the content because you level out of the areas way before you have seen it all. Same goes for instance queueing, and god forbid you want to do instances AND quests ... it is a shame really, because the game has improved content wise imho.

Second Life makes a serious entrance in the Active Accounts department, I also got back on track with the PCU datapoints for Second Life, thanks to Dwell On It.

Version 3.4 notes :

General Changes :

- Migrated the Subscription charts to Subscriptions and Active Accounts charts. Each MMORPG received a tag ( AA = Active Accounts or SS = Subscriptions ).
- Added Rift to the charts.
- Added Subscription and/or Active Account datapoints for Wow, Aion, LOTRO, Second life, EVE Online and Rift.
- Added a Subscription datapoint for WoW East and West for January 2009 using the previous ratio, this was needed because otherwise it made it look incorrect on the charts, East and West seemed to increase while Global went down. In reality there was nothing wrong, it just seemed that way because Global had more datapoints.
- Removed the Chinese downtime datapoint for WoW on the 1m to 12m chart. The WoW specific chart still shows the Chinese downtime datapoint for reference.
- Added PCU datapoints for Second life.
- Made some revisions to following Subscription and/or Active Account datapoints : AoC, Aion, LOTRO, WAR, DDO
- Removed the Second Life subscription datapoints as they were quite old and no new data was available. This has been replaced with MUURL numbers ( Monthly Unique User Repeat Logins ) and therefore Second Life datapoints are now marked as Active Accounts.
- Moved Second Life from the 50k - 150k chart to NR 1 in the 150k - 1m chart.
- Moved Lord of the Rings Online up to NR 4 in the 150k - 1m chart.
- Removed a Perpetuum datapoint for better visibility.
- Changed the Accuracy Rating system : removed the D rating and adjusted the C rating. Revised the MMORPG ratings accordingly.
- Made some adjustments to the "Requirements for MMO's to be allowed on the site and charts" section under the "Accuracy Rating and Requirements".
- Made some cosmetic changes to the site.
- Added Dwell on it to contributers.

Internal Changes :

- Added a lot of source data.
- Removed unusable source data.
- Removed unusable Second Life data.
- Fixed several internal errors.
- Removed market share chart.
- Added EVE Online Active Accounts in addition to Subscriptions. Active Accounts include the Trial Accounts.

Riots in EVE against Microtransactions and forced Incarna expansion

2011-06-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

For the first time in EVE there are massive protests in all the major trade hubs.

The reason is the introduction of microtransactions into the game, the crazy prices charged for them, a leaked document from CCP where several high profile employees support the introduction of gameplay impacting microtransactions ( on top of the newly added vanity items ) and the forcing of the Incarna expansion on the EVE players by removing the old station hangar and loading directly into the captains quarters.

CCP has broken the trust from the players, by first promissing gameplay altering microtransactions would not be introduced ( meanwhile making plans to do just this ) and secondly by telling that Incarna would be optional ( with a "leave ship" button when inside the station hangar ), and now breaking also that promise.

Not to mention it is a very bad idea to introduce microtransactions to an established mmorpg in the first place, especially when said mmorpg has 360k+ subs and growing!

CCP are changing the foundations of EVE for no good reason but wanting to get fucking filthy rich instead of just filthy rich. And furthermore it is higly unlikely that they will earn more money this way, because history has shown, that for EVE, the pure subscription model works very well. Expand and improve the game and get rewarded by custumers staying and more customers joining.

EVE is as much a creation by the players as it is by CCP, by destroying the trust, EVE will failcascade hard, just like Star Wars Galaxies did, that other well known Sci-Fi sandbox, which will close down this december. SWG closing down
Which of course is the result of the CU and the NGE, where the SWG foundation was completely changed by changing many sandbox aspects into themepark systems, as Sony Online Entertainment and Lucas Arts aimed for replacing their current playerbase by more and better players. This completely backfired and the game dropped from 300k to less than 50k subscriptions over time.

The trade hubs Jita and Amarr are already capped and the statues burning, Rens and Dodixie are going next, altho at Rens and Dodixie the protest is more peacefull because there is no statue to shoot at those locations, and the protest is limited to shouting slogans as "Hell no, we won't micro" and "No forced Incarna!".

A condensed version of the issues, recommended reading.

Some background info

Jita live feed

Post on Jita protest

CCP bulletin on microtransactions confirmed

EVE NEWS 24 story coverage

Eve burns
Eve burns part II

Here a screenshot of Jita 4-4 burning :

And protest in Rens :

Update :
CCP clearly capped Jitta at 1500 players, normally Jita can support over 2000.
Amarr is at 1200+ and going up.
Rens is at 500+ and increasing.

Update :
Dodixie at 700 and rising.

Update Friday 22:00h GMT :
The protest still going strong.
Here another screenshot of Jita :

Update Saturday 10:00h GMT :
The protest and riots coninue on Saturday, Jita still burning.

Update Saturday 20:00h GMT :
Riots still going on, Jita is locked down, I can't enter, heavy protest continues in Amarr.

Stay tuned for updates.

New version 3.4 will be released soon!

2011-06-19T17:10:00.000-07:00

Version 3.4 is pretty much ready.

I am waiting on a few numbers for confirmation and will revise the whole thing during this week.

It has become a more beefy upgrade, now that I have some more time to spare. So you guessed it, MMOData is now officially off "Maintenance mode" and back in full throttle.

Here are some of the highlights you can expect in v3.4 :

- A new WoW datapoint : 11,4m, showing a substantial decline( comming from 12m ). I do not expect WoW to recover this time, unless some drastic but well thought out changes are made.

- For the first time, I am introducing Active Accounts to the charts. Each MMORPG will receive a tag ( AA = Active Accounts or SS = Subscriptions ). So it is clear what the datapoints represent.
Because of this, I was able to add new Active Account datapoints for LOTRO and Second Life.

- I made some adjustments to the "Requirements for MMO's to be allowed on the site and charts" section under the "Accuracy Rating and Requirements", mostly to accomodate the introduction of Active Accounts.

- I changed the Accuracy Rating system : removed the D rating and adjusted the C rating and revised the MMORPG ratings accordingly. This will make it a bit easier for me to choose which rating an MMORPG will get and it will be more accurate because of this. It will also be more clear for you, the readers.

- Added alot of internal information and datapoints, that will most likely result in more numbers for next version (3.5).

The Active Accounts introduction as wel as catching up with the latest in MMORPG land was a bit of work, but I am back up to speed now.

I do have to dissapoint the many people who requested Rift to be added, I really want too, but I just don't have enough information. So if anyone has more information regarding Rift that might help put it on the charts, that would be very welcome.

The Syndicate - Beyond The Legend

2011-06-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

Sean Stalzer made a book called "The Syndicate - Beyond The Legend".

He describes Online Gaming and MMORPG's as seen thru the eyes of The Syndicate.

The Syndicate is a well established online gaming guild.

MMOData.net is used on several occasions as a reference.

You can check out the book here :
Book : The Syndicate - Beyond The Legend

MMOData Charts version 3.3 is Live !

2011-05-28T12:37:00.000-07:00

MMOData.net is still running in maintenance mode.

Most important updates are,

The addition of Perpetuum to the charts. A relative new and small MMORPG. After the initial hype their subs dropped substantially, however it seems that they are slowly curving up now. I wish them all the best with their sandbox Sci-Fi mmorpg as there are only few of them.

EVE Online, that other sandbox Sci-Fi game is doing great again. After it's biggest growth month over month in Juli 2010, it had a little dip during September - November 2010, but now they are growing again. And it looks like a small but sustainable growth, it had 358k in Januari 2011 and 364k in May ( which is higher than the 361k in Juli and thus it's highest number yet ).

Version 3.3 notes :

General Changes :

- Added the MMORPG Perpetuum.
- Added Perpetuum datapoints.
- Added Eve Online datapoints.
- Revised the MMORPG definition, changed server into shard.
- Revised the "About" section.
- Added "Become a contributor" section.
- Revised chart titels : changed MMOG into MMORPG.
- Added Avatar Creations ( Perpetuum ) to contributors.
- Expanded charts to June 2011.
- Made some cosmetic changes.

Internal Changes :

- Re-added the Market share chart, internal only.
- Expanded the Market share chart.
- Added disclaimer on market share chart.
- Added various information.

EVE Online reaches a new high !

