Players are leaving ESO - here's why

TDVM · October 6

The game is developing very slowly, features that are in other MMOs in ESO are added after 9 years (group finder is an example), you don't need to invent anything, just take it.
Features that are in other MMOs are presented as something “innovative” but in the end causes disappointment (House tour is an example)
The game is being developed in the direction of the amount of content and not in quality, old locations are not updated and not supplemented with content.
More “buy this, buy that”.
Features that should be available to ALL players are available only to those who bought the chapter (Skins on skins, archaeology, or satellites is an example). And the real “killer features” of chapters are essentially nonexistent.
Class balance is not there, hybridization is incomplete and it is not clear why it is needed at all.
Events monotonous and boring.
There is no understanding of where to develop the game
Pvp is not updated for how many years (Cyro and IC).
And the worst thing is the simplification of everything in the game.
EVEN, even the quality of crown crate items has dropped(Just look at Vision of the Bloodmoon in crown crates, isn't that a hack job?)

Now the game is in a very suspended state, and if this is not dealt with and continue not to listen to the audience that really understands what the game needs and how it can be improved and finalized, then in the future it will not save even the release of chapters and players will continue to leave the game in other projects

tincanman · October 6

Performance seems more reasonable.

And a failure in effective communication.

Amottica · October 6

tincanman wrote: »

Performance seems more reasonable.

And a failure in effective communication.

Performance, yes, and the reduction of meaningful content since that is a major driver in keeping players' interest. Most of that list is not a notable driver, and some are the same in almost every MMORPG.

SilverBride · October 6

Those may be reasons that some leave, but it doesn't speak for everyone.

Players come and go in all MMOs but it doesn't mean they are leaving due to issues they perceive. Players get burned out and take breaks. Or they find a different game that matches their play style better. Or they leave to follow their friends to something different. But many of them come back, and new players join. ESO is fine.

Theist_VII · October 6

SilverBride wrote: »

ESO is fine.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but ESO is most definitely not fine.

The state of the game for people who value combat has never been worse than it is currently. Never before have I seen such lack of faith in the company either after all the performance issues.

sarahthes · October 6

Nerfing sets that are locked behind awful friends and that current content is balanced around certainly isn't helping.

I know of a lot of groups that are disbanding once azure and pyrebrand nerfs go live.

SilverBride · October 6

Theist_VII wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

ESO is fine.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but ESO is most definitely not fine.

The state of the game for people who value combat has never been worse than it is currently. Never before have I seen such lack of faith in the company either after all the performance issues.

That is an opinion, not a fact. Many of us are happy and enjoying this game.

Four_Fingers · October 6

For some reason this thread seems very much like other threads.

Theist_VII · October 6

SilverBride wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

ESO is fine.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but ESO is most definitely not fine.

The state of the game for people who value combat has never been worse than it is currently. Never before have I seen such lack of faith in the company either after all the performance issues.

That is an opinion, not a fact. Many of us are happy and enjoying this game.

Sure, pull up the activity finder and find all of them! 😂

Dragonnord · October 6

No one is really leaving.

According to charts...

September 2023 was:
Avg. Players: 11,037
Peak Players: 17,600

October 2024 is:
Avg. Players: 10,748
Peak Players: 17,131

People "leave" and come back when content is realesed, it has always been like that.

This time, for the first time, TESO didn't release new content reaching the end of the year (because, as we all know, they changed the Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 system).

So several players are playing other games and so but will return when new content is released.

It has always been this way.

TheMajority · October 6

if people are leaving then why is it i can be out in the sticks thinkin I'm alone then like 30 elves on sparkle mounts run me over while im fishing

seems like the game is healthy to me

Vaqual · October 6

Anecdotal evidence vs anecdotal evidence with a dash of cherry picked data. The basis of every healthy discussion.
I will join whichever team is is winning by page 3.

Syldras · October 6

No one here (except for ZOS themselves) has full stats about the game. All I can say is, no matter how stats may look like, I find the many complaints (both in this forum, other places on the internet and what I get to hear in private conversations) about not getting enough new content releases, unstable servers and bugs concerning. Even if there are still many people around, these factors can become a big problem if nothing about them changes.

SilverBride · October 6

Theist_VII wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

ESO is fine.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but ESO is most definitely not fine.

The state of the game for people who value combat has never been worse than it is currently. Never before have I seen such lack of faith in the company either after all the performance issues.

