ESO Population Declining @ SteamCharts

Tandor

Anotherone773 wrote: »

FierceSam wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

FierceSam wrote: »

Kingslayer513 wrote: »

There's so much misinformation in this thread

First things first, yes obviously steam is a subset (of a subset) of the playerbase. But it is still a representative sample

No it isn’t. It is, in fact, the exact opposite. It’s a self-selecting set of people who have chosen to use Steam to purchase and play games.

As such the information it reveals is statistically irrelevant and cannot be used to extrapolate larger trends.

With this logic, then the other side is a self-selecting set of people who have chosen to use the Zenimax launcher. Maybe they're dropping out at a larger rate than Steam users. So yes, with this reasoning, Steam users may be under representing the actual player loss.

What makes Steam users non-representative of the player base as a whole? Are they of lower IQ? Do they have attention deficit disorders that cause them to jump from game to game? Millions of people have bought the game through Steam, but some are claiming because their launcher has a little Steam logo in the corner that their experience is irrelevant.

Lol!

Steam users are not a consistent % of ESO population, hence any figures that only sample Steam users will only tell us about Steam users rather than the ESO population as a whole.

So someone who leaves Steam, but continues to play ESO, will be incorrectly registered as a loss. Someone who starts playing ESO without Steam will never be recognised at all. So these figures are fundamentally valueless.

Personally, I can’t see why anyone would use Steam to access ESO in the first place.

Steam is awesome for game library management. I have dozens of games on Steam and have been using it over a decade. ESO is the only game i have EVER had an issue with on Steam. It is also the only game that i own on steam that insist on using its own launcher and updater. You dont need to be a Rhodes Scholar to figure out where the problem lies.

Other games on Steam also use their own launcher and updater - Age of Conan, EQ and EQ2 for example - perhaps it's a MMORPG thing as compared to single-player games launching and updating through Steam?

jircris11

Why do ppl insist on thinking steam charts is the only source? Most use the direct launcher thus dont go through steam due to steams issues with connecting to eso servers. Then there are console people.

drkfrontiers

This speaks more the the fact that STEAM is a crappy platform and mediocre content provider than to ESO, to be honest. I have not logged into STEAM in over two years because its complete rubbish.

faeeichenlaub

As a Xbox player. I'm seeing a huge queue time for Kaal now. So maybe an uptick in players?. 45 minutes or more every night! I'm falling asleep before I can get in there lately. Been survey mapping like crazy to kill the time

Jaraal

jircris11 wrote: »

Why do ppl insist on thinking steam charts is the only source? Most use the direct launcher thus dont go through steam due to steams issues with connecting to eso servers. Then there are console people.

It's not the only source of players, but it's the only source of population trend data. There are no public statistics for console or non-Steam PC. So the OP is extrapolating game population from the only data available. Some feel it is representative, others don't.

jircris11

Jaraal wrote: »

jircris11 wrote: »

Why do ppl insist on thinking steam charts is the only source? Most use the direct launcher thus dont go through steam due to steams issues with connecting to eso servers. Then there are console people.

It's not the only source of players, but it's the only source of population trend data. There are no public statistics for console or non-Steam PC. So the OP is extrapolating game population from the only data available. Some feel it is representative, others don't.

welcome to the curse of mmos that don't launch via steam. only way to get actual numbers is to get it from ZoS

berzerkdethb14_ESO1

It never ceases to amaze me how much ESO players will just ignore issues and pretend everything is fine.

Things are NOT fine and they haven't been for a while. if you truly loved the game you would recognize this and demand a shift in direction as well.

Jaxious79

berzerkdethb14_ESO1 wrote: »

It never ceases to amaze me how much ESO players will just ignore issues and pretend everything is fine.

Things are NOT fine and they haven't been for a while. if you truly loved the game you would recognize this and demand a shift in direction as well.

I love these AH THE SKY IS FALLING! I dont like the game so nobody can like the game post. So inciteful, so original.

Maybe next time you should let us zombies know what direction we are supposed to demand the game go.

Sylvermynx

Jaxious79 wrote: »

berzerkdethb14_ESO1 wrote: »

It never ceases to amaze me how much ESO players will just ignore issues and pretend everything is fine.

Things are NOT fine and they haven't been for a while. if you truly loved the game you would recognize this and demand a shift in direction as well.

I love these AH THE SKY IS FALLING! I dont like the game so nobody can like the game post. So inciteful, so original.