2011-05-09T16:02:00.000-07:00

With 364875 active paying subscriptions in March 2011, CCP curbed the downward trend into a new high. The previous high was in Juli 2010 with 361389 subs, so now CCP has an increase of almost 3000 subs.

They had a dip in between the two records, which was to be expected as their previous high was the biggest growth they ever achieved month over month. Their current high looks alot more stable as they had 357918 subs in Februari 2011.

So it seems they are back, growing slowly but steadily, as they have the past 8 years ( Oh yeah, happy birthday EVE Online :p ).

Their latest expansion, Incursion, is also generally better received by the playerbase than the previous, Tyrannis and it seems CCP is listening more to the players now than ever.

Thanks to CCP for providing me with numbers ( even if they are not good at times ).

New version in the works

2011-05-09T14:50:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,

I finally found some spare time to work on the charts again. So stay tuned :p

See you soon.

MMOData Charts version 3.2 is Live !

2010-12-25T09:04:00.000-08:00

The MMOData Charts are currently running in maintenance mode.

This means that I will add all official datapoints that I receive from the stakeholders ( Devs, Publishers, ... ) directly. On top of that I will add datapoints that are easily verified ( for example the official Blizzard press releases ). And datapoints that are send to me by mail from one of the fans, if this includes the source and easely usable datapoints.

What I will not do anymore ( for now ) is make estimates, derivations, heavy research to find new sources and datapoints, etc. Because these things take too much time.

This will also result in data that is even more accurate ( will do only accuracy A and B ) and the mmo's that do not get updated are probably not doing great ( otherwise they would boast about it ).

Version 3.2 notes :

General Changes :

- Added subscription datapoints for following MMO's :
EVE Online, World of Warcraft.
- Added PCU datapoints for following mmo's :
Second Life
- Added the MMOData.net Masthead to the frontpage.
- Rearranged the frontpage.

Internal Changes :

- Added Source links for following mmo's :
EVE Online, Second Life, World of Warcraft, Vanguard.

Second Life does no longer provide PCU numbers

2010-12-20T06:23:00.000-08:00

Second Life does no longer provide PCU numbers in their reports or xml.

This probably means that their numbers are declining. It is not so good news for MMOData.net. The latest number I got, 71k, derrived from Dwell on it, confirms that assumption. Furthermore Linden also stopped publishing monthly logins since october 2010.
Dwell on it seems still able to get the 14-day PCU numbers.

Either way, I will try to contact Linden Labs to see if I can get some more information.

On a brighter note, Perpetuum Online has contacted me to provide numbers, they are small, but it does not matter, and they use the same server strategy as EVE Online, so that may become interesting.

Version 3.2 of MMOData.net is on the way

2010-11-28T14:12:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

Just letting everyone know that I am still alive and started working on the next verion of MMOData.net

EVE Online, Plex for Remaps canned!

2010-11-28T14:02:00.000-08:00

Good news and not so good news.

The good news is that after pressure from the playerbase and the CSM ( Counsil of Stellar Management ), CCP finally decided to let the plans for Plex for Remaps go, and also stated they will not do any gameplay influencing microtransactions nor any additional remaps.

Yep, that is right, they do listen !

Now the bad news is that cosmetic microtransactions are still possible in EVE and more specifically in Incarna ( Walking in Stations ).

I'll keep fighting the good fight against microtransactions, but to be able to do that I had to resub to EVE :p But besides that, it is just a fact that CCP has been listening to the players, and they are focussing more on the quality of the game.

That and alot of good devblogs have been published outlining their plans and their fixes.

To read some more about the microtransactions ( or lack thereoff ), you can check this link :

CCP Devblog about Microtransactions

CCP is going to introduce microtransactions in EVE

2010-10-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

Here is the source :

Eurogamer

So after DAoC with ToA and NF, SWG with the CU and NGE, now EVE will have Microtransactions and Dust514.

Another sad day for complex mmorpg's with an equal playing field, or lack thereoff.

MMOData Charts version 3.1 is Live !

2010-08-01T15:31:00.000-07:00

I mainly released this version to rectify a mistake with EQII on version 3.0

Version 3.1 notes :

General Changes :

- Revised datapoints for EQII, rectified a mistake.
- Slightly revised latest LOTRO datapoint.
- Changed Genre chart title.
- Changed PCUShard title.
- Removed trendlines from WoW chart.
- Revised description of Shard in the Glossary.
- Moved the "PCU : Largest Shards" up in the list of charts.
- Fixed the links to the "PCU : 500k - 3m" and "PCU : 0 - 500k" charts so that they now once more show the correct chart.

MMOData Charts version 3.0 is Live !

2010-07-22T17:45:00.000-07:00

A few key changes and thoughts :

I added Star Trek Online to the charts, it started not so bad at a bit over 100k in the first month, but declined in the following months.

A remarkable recovery can be seen by Age of Conan, which dropped to an estimated low of 79k but then revived to around 115k. It seems the dev team is focussed on improving the game and it pays off.

Lord of the Rings online had a serious drop in subs since last datapoint from June 2009, so it was only logical Turbine introduced the free to play ( try ) model, especially as it worked so well with Dungeons and Dragons Online. If LOTRO has the same increase in subs as DDO had, then we may look at a 400k subs game this time next year.

EVE Online had it's biggest increase ( 40k ) of month over month since it's release, which is pretty amazing for a 7 year old game. It now has 361k subs. Do note that there were some special marketing actions running, and CCP expects to lose many of the newcommers, still if they can hold on to half of them they will have around 340k subs which is still more than the previous high of 329k in March.
They also scored a new PCU record of 60k.

Second Life PCU is going back up well, still not at the same level as before the new bot policy and enforcement, but they will get there eventually I am sure.
Also got 2 numbers which I can't put in a chart yet but are interesting nonetheless : Unique residents spending L$ per month is at 517k and Monthly Unique User Repeat Logins per 30 days is at 826k. Especially the 517k is interesting because it is similar to subscription based numbers and can be used to give an idea how many "subs" second life has.

Aion looks to hold steady now after a bit of a decline, while Warhammer Online keeps going down.

Version 2.9 - 3.0 notes :

General Changes :

- Added Star Trek Online to the charts.
- Added and/or revised subscription datapoints for following mmo's :
Age of Conan, The Matrix Online, Star Trek Online, The Lord of the Rings online, Everquest II, Warhammer Online, Aion, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Everquest, EVE Online.
- Added PCU datapoints for following mmo's :
Second Life, EVE Online.
- Added WoW datapoints representing the extended China downtime during 2009.
- Renamed PCU on the largest single cluster shards into PCU on the biggest shards.
- Removed some spam/advertisement comments/posts from the site.
- Fixed some spelling errors.
- Expanded the date range for several charts.
- Revised market share genre chart.
- Improved some color codings.
- Made the site better viewable for resolutions of 1200 x 900 or higher.
- Made a seperate section for the site hit counter.
- Re-ordered mmo's from charts Subs-40k-150k and Subs-0-40k into Subs-50k-150k and Subs-0-50k.
- Renamed the links to most of the charts, if you directly linked to the charts you will need to update most links, I made the names more universal so I don't have to rename them in the near future when individual charts expand or collapse.

Internal Changes :

- Added and revised notes and/or links to datapoints for several MMORPG's.
- Added xfire information.
- Added MUURL datapoint for Second Life.
- Added Unique Residents Spending L$ per Month datapoints for Second Life.
- Expanded all sheets to Juli 2010.
- Revised Cas Derivations sheet.
- Changed names of internal charts for easier updating.

New version 3.0 will be released this week

2010-07-18T16:47:00.000-07:00

I have a bit delay with getting the new version ready, but I am confident I will release it somewhere this week.

New EVE numbers and next release of MMOData.net

2010-07-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

I just received new numbers from CCP and they look very good, they actually have their biggest increase in active payed subscriptions, month over month, for this month ( Juli 2010 ), since the release of EVE Online.

EVE Online now has 361,389 active paying subscriptions.

EVE is slowly becomming an unreplicated success story in the MMORPG genre. After LOTRO going free to play and even WoW declining in numbers, EVE remains as one of the few, if not the only, premium MMORPG that is still growing.

Realising the biggest increase in subscriptions 7 years after release is something to be proud off, and therefore I congratulate you CCP, for doing this and most importantly for how you did it.