That is an opinion, not a fact. Many of us are happy and enjoying this game.

Sure, pull up the activity finder and find all of them! 😂

They aren't all looking for groups in the activity finder. I suspect more aren't than are.

SkaiFaith · October 6

SilverBride wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Theist_VII wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

ESO is fine.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but ESO is most definitely not fine.

The state of the game for people who value combat has never been worse than it is currently. Never before have I seen such lack of faith in the company either after all the performance issues.

That is an opinion, not a fact. Many of us are happy and enjoying this game.

Sure, pull up the activity finder and find all of them! 😂

They aren't all looking for groups in the activity finder. I suspect more aren't than are.

I think the title of the thread could be corrected in "Social* players are leaving ESO" - wether it is PvP, Group PvE, Trading... I see many players leaving but you can also often hear "I'm enjoying the game, it's fine", so I suspect ESO is becoming less and less social, which btw doesn't mean less MMO... There still will be quite a generous number of players, but they'll probably be the "Skyrim fans", and when TES6 will come out, that's when we'll see a big drop in ESO. Right now, I think it's the more socially active players that are discontent, with the consequence that social activities feel more desert than before.

TheAgentNZ · October 6

sarahthes wrote: »

I know of a lot of groups that are disbanding once azure and pyrebrand nerfs go live.

Seems like a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Sets have been nerfed and modified before.

Sarannah · October 6

ESO does have it's issues, some even major. And every player will be experiencing atleast one or two of those issues in the game areas/game types they specifically play in, like PvP, PvE, grouping, housing, events, etc.

That said, ESO is still a great game and well worth playing. Really curious to see those steam stats once the new companions are released with U44. (Note: Many do not play ESO through steam,, I don't either.)

The thing I do agree on, is that ESO is developing rather slowly. This is bad to be honest, as ESO could be a fantastic MMO, maybe even the biggest/largest if they grow it the right way and with the right additions/features. Mostly features that guarantee ESO's longterm health. For example: the CP 3600 maximum should already have been upped to the millions when the first player hit that ceiling. The ceiling should be unreachable for players. And there are some more examples like this, like storage/bank space limit, furniture limit, character limit, etc.

Dojohoda · October 6

TheMajority wrote: »

if people are leaving then why is it i can be out in the sticks thinkin I'm alone then like 30 elves on sparkle mounts run me over while im fishing

seems like the game is healthy to me

lol'd irl at "30 elves on sparkle mounts".

Syldras · October 6

SkaiFaith wrote: »

I think the title of the thread could be corrected in "Social* players are leaving ESO" - wether it is PvP, Group PvE, Trading... I see many players leaving but you can also often hear "I'm enjoying the game, it's fine", so I suspect ESO is becoming less and less social, which btw doesn't mean less MMO... There still will be quite a generous number of players, but they'll probably be the "Skyrim fans", and when TES6 will come out, that's when we'll see a big drop in ESO. Right now, I think it's the more socially active players that are discontent, with the consequence that social activities feel more desert than before.

Not even. I'm not really interested in social interaction in ESO. Of course other people randomly passing by come in handy in slightly harder content like world bosses and world events, but other than that, I don't interact much. I don't PvP, I don't group PvE (I solo instead), I'm in a trading guild, but the only social interaction I ever had with that was sending the initial message asking to send me a guild invite. I chat with one real life friend when he has time. I used to chat with a handful of others earlier - people who had a very similar stance to mine (mainly story-focussed, playing on their own, came to ESO to play it like a singleplayer TES game). And most of these have left meanwhile or only show up after a new release. Why? There's not much for them to do either with only a chapter release per year (and maybe something of interest in autumn/winter - the introduction of Archive made a few log in again last year to take a look at it, btw, while the housing update did not). Events aren't much interesting either, because it's mostly the same quests every year.

WitchyKiki · October 6

My big issues are in this order, performance, toxic community, crown store.

You can't queue up for a daily dungeon without having the usual troll who doesn't want to play nice, runs ahead, glitches the dungeon and when they get kicked for being non-team players they hate whisper all sorts of colorful language.

Elsonso · October 6

The ESO player base is nomadic. ZOS admitted this a couple years ago, and I expect that it has not changed. ZOS releases new content, people vacation in ESO for a bit. When they are done with the content, they leave. This year has been tragically low in new content, so what reason is there to vacation in ESO? Housing Tours? Don't be silly. New Battlegrounds? ZOS has been largely ignoring PVP for years, so I think it will take a lot more than a new variation of something that has been in the game for years to attract attention.