Maybe next time you should let us zombies know what direction we are supposed to demand the game go.

Heh. Yeah. Y'know what, the game works just fine for me. PC, both NA and EU. Now I do have to say that I don't do stuff that others have real issues with - I don't do group content (mega ping here as satband is my only connect option, and I'm NOT going to put that on other people) and I certainly don't do pvp. But as for everything else in the game, for me it works just fine. Actually.... it works better than RIFT did back in 2016 which was when I quit because Trion was going in directions that weren't going to be fun for me.

MAN I miss RIFT housing though.... *SIGH*

JumpmanLane

I bought the game on steam. I haven’t logged in using steam yet n like 8 months.

I bought the game from Zeni and use their launcher to avoid Steams occasional login issues. Going by steam is not an accurate metric.

idk

IronWooshu wrote: »

Lord_Eomer wrote: »

ZOS is again on a wrong track, nerfing everything and letting players leave ESO.

Lack of good contents are also to blame, players are asking for new Solo Arena or Duo but Q4 DLC becomes such a disappointment.

I have also taken a break from ESO, will get back once ZOS start putting things back on track.



Source: https://steamcharts.com/app/306130

Does steam track Sony and Microsoft users or those who bought the game from another source?

I already know the answer.

@IronWooshu

No and that is not that important as no one is suggesting Steam is tracking the entire player base of any platform. Steam charts offers us an unbiased sampling to indicate what may be happening. It is by far the best information available to the public as a whole about the game.

Valykc

I noticed it simply by being on the forums. Back before I took a long break from Morrowind to Scalebreaker, the forums used to be flooded with new threads and it was hard to keep up. Now general discussion is the only one with a few dozen new threads a day (if that), c&c mechanics/PVE/PVP/etc have the same threads for weeks and maybe a few new ones daily.

That being said, they have made improvements to the game such as zone guides, guild finder, transmute, undaunted revamp, outfits, etc. But the performance has been on a steady decline for awhile, which I do hope gets fixed properly with the coming update, only time will tell. Also, the nerfs have been too much and the patching goes far too long and only happens on quarterly updates unless it’s a severe bug or exploit. Things like the dot buffs and nerfs were all over the place and blanket nerfs such as major expedition and sustain was extremely annoying. I wish they would do weekly patches, like some other games. However, that’s just my opinion.

If you can update the crown store each week then you can make incremental combat changes as well. Test them and make more changes next week. How long do stam sorcs have to go without a class stam ult? Or a spammable for both mag and stam (although mag at least has frags as a form of a semi-spammable skill). It seems like the best way for them to keep players interested is simply by changing skills completely or buffing/nerfing skills, or by adding in new BiS gear that you have to farm for. Flipping the game on it’s head all at once, then doing it again in 3 months, is not fun for the players.

Anotherone773

Tandor wrote: »

Anotherone773 wrote: »

FierceSam wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

FierceSam wrote: »

Kingslayer513 wrote: »

There's so much misinformation in this thread

First things first, yes obviously steam is a subset (of a subset) of the playerbase. But it is still a representative sample

No it isn’t. It is, in fact, the exact opposite. It’s a self-selecting set of people who have chosen to use Steam to purchase and play games.

As such the information it reveals is statistically irrelevant and cannot be used to extrapolate larger trends.

With this logic, then the other side is a self-selecting set of people who have chosen to use the Zenimax launcher. Maybe they're dropping out at a larger rate than Steam users. So yes, with this reasoning, Steam users may be under representing the actual player loss.

What makes Steam users non-representative of the player base as a whole? Are they of lower IQ? Do they have attention deficit disorders that cause them to jump from game to game? Millions of people have bought the game through Steam, but some are claiming because their launcher has a little Steam logo in the corner that their experience is irrelevant.

Lol!

Steam users are not a consistent % of ESO population, hence any figures that only sample Steam users will only tell us about Steam users rather than the ESO population as a whole.

So someone who leaves Steam, but continues to play ESO, will be incorrectly registered as a loss. Someone who starts playing ESO without Steam will never be recognised at all. So these figures are fundamentally valueless.

Personally, I can’t see why anyone would use Steam to access ESO in the first place.

Steam is awesome for game library management. I have dozens of games on Steam and have been using it over a decade. ESO is the only game i have EVER had an issue with on Steam. It is also the only game that i own on steam that insist on using its own launcher and updater. You dont need to be a Rhodes Scholar to figure out where the problem lies.