Edit : I just got word from CCP that the increase in subs is due to a reactivation campaign and a $2 Steam offer, so add to that the Tyrannis expansion and that explains the big increase. We will have to wait and see how much they can keep from that, but I have no doubt it will be still more than their last high.

I will release the numbers in v2.9 of the MMOData charts, which I hope will be live on Sunday 18 Juli.

So Tobold questions my WoW numbers ...

2010-07-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

And is certain I made them up : Tobold's numeracy, but perhaps he should have done some research first.

And right when I want to make a reply on his blog, he locks it because someone apparently was critisizing it ... mmkay then.

Either way, here are the sources :

Links for 11,5m subs on Jan 10 2010 :
http://seekingalpha.com/article/203610-activision-blizzard-q1-2010-earnings-call-transcript?source=bnet
and
http://kotaku.com/5469063/world-of-warcraft-no-growth-since-2008
and
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98245-Only-30-Percent-of-WoW-Players-Get-Past-Level-10

Link for 11,6m subs on may 2009 :
http://www.blizzplanet.com/blog/comments/e3_2009_blizzard_accepts_guinness_world_record_awards/

Link for 12m subs on January 2009 :
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL246439220090302?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
and
http://kotaku.com/5469063/world-of-warcraft-no-growth-since-2008

Link for 11,5m subs on December 2008 :
http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/company/press/pressreleases.html?081223

Furthermore, even tho WoW has been down due to some difficulties in China, it was only down for a month and there were people playing in both June and July ( downtime was from June 7 till the end of July ).
But in July it was closed beta ( free to play ), so I agree technically it was incorrect to not show it on the graphs.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25337
http://www.jlmpacificepoch.com/newsstories?id=149114_0_5_0_M
Commercial operation relaunched in Sept 19 http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0245010720091102

I will change my charts on the next update to represent the downtime, so the critics have even less basis to their arguments.

EVE Online breaks PCU record !

2010-06-06T15:12:00.000-07:00

The new record is 60,453 pilots online at 19:53 GMT on 6 Jun 2010.

Source :

http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=3934&tid=1

MMOData Charts version 2.8 is Live !

2010-05-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

A few key changes :

- Finally added the datapoints showing the decline of WoW.

- Added and revised various new datapoints and games.

- Added and revised the requirements to make the charts, also made a definition of "subscribers". You can find this under the "MMO and Accuracy list".

- Because of this revision, some mmo's had to be removed from the charts until some day more and/or better info is available.

Version 2.8 notes :

General Changes :

- Added following MMORPG's to MMOData.net ( Datapoints to the "PCU chart" and ratings to the "MMO and Accuracy list" ) :
Ask Tao, Yu Yan, Tian Long Ba Bu, Fantasy Journey Online, Wu Lin Wai Zhuan, The First Myth, Zhen Feng Shen.
- Added subscription datapoints for following games :
World of Warcraft, Dofus, Final Fantasy XI, Warhammer Online
- Added PCU datapoints for following games :
Yulgang, Zengthu Online, Shou Xue Fei Teng, Fantasy Westward Journey, Giant Online, Dofus, EuDemons, Shaiya, Westward Journey Online II, World of Warcraft.
- Revised subscription datapoints for following games :
FFXI.
- Revised PCU datapoints for following games :
Fantasy Westward Journey, Zengthu Online, Westward Journey Online II, World of Warcraft, Eudemons.
- Updated the "Total MMOG active subscriptions" chart.
- Reclassified MMO's between the 0-500k PCU and 500k-3m PCU chart.
- Added following requirements to the "MMO and Accuracy list" :
B. Need to have at least 2 good datapoints.
C. PCU datapoints validity.
D. MMOData.net Subscriber Definition.
- Added translated, native and previous ( old ) names to some MMO's on the "MMO and Accuracy list".
- Moved following mmorpg's from the public charts to internal only charts because only 1 datapoint is available :
Wen Dao, Soul of the Ultimate nation, Pirates of the Caribbean Online, Sphere.
- Revised the "MMO and Accuracy list".
- Expanded most charts to June 2010.
- Made various cosmetic changes to the PCU and Subscription charts.
- Revised the Glossary.

Internal Changes :

- Added FFXI PCU datapoint
- Expanded most sheets to may 2010
- Added following mmorpg's to the MMOData charts internal only because they do not yet meet status or datapoint requirements :
Zhengtu Online Green, Heroic Island, Journey to the west, Shu Men Online, Tian Xia II, Legend of Stardust, Zhu Hou Online, Westward Journey Wai Zhuan, Concerto Gate II, Zhengtu Online Classic, Dragon Knight, Yi Tian Jian Yu Tu Long Dao, Hero Online II, Fire Narrows, Tian Ji Online, Cabal Online, Uncharted Waters Online, Feng Yun Online, Age of Armor, Magic World online, DOL Online, Cronous, Tian Shi Zhi Lian Online, HX 2 Online, Neo Steam, Da Tang Feng Yun, King of Kings 2, Archlord, Datang, Fate of Dragon Online, Dekaron, Shaolin Online, QQ Fantasy, Seal Online, World of Qin, Sanguo Heroes Online, Blade Online, Sheng Xiao Chuan Shuo, World of Kungfu, Zhu Xian Online, Perfect World II, Voyage Century
- Added various source and informational links.
- Added datapoints for Second Life.
- Fixed some CAS errors.
- Made Various other internal changes.

Update to v2.8 is in progress

2010-05-16T15:02:00.001-07:00

So if you see any strange things, come back in 30 minutes :p

MMOData charts v2.8 expected release date

2010-04-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

Update : I won't be able to make the deadline, next ETA is 16/05/2010

Hey all,

Just to let you know that I am alive and busy on the next release of the MMOData charts v2.8

I hope to have it ready and released by 09/05/2010

Most important news is of course the decline of WoW, while this is old news by now, you will finally be able to see the decline on the charts.

I made some new rules for admittance on the site, one of them being that an mmo needs at least 2 usable datapoints, mmo's with only 1 datapoint have been removed ( until I someday get 2 or more ).

Finally I have added a bunch of new mmo's, mostly Asian PCU's.

It is a work in progress and more changes and updates may be made, if anyone has any interesting numbers, feel free to mail me at cyberwiz@mmodata.net

World of Warcraft in decline, but perhaps not for long ...

2010-02-24T14:57:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

Yep, World of Warcraft subscription numbers are declining for the first time in it's history.

In december 2008 WoW had 11,5m active subscribers, in may 2009 it was already clear WoW was stagnating with 11,6m active subscribers and now Blizzard Top Dog, Mike Morhaime, says WoW is stable with 11,5m active subscribers, which is actually a small decline of 100k subs.

However, meanwhile the GAPP ( Chinese government ) finally approved The Burning Crusade, so WoW China is back on track, and will probably bolster Chinese WoW numbers in the near future.

Add to that the upcomming expansion Cataclysm in the West and one can see that WoW still has a strong future ahead.

Update :
It seems WoW has actually been on 12 million players around January 2010, this means that their current numbers are a bigger drop than first assumed.
You can check this link : WoW and Vivendi at Reuters
At first I was reluctant to use this number, but after comparing them to the PCU numbers I got it looks to be valid after all.

MMOData Charts version 2.7 Live !

2010-01-31T15:43:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

A few key changes :

- In previous update I removed the Top 10 chart and now I removed the Market share chart. This because I feel that atm I do not have enough mmo's listed and many mmo's are not up to date to keep the TOP 10 and Market Share charts relevant.
This also means I am less pressured to make an estimate, if the last mmo datapoint is old, it does not matter as much as before, so I can make an estimate when I feel I have enough information.

- I have reviewed all MMO's, estimates and accuracy ratings.

- I divided the PCU chart in 2 charts, similar to the Subscription charts, so it will be less cluttered and more easely readable.

- I have added and revised many datapoints and mmo's, a lot of Q3-09 and Q4-09 info was processed and many charts and sheets were expanded to Januari 2010.