Players are leaving because ZOS is not releasing anything for players to do.

aleksandr_ESO · October 6

TDVM wrote: »

The game is developing very slowly, features that are in other MMOs in ESO are added after 9 years (group finder is an example), you don't need to invent anything, just take it.

TESO has a sufficient number of features. For players at this point in the game's development, only the amount of content makes sense. And the speed of content delivery in TESO is ideal

TDVM wrote: »

The game is being developed in the direction of the amount of content and not in quality, old locations are not updated and not supplemented with content.

if we are talking about the number of players, then the amount of new content has a stronger impact than the support of old content

TDVM wrote: »

Pvp is not updated for how many years (Cyro and IC).
And the worst thing is the simplification of everything in the game.

Cyrodiil cannot be upgraded. It will be in this state until the death of the game.
In general, the direction is clear - the game is developing for casual players who pay, and not for constantly nagging PVP players.

TDVM wrote: »

Now the game is in a very suspended state, and if this is not dealt with and continue not to listen to the audience that really understands what the game needs and how it can be improved and finalized, then in the future it will not save even the release of chapters and players will continue to leave the game in other projects

The players are leaving because the game is 10 years old. It visually looks old. There are modern Unreal Engine games on the market and not only on UE.
The game has reached the final straight, and is coping with it wonderfully

aleksandr_ESO · October 6

Dragonnord wrote: »

No one is really leaving.

According to charts...

September 2023 was:
Avg. Players: 11,037
Peak Players: 17,600

October 2023 is:
Avg. Players: 10,748
Peak Players: 17,131

sep 2020 - 19k
in 4 years, the game has lost 50% of players, and dropped to the numbers of 2018

DinoZavr · October 6

Considering the Steam charts and seeing how many characters are on Vivec's "crafting" square ingame, there is no significant players churn.
And it is human to proclain "i quit", but stay on a second thought (considering invested theirs time and money). Those who quit for real not necessarily slam the door (though ragequit posts are removed).
"Players are leaving", but do they, actually? i mean some serious churn, not just an ordinary turnover, as new players also join, and there are many players who adore the game and will stay with ESO as long as it exists in a playable state.

i mean, what is the issue, once again?

WitchyKiki · October 6

DinoZavr wrote: »

Considering the Steam charts and seeing how many characters are on Vivec's "crafting" square ingame, there is no significant players churn.
And it is human to proclain "i quit", but stay on a second thought (considering invested theirs time and money). Those who quit for real not necessarily slam the door (though ragequit posts are removed).
"Players are leaving", but do they, actually? i mean some serious churn, not just an ordinary turnover, as new players also join, and there are many players who adore the game and will stay with ESO as long as it exists in a playable state.

i mean, what is the issue, once again?

This is a strange statement, considering a good portion of the population doesn't play on steam. I don't play on steam... most of the people I know in ESO don't play on steam. Steam isn't a strong indicator of the player population. People are observing their guilds emptying and friendlists becoming inactive, amongst other indicators that the community is shrinking.

Elsonso · October 6

aleksandr_ESO wrote: »

Dragonnord wrote: »

No one is really leaving.

According to charts...

September 2023 was:
Avg. Players: 11,037
Peak Players: 17,600

October 2023 is:
Avg. Players: 10,748
Peak Players: 17,131

sep 2020 - 19k
in 4 years, the game has lost 50% of players, and dropped to the numbers of 2018

Middle of the pandemic when everyone was trapped at home.

September 2019 11,994.9 average, 23,437 peak.

September 2024 10,650.5 average, 17,131 peak.

I expected that ESO would return to something closer to pre-pandemic levels. We are seeing a decline, compared to before the pandemic, as has been previously noted in here. This is not the crisis that people make it out to be, but it is concerning. It is likely due, in part, to ZOS not adding anything in 3Q to bring players back.

Edit: And, to be clear, I don't care about the actual Steam numbers, but they are a rough indicator of overall trends in population. That is why I didn't compare them other than to say "decline". Extrapolating the Steam data to the larger game is fair use of the Steam numbers, so long as it is limited to trends.