Other games on Steam also use their own launcher and updater - Age of Conan, EQ and EQ2 for example - perhaps it's a MMORPG thing as compared to single-player games launching and updating through Steam?

I cant speak for those but i have a few other MMOS on Steam and never had issues with them. To be fair besides that issue they had for a few months with steam... like 2 years ago??? i have not had any issues with steam and eso either.

To each their own, but IMO, Steam is to games what Minion is to addons. I know some people love to do inventory management, but id rather play my games rather than manage them. Another thing i like about steam is that i had to wipe my wife's laptop. I reinstalled steam and her game library( 19 games including ESO) in about 10 minutes.

To install all of those games manually would take half a day not including waiting on downloads of games/ patches. Steam did all that for me. No swapping discs, no patch downloads, no licenses/keys, no headaches. I could even travel from the US to my in laws in the UK. Get on their PC, download steam, login to my account, and download my games to play at their house.

Some people like to do things the hard way though. Nothing wrong with that.

spartaxoxo

Jaraal wrote: »

l
What makes Steam users non-representative of the player base as a whole? Are they of lower IQ? Do they have attention deficit disorders that cause them to jump from game to game? Millions of people have bought the game through Steam, but some are claiming because their launcher has a little Steam logo in the corner that their experience is irrelevant.

Lol!

Well for one thing, some Steam users may choose to direct launch instead apparently. Which means Steam will count them as inactive when they are not. Don't know too much about that I'm a console user. Others may habe dropped out back when that specific platform was having issues with game that were more severe than other platforms were experiencing.

For another if it's true that each platform has similar numbers, then console is a significant portion of the player base. Somewhere between 2/3rds and 1/2 depending on what was meant by roughly equal.

Unlike Steam users, console players have very few options for quality MMOs. So they will get pulled away less by cool stuff going on in competiting games that don't have console versions e.g. WoW Classic.

Those are all things that could make a Steam user "leave" while another platform stayed.

When it comes to achievements and such, there is no reason to think that the different platforms aren't similar. But when it comes to stuff like player retention or performance issues, those may be quite different.

Kalante

I remember the last time when eso had legit 1k viewers on twitch was when sypher reviewed the one tamriel patch notes three years ago. Since then ZOS has been dumping dlc after dlc that they forgot to update what actually matters, in game performance. If this game worked and had any semblance of balance this game would be bigger than wow I guarantee you and probably bigger than league of legends.

We got some big names like asmon which I hate that guy and Shroud the fps god checking out the game, Shroud even beat VMA which to me is so ****k surreal that a legend has touched our VMA, but alas everything got overshadowed by wow classic so they left. I don't know if I should feel glad or not that Shroud didn't see the absolute disgusting filth
that pvp is because he could had given some very harsh opinions since he is an extremely frames per second freak so him seeing how terrible pvp runs maybe he could had given zos a wake up with the bad PR.

So instead of being a bunch eso fanboys debating what sever has the bigger balls. How about we focus in getting this game fixed instead and demand zos to use a new engine.

Jaxious79

Kalante wrote: »

I remember the last time when eso had legit 1k viewers on twitch was when sypher reviewed the one tamriel patch notes three years ago. Since then zos has been dumping all of these dlcs but forgot to update what actually matters, in game performance. If this game worked and had any semblance of balance this game would be bigger than wow I guarantee you. Instead we got eso fanboys debating what sever has the bigger player count. Who cares? Focus in getting this game fixed instead.

I preferred version 1 where you called everyone who doesnt bow down to those like you who think the sky is falling "white knights". But hey now those who enjoy the game and dont bow down to your doom and gloom are fanboys.

You totally have a legit argument when all you can do is come up with internet name calling for those who have a different opinion then you.

Oh the new version 3 really got good. Cant wait for version 4.

Nanfoodle

I play ESO sometimes with GeForce now with steam on my phone. Other times on my PC. Steam stats are not a good tell on a cross platform game. It's just part of the PC player base.

MajBludd

@jircris11 unfortunately after the update where we re-download the game, just using the launcher probably wont work anymore.

As I said before, I bought eso thru steam in 2015 or 16. Bought a new rig, old one crapped out, and now I have to launch thru steam. (If anyone finds a way around this, please post it)

So, more ppl will most likely be launching thru steam that didn't in the past.

idk

Nanfoodle wrote: »

I play ESO sometimes with GeForce now with steam on my phone. Other times on my PC. Steam stats are not a good tell on a cross platform game. It's just part of the PC player base.