Version 2.4-2.7 notes :

General Changes :

- Added PCU datapoints for EVE Online.
- Added Subscriptions datapoints for EVE Online.
- Added "Giant Online" to the PCU chart.
- Added "Shou Xue Fei Teng" to the PCU chart.
- Added "Conquer Online" to the PCU chart.
- Added "Zero Online" to the PCU chart.
- Added PCU datapoints for WoW.
- Added PCU datapoints for Westward Journey Online II.
- Added PCU datapoints for Fantasy Westward journey.
- Added PCU datapoints for Eudemons.
- Added, Revised and Updated Aion datapoints with the Q3-09 NCSoft report and Conference call findings and other new information.
- Updated WAR estimated datapoint.
- Slightly revised estimated EQ datapoint.
- Added estimated datapoint for AoC, based on the Q3-09 report's financial data.
- Combined WoW China and WoW West PCU datapoints.
- Split PCU chart into 2 charts : 0-500k and 500k-3m.
- Expanded axis to 2010 for some charts.
- Completed Glossary page.
- Removed some MMO links from the frontpage.
- Forwarded http://mmodata.net to the news page instead of the general page.
- Removed Market Share Chart.
- Removed Contribution Chart.
- Removed WoW from genre chart ( it is now once more included in Fantasy ).
- Reviewed Accuracy ratings.
- Made various other cosmetic changes.

Internal only Changes :

- Expanded all the sheets to Januari 2010.
- Made seperate EVE Online Sheet.
- Moved, added and revised EVE comments, they are now all on the seperate EVE Online sheet.
- Added Monthly PCU, PCU Peak, Monthly Trials, Monthly Subs and Monthly Active players to the EVE Online sheet.
- Revised WoW comments.
- Moved all WoW comments to WoW Sheet.
- Added WoW PCU datapoints to WoW sheet.
- Moved all SL comments to SL Sheet.
- Added datapoints to SL.
- Compared PCU Cluster sheet with SL sheet and added missing datapoints.
- Made various other internal changes.
- Added more source links and information for Aion, LOTRO, EVE Online and some others.

EVE Online back on track with new PCU record

2009-12-09T12:47:00.000-08:00

A few months after the Unholy Rage EVE Online did not only regain it's numbers ( with less bots ) but now once more breaks it's PCU record with 54181 Peak Concurrent Users.

Check the source here : New PCU Record

My personal opinion on this is that, EVE Online is one of the few examples of how an mmorpg should be run :

By slowly but steadily improving all aspects of the game; gameplay, content, graphics, sound ( okay sound still needs a bit more work :p ) , ... and not making old content obsolete but part of the larger picture.

By inclusion, with one server ( not counting China ) where players from all over the world can play together. With no instances, so the players can go to any place they want. With free but obligatory expansions, putting everyone on the same level ( all content is accessible by everyone ) and no short term goals to be able to sell the expansion, as is often the case in other mmo's.

By a reassuring long term vision, so you know your investment in time, money and emotion will be there for years to come and will not be degraded as it was in SWG with the NGE for example. Sure DUST514 scared me a bit, but up until now CCP has yet to dissapoint me, so I'll take a leap of faith.

So I feel EVE Online deserves these growing numbers.

Glossary

2009-11-06T12:56:00.002-08:00

AA
Active Accounts
As opposed to SS : Subscriptions.
See Accuracy Rating and MMORPG Requirements for a more elaborate definition, as used by MMOData.net.

Alts
Alternative characters, as opposed to a main character.

AI
Artificial Intelligence
Refers to the "intelligence" programmed into a game that controls the actions and reactions of NPCs, simulating independent intelligence.

Avatar
The graphical representation of a player in a game, this can be a person or creature, but also a ship or a car for example.

Bot
Automated/scripted character, which is illegal in most mmo's.
It can also be a second character on another account brought along merely to buff or heal, in this case it is mostly called a buffbot.

Crafting
A general category of skills that allows players to manufacture objects from raw resources.

Cluster
A backbone of servers that power a single shard. Examples are the EVE Online and Second Life shards, each powered by hundreds of servers. But also the traditional mmo's use server clustering to run their smaller shards, albeit on a more modest 2 to 8 servers on the most common mmo's.

CU
Combat Upgrade
A not very well received revamp of the combat system in Star Wars Galaxies.

Dupe
Illegal copies of particular items obtained while using an exploit or bug.

East
Eastern countries, most notably, but not limited to : China, South Korea and Japan. Opposed to West - Western countries, most notably, but not limited to : Europe, North America and Australia

E3
Electronic Entertainment Expo

Exploit
Taking advantage of a glitch or game mechanic to gain an advantage that is not allowed per the terms of use of the game.

FFA
Free For All
A loot option that allows any party member to loot. Also used in terms of PvP, where you can fight everyone and/or where you can loot everyone.

GM
Game Master

Guild ( Clan, Corporation )
An organization of players. Most of the time guilds are supported by in-game systems that allow for sharing of resources, experiences, and information with other members.

Instances
These are private non-persistent area's on a server where there can be 1 or more identical copies. Examples from WoW : The Deadmines, Molten Core, ... Examples from EVE : None, there are no instances in EVE.

IMHO
In my humble/honest opinion

IRL
In Real Life

LAG
Slowdowns in an online game as a result of latency with the connection to the server.

LMAO
Laughing My Arse Off

Main
Your primary character of all the characters you play

MMORPG
Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
The MMOData.net definition of an mmorpg is the following :
1. The game should have the capability to support at least 500 concurrent users on a single shard.
2. The game must include a graphical common area where players can interact with one another inside of the persistent game world. This excludes lobby and chat room based interaction.
3. Combining point 1 and 2 : There must be a graphical common area where in theory 500 players can come together and interact with one another.
4. The game must make use of persistent characters. This means that you should be able to log in after logging out and find your character as advanced as you left them (or more).
5. The game must contain some form of advancement.
This definition is also used as a guideline for accepting games on this site.

MMOG
Massively Multiplayer Online Game
Pretty much the same as an MMORPG, except for the roleplaying part, which means there does not have to be character advancement, however most subscription based mmog's have some sort of character/avatar advancement, otherwise people would be less eager to subscribe for longer periods or invest time and money into the game.

MMO
Massively Multiplayer Online
see MMOG

MMOFPS
Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter

MMORTS
Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy

MUURL
Monthly Unique User Repeat Logins
Used in Second Life as a means to determine the amount of active players. Previously they used MUUL.

MUUL
Monthly Unique User Logins
Used in Second Life, World of Warcraft and others as a means to determine the amount of active players and/or subscribers. Second Life now uses MUURL instead tho. Blizzard still uses MUUL to count their Asian Internet Café players, but only in combination with prepaid cards, if you havent bought a prepaid card, you won't be counted. ( aka Trials etc ).

MUD
Multi User Dungeon
A digital world that contains multiple players, most of the original muds were text based.

MOB
Mobile Object Block
Strictly speaking, Mobs are all computer controlled characters in the game, but in practice MOB is only used for NPC's you can attack. While the term NPC is used for characters you can interact with ( like vendors, quest givers, etc. ).

MOO
MUD Object Oriented
Users in MOOs are able to create their own content - both static and dynamic objects.

Min/Maxing
When players attempt to create their characters as powerful as they can be by crunching statistics, planning their future routes, and any other methods in order to make their characters the statistically best character possible.

Nerf
To downgrade, make less effective.

Newbie
A term that means a new, inexperienced player, also used to suggest that a player is not good.

NPC
non player character
The characters are controlled by the system. A "computer" character.

Ninja
To loot something very quickly before anyone else can take it, considered the same as stealing.

NGE
New Gaming Experience
A complete transformation from the old, pre-NGE SWG sandbox style mmorpg into the new SWG, theme park style mmorpg. Sony Online Entertainment hoped to replace the userbase at that time with a new bigger userbase. Generally accepted as one of the biggest mistakes in MMO History.

OMG
Oh my god
Term used to express surprise about something.

PK
Player Killing

Patch
A downloadable update that fixes bugs, improves stability and introduces new features to a program.

PvE
Player versus Environment
Combat between players and computer controlled opponents.

PvP
Player versus Player
This means for one player to attack another player.

PCU
Peak Concurrent Users
The highest number of players online at the same time.

Premium
I use the term Premium for all MMOG's with a montlhy subscription higher than $10.

Quest
An adventure requiring cunning, discipline and bravery to succeed, but invariably undertaken with idiocy, disorder and cowardice. Reward is always inversely proportional to the effort and risk involved.

Raid
A raid is a large-scale attack on an area by a group of players.

RP
Role Playing

RvR
Realm versus Realm
A factional PvP system.

Rollback
The full state of the game world is usually not saved permanently on the game servers continuously, but is done at intervals. To fix a big problem with a gaming world, the game may be rolled back to a previous state. Players possessions, their whereabouts, their state, etc. will all be rolled back and appear to be in the same state as they were on that point in time.