DinoZavr · October 6

WitchyKiki wrote: »

DinoZavr wrote: »

Considering the Steam charts and seeing how many characters are on Vivec's "crafting" square ingame, there is no significant players churn.

This is a strange statement, considering a good portion of the population doesn't play on steam. I don't play on steam... most of the people I know in ESO don't play on steam. Steam isn't a strong indicator of the player population. People are observing their guilds emptying and friendlists becoming inactive, amongst other indicators that the community is shrinking.

Kiki, ZOS do not publish real statistics, though i am sure they have them exact figures.
Steam figures well correlate with "total" figures, and, we have no better metrics, unless Zeni decides to disclose them numbers.

WitchyKiki · October 7

DinoZavr wrote: »

WitchyKiki wrote: »

DinoZavr wrote: »

Considering the Steam charts and seeing how many characters are on Vivec's "crafting" square ingame, there is no significant players churn.

This is a strange statement, considering a good portion of the population doesn't play on steam. I don't play on steam... most of the people I know in ESO don't play on steam. Steam isn't a strong indicator of the player population. People are observing their guilds emptying and friendlists becoming inactive, amongst other indicators that the community is shrinking.

Kiki, ZOS do not publish real statistics, though i am sure they have them exact figures.
Steam figures well correlate with "total" figures, and, we have no better metrics, unless Zeni decides to disclose them numbers.

Fair way to see it, I just don't like to make conclusions based on data that is missing information.

Dragonnord · October 7

aleksandr_ESO wrote: »

Dragonnord wrote: »

No one is really leaving.

According to charts...

September 2023 was:
Avg. Players: 11,037
Peak Players: 17,600

October 2024 is:
Avg. Players: 10,748
Peak Players: 17,131

sep 2020 - 19k
in 4 years, the game has lost 50% of players, and dropped to the numbers of 2018

Dude! You can't go back like that. It doesn't work that way.

Otherwise, I can then say:

October 2017
Avg. Players: 7,780
Peak Players: 13,825

October 2024:
Avg. Players: 10,748
Peak Players: 17,131

We gained 3k players, right?

It doesn't work that way.

Rkindaleft · October 7

Theist_VII wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

ESO is fine.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but ESO is most definitely not fine.

The state of the game for people who value combat has never been worse than it is currently. Never before have I seen such lack of faith in the company either after all the performance issues.

I'm getting tired of these threads because it's always derailed by the same 10 or so people who insist the game is in a fine state when it's not. If it was in a fine state you wouldn't have a 65 page thread about performance issues and multiple threads started in the last 2 weeks about how the population has decreased, one of which is 17 pages long and has had good discussions within it.

The only reason these posts get made in the first place is because we care about this game and want to see it succeed, and the reality is we see less people online from our friend lists, we see less people active in our guilds, we see less people out in the world, we see our guild events shrinking, we see our rostered runs no longer fill, we see less people using Group Finder, we see less players in Craglorn looking for trials, we see PvP bars no longer filling up...

There’s been lag and performance issues since March, people got banned for like 2 weeks for no reason during anniversary event because of PTS fiasco and that event was marred with horrible drop rates and grind, there’s no new content until next year, they keep releasing bad updates like the mail adjustments and seesaw balance changes, they put things into the crown store as a separate purchase that were always part of chapters (the companions), making updates that almost nobody asked for (home tours), while disregarding QoL that people have been asking for years about. I'm not surprised in the slightest there is dissatisfaction.

SteveCampsOut · October 7

WitchyKiki wrote: »

DinoZavr wrote: »

Considering the Steam charts and seeing how many characters are on Vivec's "crafting" square ingame, there is no significant players churn.
And it is human to proclain "i quit", but stay on a second thought (considering invested theirs time and money). Those who quit for real not necessarily slam the door (though ragequit posts are removed).
"Players are leaving", but do they, actually? i mean some serious churn, not just an ordinary turnover, as new players also join, and there are many players who adore the game and will stay with ESO as long as it exists in a playable state.

i mean, what is the issue, once again?

This is a strange statement, considering a good portion of the population doesn't play on steam. I don't play on steam... most of the people I know in ESO don't play on steam. Steam isn't a strong indicator of the player population. People are observing their guilds emptying and friendlists becoming inactive, amongst other indicators that the community is shrinking.

That's the nature of the MMO beast. People come and go. Some get tired of the same guilds and social circles. People move on and new people show up.