@Nanfoodle

So do each console have an indication of the average activity for a game during any given month? If yes then please share. If the answer is no then Steam Charts is still the best indication of what is going on in the game period even though it offers better information for PC/Mac.

People suggest that Steam Charts is not a good source of information but they do not provide a better source of what is going on. If they do not share such information then what are they really saying? It seems they are saying that Steam Charts is still the only and as such best information we have concerning ESO's health. Right now that source of information is showing growth.

MajBludd

Steam charts is the only indicator we have, why would it be discounted as a source?

I think pvp is the only pop that is seeing a drastic drop in this game. I dont do much pve so I cant comment on that side.

Ratzkifal

idk wrote: »

Nanfoodle wrote: »

I play ESO sometimes with GeForce now with steam on my phone. Other times on my PC. Steam stats are not a good tell on a cross platform game. It's just part of the PC player base.

@Nanfoodle

So do each console have an indication of the average activity for a game during any given month? If yes then please share. If the answer is no then Steam Charts is still the best indication of what is going on in the game period even though it offers better information for PC/Mac.

People suggest that Steam Charts is not a good source of information but they do not provide a better source of what is going on. If they do not share such information then what are they really saying? It seems they are saying that Steam Charts is still the only and as such best information we have concerning ESO's health. Right now that source of information is showing growth.

What are they really saying? Hmm, idk, maybe that Steam Charts are not a good source despite being the only one we got? Maybe that people should stop speculating on the health of a game when there is no significant info available on the matter?

It doesn't matter if it's "the best" if it's also "the only" one. The burden of proof lies with the people making the claim that the game is dying, not with the people sceptical of that claim and so far nothing sufficiently credible has been brought up.

All we currently know is that popularity regularly declines after chapter releases and that ZOS' idea to offset that with events didn't work. This is supported by both steam charts and google trends, but that doesn't mean the game is "literally dying" every winter due to nerfs, especially not as long as we don't have actual active user numbers instead of speculations based on biased statistics.

Wifeaggro13

lordrichter wrote: »

MartiniDaniels wrote: »

Guys, I spent most of my gaming time during last year in ESO. And I was buying everything I liked in CS before they pooped on the lore with bosmer&argonian changes. TES lore is the only fantasy lore universe I care. I will have zero profit if this game will go down, I am interested in ESO's thriving and growth. So I want devs to stop with random balance shake downs...
They are awful, both U23 and U24. Rosters are e-m-p-t-y in progression groups. Some guilds shut down, for example one of main craglorn PC EU guilds was disbanded. Guild chats which were lively, now near dead. Ofc this is just my experience, and other guild may be bustling with happy motivated players. But recent poll shows, that majority have issues with guild activity:

The guilds are always dying, dead, and on their last legs. Heck, according to predictions here in the forum, there aren't any guilds left, and haven't been for years, now.

Again.... I cannot tell you how many times this game has died here in the forum because the studio chased away all the players. Seriously, someone get the big gun out and shoot this game. It refuses to die at the hands of the inept studio.

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

The fact that we are sitting at the same concurrent population 12 months later is worrying. The fact that ZOS lost 30% of its active player base in a span of 4 months is concerning. It's the first time that the game has lost players for 4 straight months since early 2016.

And it might be worrying, not that we are the ones that should be worried, if this was across the entire player base rather than just Steam players. You talk like these numbers cover everyone playing on all platforms, and they do not.

No the game is not dying . But that does not mean the end game is healthy.in all honesty

Rungar wrote: »

steam data is relevant to the pc and while eso has always had a high casual turnover (mostly due to inaccessible end game systems) it appears that zos has run out of replacements.

Delete

idk

Ratzkifal wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Nanfoodle wrote: »

I play ESO sometimes with GeForce now with steam on my phone. Other times on my PC. Steam stats are not a good tell on a cross platform game. It's just part of the PC player base.

@Nanfoodle

So do each console have an indication of the average activity for a game during any given month? If yes then please share. If the answer is no then Steam Charts is still the best indication of what is going on in the game period even though it offers better information for PC/Mac.

People suggest that Steam Charts is not a good source of information but they do not provide a better source of what is going on. If they do not share such information then what are they really saying? It seems they are saying that Steam Charts is still the only and as such best information we have concerning ESO's health. Right now that source of information is showing growth.