Realm
A Realm has 2 meanings :
1. Used in RvR games and has essentially the same meaning as a Faction.
2. Used as a synonym for Shard, however this is not recommended to avoid confusion.

RL
Real Life
As opposed to your virtual life.

Sandbox
A type of MMORPG where you have more freedom than more traditional mmorpg's. Notable examples of Sandbox MMORPG's are : EVE Online, Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies Pre-CU-NGE, Second Life.

Skills
Various abilities the character is capable of using, such as wielding specific types of weapons, wearing specific types of armor, casting specific types of spells, or even creating specific types of items.

Server
A Server is a combination of hard and software that services a client computer, in the case of mmorpg's they service the game world, mail system, item and character database and more.
Even though it is often used as a synonym to a Shard or Realm, it is not the same, there can be many servers in 1 shard, and many shards can use a single server for specific purposes ( i.e. a mail system ).
Generally it is best to use the term Shard instead of Server when talking about a single mmorpg game world.

Shard
This is the collection of 1 or more servers that make up a single entity or game world, in principle, all players can go to all the places inside this game world as opposed to going to another shard, which is generally not possible.
The main EVE shard Singularity is an example of a large clustered shard that can hold 50k players and more at once. In World of Warcraft many small shards are used. Using the term shard is preferred over server or realm when talking about single game worlds.

SS
Subscriptions
As opposed to AA : Active Accounts.
See Accuracy Rating and MMORPG Requirements for a more elaborate definition as used by MMOData.net.

Theme Park
A linear MMO, with less freedom and more prefabricated content as opposed to a Sandbox MMO. Notable examples of Theme Park MMO's : EverQuest, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online.

West
Western countries, most notably, but not limited to : Europe, North America and Australia. Opposed to East - Eastern countries, most notably, but not limited to : China, South Korea and Japan.

Zones
These are public persistent area's on a server, there are no identical copies of zones. Examples from WoW : Northrend, Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, Outland ... , these zones are interconnected by Portals, Zeppelins, Boats, ... Examples from EVE : All systems in EVE online are zones, they are interconnected by jumpgates.

Zerg
A combat strategy where a large group of players play together and generally overwhelm the enemy by numbers ( mostly used in PvP but also possible in PvE ). Often seen as a simple-minded strategy that requires no skill, then again often a necessity ( safety by numbers ). Originated from the Zerg rush tactic from StarCraft.

LOTRO, another alternative for WoW in China?

2009-11-05T14:31:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

While surfing the net, looking for usefull numbers I found this one, already a month old, but still news to me :

http://www.jlmpacificepoch.com/newsstories?id=157317_0_5_0_M

With 2,9 million registered users in alpha a 3000 PCU per server and ready to be deployed server farm to support 100 shards, Lord of the Rings Online shows potential to become a worldwide player. If the 100 shards get medium to high populated then we can expect around 1 million Chinese players / subscriptions.

This is of course speculation, but it is nice to see there is interest in another Western MMO.

Meanwhile, WoW is back fully operational since sept. 19, but there seems to be a power struggle between several Chinese government organisations, most notably the MoC and the GAPP, to gain control over the lucrative and prestigious Online Gaming sector.

The GAPP says it did not gave green light for WoW:The Burning Crusade, while the MoC did gave permission to Netease to run the game commercially.

To me it looks like the GAPP ( the ones that want to close down WoW again ) will be on the short end of the stick, as the central government gave MoC more jurisdiction and the GAPP less, concerning online games.

http://www.jlmpacificepoch.com/newsstories?id=158547_0_5_0_M

Either way, the biggest loss is for Netease and the Chinese WoW players, I hope for them that it will get sorted out sooner rather than later.

MMOData Charts version 2.3 Live !

2009-11-01T09:33:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

MMOData Charts version 2.3 is live !

Version 2.1-2.3 notes :

- Majorly revised datapoints for Dofus.
- Added datapoints for EVE Online ( both PCU and Subs )
- Removed some datapoints for EVE Online to make the chart less cluttered.
- Added datapoint for SWG.
- Revised / Added datapoints for Aion.
- Added datapoint for DAoC.
- Slightly revised estimated datapoint for WAR.
- Removed a datapoint for Everquest that looked like an anomaly.
- Revised / Added datapoints for Ultima Online.
- Removed some datapoints for Ultima Online to make the chart less cluttered.
- Revised datapoint for FFXI
- Added datapoint for Pirates of the Burning Sea
- Added PCU datapoint for Dofus
- Added PCU datapoints for Fantasy Westward Journey
- Removed incorrect PCU datapoint for Zhengtu
- Rearranged the mmo's and charts, charts are now : 1m-12m, 150k-1m, 40k-150k, 0-40k.
- Expanded the PCU chart to 2,6m to accomodate Fantasy Westward Journey.
- Removed Dungeon Fighter Online from MMOData.net because it was not in line with the MMO definition.
- Revised accuracy ratings for : PotBS, SWG and Dofus.
- Moved the Source links into comments to datapoints in the excel and cleaned them up, for now the source links will no longer be public until I have time to put them back.
- Renamed Accuracy Rating and Source Links into MMO and Accuracy List.
- Added MMOG Contribution chart.
- Removed Top10 chart, this may return again later.
- Renamed PCU : Single Cluster Servers into PCU : Largest Shards.
- Placed "MMOData.net" and version number on the charts.
- Replaced macros with build-in functions ( internal ).
- Changed the look of the datapoints on the charts.
- Moved away from uniform colors across charts.
- Made various other cosmetic changes.
- Made various other internal changes.

Chinese WoW players pay less ... so ?

2009-10-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

Sure they do pay less than US and EU players, but not as little as some people think.

It is always funny when people claim my site has no validity and then show how they are pretty clueless themselves.

We had this little discussion here on mmorpg.com and one of the claims was that the 11,6m number from Blizzard is invalid because Chinese players pay less.

Well I disagree, first of all they pay a lot more than claimed here : wolfsheadonline.com

That article is pretty biased and incorrect

Yes Blizzard does get a lot less money from the Chinese subscribers, but that is not only because the Chinese pay less, but also because Blizzard is not allowed to run online games in China by itself and has to use expensive Chinese providers to run the game for them.

That is also why Blizzard changed from the The9 to the Netease provider, because they would get more royalties.

According to the Gamasutra article here : Gamasutra Blizzard will get around $140 million in royalties annually, at the time China had around 5 million subs. ( 6,5m subs for Asia ). $140m devided by 5m chinese players equals $28, devided by 12 months equals $2,3. Blizzard gets around 55% of the royalties, so the average Chinese player pays around $5 per month. That is assuming the royalties are calculated on the total revenue, otherwise it could be even more.

$5 per month may not be much to our standards, but you have also to take into consideration that employees in China are a lot cheaper, so they have less operational costs compared to the EU or US.

If you go look at the source Wolfsheadonline used : Gamasutra then there it is clear that the 6% revenue is because of the 22% royalty deal with The9 ( as in Blizzard gets only 22% of the money made from the Chinese players ), this actually results in $1 royalty per month per Chinese player, which is consistent with the other article, because if the royalty is more than doubled ( from 22% to 55% ) then we get around $2,5 doubled again to get the total of around $5 per Chinese player.

These are rough calculations, and hovers around $5 per month per Chinese player, but it certainly is not $1 like Wolfsheadonline claims.

In the same way, Europeans pay quite a bit more than Americans because of the strong Euro. If you take into account the lower salaries of the Chinese, the difference between China 5$ and the US 15$ is not that much bigger than the difference between the US 15$ and the EU 20$. So should we not take into account the American players?

Imho even tho the Blizzard numbers are not perfect, they are pretty valid, including the Asian part.

ETA for MMOData Charts v2.2

2009-10-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

v2.1 is ready, but won't go live, instead I will go straight to v2.2

I hoped to get it ready today, but I am not going to make it. So my eta for v2.2 is now Sunday 25/10/2009

EVE Online and Second Life Peak Concurrent Users

2009-10-06T16:21:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Well it looks like it will take a while before we see a new Peak Concurrent User record in the "Peak Concurrent Users on the Largest Single Cluster servers" from either EVE Online or Second Life.

However, there are good reasons for this, and it is not because the mmo's are getting less popular ...

For EVE Online it is because of the heavy fight from CCP against illegal RMT and the accompanied macroers and account hackers, also called "The Unholy Rage".
The impact during this summer was very big in certain areas of the server, and in one instance during the unholy rage, the overall PCU dropped around 5k.
You can read this in the CCP dev blog here :
CCP Devblog Unholy Rage

For Second Life it is because of the new Bot policy. Which restricts the use of traffic and camping bots. The PCU dropped around 8k initially and will probably drop even more as landbots will be slowly replaced by web tools.
You can read about it here :
Second Life blog about the economy
And here :
Second Life blog about bots

Still both operations will result in an overall better and healthier gaming experience for both games. In EVE Online you can already see the PCU is slowly getting back to the level where it was in June, I will not be surprised if we see a new record soon. Also Second Life will certainly go up again, and the PCU will consist of a lot more actual players and less bots.

Part of the Dofus numbers were incorrect

2009-10-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like I made a mistake with the Dofus numbers.

What happened is that when Ankama talked about "Subscribers" in their press releases, they actually meant "Monthly active players". They did make a clear distinction between "Subscribers" and "Registered Users", that is how I made the mistake.

So while the 800k, 1,5m and now 3m numbers were not paying subscribers, they are Monthly Active Users, and still a nice number to have.

Their actual active paying subscriber number is 500k at the moment, still a very respectable number. Obviously this will be fixed in v2.1 of MMOData.net, and I will do my best to avoid flaws of this magnitude in the future.

Here are the links ( new one and the old ones ) :
Gamasutra Interview, 500k subscribers
Ankama press release 1,5m subscribers
Gamasutra interview, 800k subscribers

EVE Online subscription data and great feedback.

2009-10-02T13:00:00.000-07:00

CCP will provide me with subscription data directly from now on, updated monthly. Aren't they a nice bunch? :) This shows how confident they are.

I have already received all the datapoints from release up to and including September 2009, and to no surprise they perfectly match with what Sir Bruce and myself had already. Of course I can now fill some gaps from the latest months. These will be included in v2.1 of mmodata.net.

As more developers and publishers do this, MMOData.net grows to become the place to be for reliable mmog numbers and the ones that do not, well we can assume they have something to hide :)

Also getting a lot of feedback lately, mostly constructive and/or positive, I am very happy with that, don't be afraid to send me some more e-mails :p I have received some good ideas to improve MMOData.net already and implemented some of them.

Lastly I had some requests to get my excel data. If you are from the mmo industry and can provide mewith numbers for one or more mmo's, then I will be happy to give you my data in return.

Aion West is Live

2009-10-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

Aion West has been live for a few days now and it seems pretty popular. The 25 servers that are currently running Aion in the EU and the USA are packed.

Because of this, I have set a new estimate for Aion worldwide at 3,6 million subscribers, this will be included in my upcomming version 2.1 of the MMOData charts.

I believe this is a conservative estimate, and I would not be surprised that the actual number is larger, but since NCSoft is no longer providing subscription numbers in their quarterly reports, I have no choice but to be conservative.

WoW China restarts commercial operation

2009-09-27T16:47:00.000-07:00

It has been up for a while now, but in closed beta, meaning only previously created accounts could play.

Now the game is back fully operational, and charging again.

Netease also has WOTLK ready for beta, but it is still awaiting approval from Chinese authorities.

So WoW's future looks a bit brighter again.

Check the story here :

Gamasutra on WoW commercial restart

MMOData Charts version 2.0 Live !

2009-09-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

MMOData Charts version 2.0 is live !

Most notable changes are the upgrade from excel 2003 to 2007, a cosmetic overhaul, an adjustment of the Aion numbers and new numbers for EQ, EQII and WAR.

Because of these new numbers, WAR drops out of the top 10 and EQII gets back in.

I estimated Aion Asia numbers on 2,5m as NCSoft does not want to confirm the 3,5m and they do not release subscription numbers anymore in their quarterly reports.

Version 1.9 - 2.0 notes :

- Upgraded from Excel 2003 to 2007.
- Made a cosmetic overhaul.
- Added and revised Aion datapoints.
- Added datapoint for AoC.
- Added and revised datapoints for WAR.
- Added datapoints for EQ and EQII.
- Resorted the MMO's to reflect the new situation in the TOP10 and Market Share.
- Revised the color coding and marker shape of all mmo's.
- Represented WoW seperatly in the MMOG subscriptions market share by genre.
- Added a decimal in the market share sheet.
- Added abbreviations list to the Source Links
- Continued to clean up the Source Links.
- Revised and/or reconfirmed accuracy ratings for AoC, Aion, WAR, WoW, EQ and EQII.
- Added Ragnarok Online Asia , World of Legend Asia and Mu Online Asia to the Source Links.
- Made various internal changes.

Enjoy!

Progress on version 1.9 and 2.0

2009-08-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

1.9 won't go live, instead I will go straight to version 2.0

Most important for me is that I have upgraded from Excel 2003 to 2007. I had to get familiar with Excel 2007, but that was not too hard.
Going to Excel 2007 allowed me to make a cosmetic overhaul more easely.
I have added and revised datapoints for Aion, AoC, WAR, EQ and EQII and hoping to have more new datapoints when 2.0 goes live. I also updated Accuracy Ratings.
I also started on revising the color coding of the mmo's to make them more consistent across the charts and continued to clean up the source links.
Finally I made various internal changes and improvements, so I can bring you more updates faster and better :p

The ETA for version 2.0 is Sunday 13 september.

update :
I need a few more days to get version 2.0 ready, hoping to have it ready before Sunday 20 September.

update :
Version 2.0 is finalized, it should be live by tomorrow, Saturday 19 september

Dust514, an MMOFPS on the Planets of EVE Online

2009-08-18T05:23:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Breaking news :

CCP is releasing an MMOFPS that ties in with the current EVE Online.

The new MMOFPS will be a groundgame on the planets of EVE Online, influence the current EVE Online sovereignty, and it will be console only.

Many veterans received this news with mixed feelings, including myself. But I guess I'll have to keep an open mind until fanfest where more information should be released.

Some EU countries will not be allowed to play Aion on EU servers !

2009-08-17T05:24:00.000-07:00

Shocking news to me, the following 3 EU members will not be allowed to play on the EU servers :

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

They will even be IP blocked ! And forced to play on Russian servers ...

I think this is outrageous, the least NCSoft can do is allow these countries to buy an EU version and let them to play on EU servers.

Here is a link explaining the situation :
Open letter to NCSoft

edit : Unconfirmed sources claim that the IP ban won't be in effect anymore. This is good news and a reasonable solution. I'll try to find confirmation.

MMOData Charts version 1.8 Live !

2009-08-12T14:08:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

A minor update during low season.

NCSoft Quarterly results are out, the only thing we learn there is that servers substantially increased in China, from 113 to 154, and in Kora from 41 to 43. This reinforces the growth of the game, however there are still no hard numbers in the report, which has me worried. Will this become a trend, or is it because it is low season ... I am going to send them a mail about this.

I restated the WoW China numbers as WoW China is back online and added a new data point from Guinness World Records : 11,6 million at May 2009.

I hope to get more numbers in September and October when everyone is back at work and play :p

Version 1.8 notes :

- Restated WoW china numbers and updated WoW numbers.
- Adjusted the accuracy rating for WoW to A
- Rescaled the CAS Top 10 chart to accomodate the WoW numbers
- Made some cosmetic changes
- Adjusted the accuracy rating for Aion to D
- Added some source links for Aion and WoW
- Made some internal changes

MMOData Charts version 1.7 Live !

2009-07-13T04:41:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

I made this new version rather fast after the 1.6 release, mostly because the extended downtime for WoW China seems to last longer than expected. Therefore I am putting the WoW China numbers now at 0.

The WoW China downtime already lasts for more than a month now, during this month, no Chinese subscriptions are active. This may last another 2 months or even longer, depending on the Chinese authorities re-evaluating WoW China.

You can check the sources at the Source Links.

Version 1.7 notes :

- Revised WoW Asia datapoints : Due to the extended downtime of WoW China, which is more than a month now, I have put the WoW China numbers for June at 0
- Internal : Moved all WoW comments to the WoW data sheet
- Internal : Moved all Second Life comments to the Second Life data sheet
- Renamed "Accuracy Ratings" into "Accuracy Ratings and Source Links", added a "Source Links" link
- Added and/or Removed some source Links for WoW, Runescape, Zhengtu, LOTRO, WAR
- Added some PCU datatpoints for WoW, Runescape
- Fixed an error in the Current Active Subscriber sheet
- Changed the MMOG Active Subscriptions Top 20 into Top 10
- Revised the numbers for LOTRO ( an error was made in the previous estimate )
- Added a new estimate for WAR
- Made various cosmetic changes to the charts
- Started on making the source links better readable, finished AoC
- Changed WoW accuracy rating from A to B ( until I get some better numbers again )

MMOData Charts version 1.6 Live !

2009-07-10T13:41:00.000-07:00

Version 1.6 notes :

- Revised and/or added datapoints for : WAR, AoC, LOTRO, Second Life
- As a result of the revisions, LOTRO passes WAR and places 1 rank higher
- Researched Xfire data to find trends and have and extra check for current data points
- Reinstated 4 levels of Accuracy Rating instead of 3
- Revised Accuracy Ratings
- Made some cosmetic changes to the Accuracy Ratings page
- Added source links for : WAR, AoC, LOTRO, Aion, Second Life
- Added xfire source links for : WoW, EVE, WAR, LOTRO, Runescape, Dofus, AoC
- Removed internal Second Life chart
- Added missing notes from version 1.0 to 1.5
- Changed PCU Asia chart and PCU Asia sheet into PCU chart and PCU sheet
- Added PCU datapoints for WoW West
- Made some cosmetic changes to the PCU chart
- Added "lastinrow" vba macro to the mmodata excel
- Removed some redundant totals and percentages
- Added some totals and checks to CAS Derivations
- Made various other improvements to the mmodata excel

Andrew @ Of teeth and claws writes an article on MMOData.net

2009-07-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

Check it out here :

http://teethandclaws.blogspot.com/2009/06/tracking-mmo-subscription-numbers.html

Is Australia becomming the new China?

2009-06-29T02:37:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

It has been circling in the news for a while now, but I haven't had the time yet to comment about it, I am talking about censorship and content blocking here.

Australia apparently already had an internet filter which they now want to use to filter out all game downloads and online games that are not suited for 15 year olds, this in addition to all the websites already blocked ... so if you are a 30 year old wanting to have some fun in a game like Age of Conan, Second Life, or even World of Warcraft, you may be out of luck in the near future.

Now many MMO's may be able to get rated and found suitable for 15 year olds ( EVE Online is rated and allowed ). The main problem here is that there is no 18+ classification for video games in Australia ( there is one for Films though, I mean wtf? ), so if it is material not suited for a 15 year old, you are out of luck.

In the past there have been occasions that the Classification Board themselves had advised that MMO's do not have to get classified, and it was unwritten knowledge for MMO developers and publishers that you did not need to classify your MMO in Australia.

They were wrong however, and soon many MMO players may find this out the hard way when the new filter starts blocking everything.

But it gets even crazier and I quote : "The list of what is actually blocked and why it is blocked is to be kept secret from the public (though in March a version was leaked to Wikileaks, which is now itself on the blocklist)." That is nuts; you can expect something like that from China or Turkey, but from Australia? I am so glad I live in Belgium! I do not consider Australia a free democracy anymore, but rather a police state with no freedom of speech.

And it goes even further :
"Currently nine ISPs are trialing the network-filtering plan until next month, which has already proven to block some quite unexpected things: "Alongside child porn, bestiality, rape and extreme violence sites, the list also includes a slew of online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, websites of fringe religions such as satanic sites, fetish sites, Christian sites, the website of a tour operator and even a Queensland dentist. Other Australian sites on the list are canteens.com.au ("Tuckshop and Canteen Management Consultants") and animal carers MaroochyBoardingKennels.com.au. The dentist, Dr John Golbrani, was furious when contacted to inform him that his site, dentaldistinction.com.au, appeared on the blacklist." – Sydney Morning Herald "

Can you believe that?

I hope the Aussie gamers, internet users and the rest of the people there start some serious protesting and don't go down silently. For what it’s worth, I got your back!

Here some links on the story :

http://www.massively.com/2009/06/25/australian-network-filtering-promises-to-reach-out-to-block-game/

http://www.massively.com/2009/01/28/mmogs-defy-classification-in-australia/

http://www.massively.com/2009/02/04/gaming-the-ratings-game/

MMOData Charts version 1.5 Live !

2009-06-28T15:31:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

The next version is live.

Version 1.5 notes :

- Revised subscription data points for : Aion, Runescape, AoC, FFIX, LOTRO
- Revised and/or added PCU data points for : Aion, Zhengtu Online, MapleStory, SUN
- Renamed "Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates" to "Puzzle Pirates"
- Changed Accuracy Rating system into 3 categories instead of 4
- Revised Accuracy Rating and added links to most of my sources.
- Made some cosmetic changes to the charts
- Made some cosmetic changes to the site
- Added a hit counter to the site

MMOData Charts version 1.4 Live !

2009-06-17T15:18:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

The next update is live, not much new, mostly keeping it real.

Version 1.3 to 1.4 notes :

- Made an Accuracy rating for all the listed MMO's.
- Removed some estimates.
- Removed some duplicate datapoints
- Removed some disclaimers about EVE Online and Second Life
- Removed following charts for various reasons : Top 10 premium western mmo's, All listed MMOG's CAS, Total MMOG contribution
- Made the Second Life chart internal only
- Added disclaimers
- Added credits
- Changed from html charts to png charts
- Made various cosmetic changes to the site.
- Fixed http://MMOData.net domain/link

Next version will contain more revised and updated numbers and links to sources.

MMORPG requirements, accuracy ratings and abbreviations

2009-06-17T15:17:00.003-07:00

Accuracy Rating :

A rating – Most or all of the datapoints come from official or other reliable sources and are in line with other numbers and information.

B rating – Part of the datapoints come from official or other reliable sources and part of the datapoints come from estimates, third party sources, unclear official sources or other indirect information.

C rating – Some of the datapoints may come from official or other reliable sources, many of the datapoints come from estimates, third party sources, unclear official sources or other indirect information.

Note :
The MMORPG list and charts are based on latest available data, if no new data is made available, certain MMORPG's may be misrepresented. Furthermore many MMORPG's are not listed here because I have not enough information.

Requirements for MMORPG's to be allowed on the charts :

1. They must be in line with the MMOData.net MMORPG definition :
Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
- The game should have the capability to support at least 500 concurrent users on a single shard.
- The game must include a graphical common area where players can interact with one another inside of the persistent game world. This excludes lobby and chat room based interaction.
- Combining point 1 and 2 : There must be a graphical common area where in theory 500 players can come together and interact with one another.
- The game must make use of persistent characters. This means that you should be able to log in after logging out and find your character as advanced as you left them (or more).
- The game must contain some form of advancement.

2. Need to have at least 2 good datapoints to be allowed on 1 type of chart.

3. For PCU or Active Account datapoints to be valid, an MMORPG has to be in Open Beta or beyond. For Subscription datapoints to be valid, an MMORPG has to be fully released.

4. MMOData.net Subscription definition :
Subscription based MMORPG's are tagged with SS
MMORPG subscriptions must meet one of the following requirements to be allowed on the subscription based charts :
- Susbcribers who have paid a subscription fee of minimal $1 per month.
- Players who have an active prepaid card of minimal $1 per month.
- Players who have purchased an mmorpg and are within their free month of access.
- Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days, if there is a revenue of $1 or more per subscriber per month.
- Players who purchased virtual items or ingame currency for $1 or more per month.

The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards.

5. MMOData.net Active Account definition :
Active Account based MMORPG's are tagged with AA
For an account to be regarded as active, there must be a completed login into the game server at least once per month.
Also included in this definition are all valid subscriptions in accordance with point 4. MMOData.net Subscription definition.

Note :
If anyone thinks some MMORPG made the charts while not fulfilling these requirements, please send an email to ibe@mmodata.net to report, and it will be investigated.

Game List :

A Tale in the Desert
Abbreviation = ATitD
Accuracy Rating C

Age of Conan
Abbreviation = AoC
Accuracy Rating B

Aion
Abbreviation = Aion
Accuracy Rating C

Anarchy Online
Abbreviation = AO
Accuracy Rating C

Asheron's Call
Abbreviation = AC
Accuracy Rating C

Asheron's Call 2
Abbreviation = AC2
Accuracy Rating B

Ask Tao
Abbreviation = AT
Accuracy Rating B

Auto Assault
Abbreviation = AA
Accuracy Rating B

City of Heroes / Villains
Abbreviation = COX
Accuracy Rating A

Conquer Online
Abbreviation = Conquer
Accuracy Rating A

Dark Age of Camelot
Abbreviation = DAoC
Accuracy Rating C

Dofus
Abbreviation = Dofus
Accuracy Rating A

Dungeons and Dragons Online
Abbreviation = DDO
Accuracy Rating C

Earth and Beyond
Abbreviation = E&B
Accuracy Rating B

Era of Eidolon
Abbreviation = Eidolon
Accuracy Rating B

EUDemons Online
Native name = Mo Yu
Previous name = Realm of Magic
Abbreviation = EUDemons
Accuracy Rating B

EVE Online
Abbreviation = EVE
Accuracy Rating A

EverQuest
Abbreviation = EQ
Accuracy Rating C

EverQuest II
Abbreviation = EQ2
Accuracy Rating C

EverQuest Online Adventures
Abbreviation = EQ OA
Accuracy Rating C

Fantasy Journey Online
Abbreviation = FWJ
Accuracy Rating B

Fantasy Westward Journey
Abbreviation = FWJ
Accuracy Rating B

Final Fantasy XI
Abbreviation = FFXI
Accuracy Rating B

Giant Online
Abbreviation = GO
Accuracy Rating B

Horizons - Istaria
Abbreviation = Horizons
Accuracy Rating C

Legend of Mir II
Abbreviation = LoM2
Accuracy Rating B

Lineage
Abbreviation = Lineage
Accuracy Rating A

Lineage II
Abbreviation = Lineage2
Accuracy Rating A

Majestic
Abbreviation = Majestic
Accuracy Rating B

Mankind
Abbreviation = Mankind
Accuracy Rating B

Maplestory
Abbreviation = Maplestory
Accuracy Rating B

Motor City Online
Abbreviation = Motor City
Accuracy Rating B

Mu Online
Abbreviation = Mu
Accuracy Rating C

Neocron
Abbreviation = Neocron
Accuracy Rating C

Perpetuum
Abbreviation = Perpetuum
Accuracy Rating A

Pirates of the Burning Sea
Abbreviation = PotBS
Accuracy Rating C

Pirates of the Caribbean Online
Abbreviation = PotCO
Accuracy Rating C

Planetside
Abbreviation = Planetside
Accuracy Rating C

Puzzle Pirates
Abbreviation = Puzzle Pirates
Accuracy Rating B

Ragnarok Online
Abbreviation = Ragnarok
Accuracy Rating C

Rift
Abbreviation = Rift
Accuracy Rating C

RuneScape
Abbreviation = RuneScape
Accuracy Rating B

Second Life
Abbreviation = SL
Accuracy Rating A

Shadowbane
Abbreviation = SB
Accuracy Rating B

Shaiya
Abbreviation = Shaiya
Accuracy Rating B

Shou Xue Fei Teng
Abbreviation = SXFT
Translated Name = Beast Blood Boils
Accuracy Rating B

Sphere
Abbreviation = Sphere
Accuracy Rating C

Star Trek Online
Abbreviation = STO
Accuracy Rating B

Star Wars Galaxies
Abbreviation = SWG
Accuracy Rating C

Soul of the Ultimate Nation
Abbreviation = SUN
Accuracy Rating B

Tabula Rasa
Abbreviation = Tabula Rasa
Accuracy Rating B

The First Myth
Abbreviation = TFM
Accuracy Rating B

The Lord of the Rings Online
Abbreviation = LOTRO
Accuracy Rating C

Star Wars The Old Republic
Abbreviation = SWTOR
Accuracy Rating A

The Matrix Online
Abbreviation = The Matrix
Accuracy Rating C

The Realm Online
Abbreviation = The Realm
Accuracy Rating C

The Sims Online
Abbreviation = The Sims
Accuracy Rating B

There
Abbreviation = There
Accuracy Rating B

Tian Long Ba Bu
Abbreviation = TLBB
Accuracy Rating B

Tibia
Abbreviation = Tibia
Accuracy Rating B

Toontown Online
Abbreviation = Toontown
Accuracy Rating C

Ultima Online
Abbreviation = UO
Accuracy Rating C

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
Abbreviation = Vanguard
Accuracy Rating C

Warhammer Online
Abbreviation = WAR
Accuracy Rating C

Wen Dao
Abbreviation = Wen Dao
Accuracy Rating B

Westward Journey Online II
Abbreviation = WJO2
Accuracy Rating B

World of Legend
Abbreviation = WOL
Accuracy Rating C

World of Warcraft
Abbreviation = WoW
Accuracy Rating A

World War II Online
Abbreviation = WWII Online
Accuracy Rating B

Wu Lin Wai Zhuan
Abbreviation = WLWZ
Accuracy Rating B

Yulgang
Abbreviation = Yulgang
Accuracy Rating B

Yu Yan
Abbreviation = YY
Accuracy Rating B

Zero Online
Abbreviation = Zero Online
Accuracy Rating B

Zhen Feng Shen
Abbreviation = ZFS
Accuracy Rating B

Zhengtu Online
Abbreviation = Zhengtu
Accuracy Rating B

WoW China servers down while transferring

2009-06-16T12:40:00.000-07:00

Well, It has been old news that The9 would loose the rights over WoW and that they would be transferred to Netease.

However, it was only recently that the servers shutdown, june 7, and they will be down for 3-6 weeks.

Now the downtime in itself will make them lose some players, but at the same time Aion is gaining momentum in Asia, so it will be very interesting to see what will happen and how many players will return after their 1 month break, or if they decide to try Aion and stick ...

Here are some links to the news articles :

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23230

http://www.jlmpacificepoch.com/newsstories?id=149114_0_5_0_M

MMOData Charts version 1.2 Live !

2009-06-14T06:52:00.001-07:00

Hey all,

I am happy to announce that my first version of the MMOData Charts is live.

It took a lot of work and researching to fill the 1 year gap that Sir Bruce left. I also made revisions to the excel so I could change the data faster, because the MMOG scene is evolving rapidly and new MMOG's come and go all the time.

My work is far from complete, there are still gaps to fill, mmog's to add to the list, and new features that I'd like to implement.

One of the main features I'd like to add is Worldwide Active Players charts, currently I use 2 main data types, Subscription Numbers and Peak Concurrent Users, an Active Player chart would allow us to compare Asian and Western mmo's with eachother. This won't be an easy task, and it will not be as accurate as the Subscription or PCU numbers, but it will give us a good indication. I am hoping to make this in version 2.0 or 3.0

Version 1.0 to 1.2 notes :

- Revised/Updated data points
- Added Aion, WAR and AoC
- Merged Neocron and Neocron 2 data points into Neocron
- Divided the MMO's in 4 active subscription charts instead of 3
- Removed relative contribution chart- Added PCU cluster chart
- Added Second life chart
- Added the CAS top 20 chart
- Added following rows : peak subcriptions, CAS and Genre to the subscription data and CAS sheets for easier sorting and easier CAS Derivations.
- Combined Combat simulation, FPS, Social, Puzzle and Other genres into "Other"
- Renamed Sci-Fi / Superhero RPG into Sci-Fi RPG
- Combined sheet 3, 4 and 5 into CAS Derivations
- Changed the MMOG market share by genre and by mmog charts to 3D
- Labeled all the sheets and charts
- Removed redundand data points that cluttered the charts, added them as comments in the excel.
- Added CAS Top 10 PW
- Removed ACU data
- Added All Listed MMOG's CAS chart
- Removed SL Bot numbers from PCU cluster chart
- Added Rankings to CAS Derivations
- Added WoW west data to the WoW chart and sheet
- Added CAS ordered by Region and Premium to CAS derivations
- Made various changes to the working of the excel
- Added PCU Asia numbers chart
- Changed from html charts to png charts
- Made cosmetic changes to "All Listed MMOG's CAS" chart
- Made cosmetic changes to the chart titles
- Made various other cosmetic changes

Hey all, welcome to MMOData.net,

2009-06-13T04:03:00.000-07:00

MMOData.net is live, and I am happy to start serving you the latest charts and numbers of the MMOG scene.

My work is based on what Sir Bruce started with MMOGChart.com , but since he did not update his charts for over a year, and a lot has happened during that time, I decided to continue his work here.

So stay tuned for my soon to be released Charts.