What are they really saying? Hmm, idk, maybe that Steam Charts are not a good source despite being the only one we got? Maybe that people should stop speculating on the health of a game when there is no significant info available on the matter?

It doesn't matter if it's "the best" if it's also "the only" one. The burden of proof lies with the people making the claim that the game is dying, not with the people sceptical of that claim and so far nothing sufficiently credible has been brought up.

All we currently know is that popularity regularly declines after chapter releases and that ZOS' idea to offset that with events didn't work. This is supported by both steam charts and google trends, but that doesn't mean the game is "literally dying" every winter due to nerfs, especially not as long as we don't have actual active user numbers instead of speculations based on biased statistics.

I am guessing you are not aware of how to read those steam charts nor understand what google trends is really saying.

First off I will touch on the Steam Charts. Business analysis focuses much more on comparing one month to the same month the year before as it normalizes seasonal fluctuations which is what you are suggesting occurs after a chapter is released.

Since Steam charts does show a growth for every month over the same month the previous year with the exception of three months it does indicate a total growth of active players across all seasons. That is very much desired.

Month to month comparisons that you are referring to should show fluctuations across months of a given year. It would also be expected that players active across the entire 12 months would play more immediately after a chapter is released since they are not only taking in the new story, checking out the new trial, but also leveling up their new character.

As for Google Trends, we can also expect a bump in searches for ESO when the biggest update of the year is dropping. Learning about the new story, finding info on the new trial, and checking out what people have to say about the new class. However, it really does nothing to try to sample how many active player there are in game.

So what we really know, actually know, is that Steam Charts shows a continued growth for each month over the same month of the previous year with the exception of August, September, and October 2019. We also see that November and December 2019 return to showing growth over the previous months.

While Steam Charts do not show the entire picture, just a sampling from the PC/Mac, it is not biased in itself. It is far from perfect but it is also the only better information we could get would come from Zos itself.

jircris11

berzerkdethb14_ESO1 wrote: »

It never ceases to amaze me how much ESO players will just ignore issues and pretend everything is fine.

Things are NOT fine and they haven't been for a while. if you truly loved the game you would recognize this and demand a shift in direction as well.

Every mmo will have problems. That stems from the fact they can't please us all. Example, the lag and dc issue I personally have not been effected like some. I have been with eso since beta, if you played back then you would understand eso us WORLDS better then it was.

Unseelie

Steam is a garbage platform for this game. People know this and move away from it. Also ALL MMO player bases fluctuate and this has been the case since the early days of EQ and UO. A lull happens after people finish content and wait for new content, and when the new chapters and updates hit they will rise again. Why this is a new thing to people I do not understand, even more when people try to use these numbers to feed their negative agendas.

Ratzkifal

idk wrote: »

Ratzkifal wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Nanfoodle wrote: »

I play ESO sometimes with GeForce now with steam on my phone. Other times on my PC. Steam stats are not a good tell on a cross platform game. It's just part of the PC player base.

@Nanfoodle

So do each console have an indication of the average activity for a game during any given month? If yes then please share. If the answer is no then Steam Charts is still the best indication of what is going on in the game period even though it offers better information for PC/Mac.

People suggest that Steam Charts is not a good source of information but they do not provide a better source of what is going on. If they do not share such information then what are they really saying? It seems they are saying that Steam Charts is still the only and as such best information we have concerning ESO's health. Right now that source of information is showing growth.

What are they really saying? Hmm, idk, maybe that Steam Charts are not a good source despite being the only one we got? Maybe that people should stop speculating on the health of a game when there is no significant info available on the matter?

It doesn't matter if it's "the best" if it's also "the only" one. The burden of proof lies with the people making the claim that the game is dying, not with the people sceptical of that claim and so far nothing sufficiently credible has been brought up.

All we currently know is that popularity regularly declines after chapter releases and that ZOS' idea to offset that with events didn't work. This is supported by both steam charts and google trends, but that doesn't mean the game is "literally dying" every winter due to nerfs, especially not as long as we don't have actual active user numbers instead of speculations based on biased statistics.

I am guessing you are not aware of how to read those steam charts nor understand what google trends is really saying.

First off I will touch on the Steam Charts. Business analysis focuses much more on comparing one month to the same month the year before as it normalizes seasonal fluctuations which is what you are suggesting occurs after a chapter is released.
[...]

Firstly, the Steam Charts don't compare to the same month of the previous year. There was no previous year as can be clearly seen when we look at the months in 2014 which show a trend even though ESO was released in April 2014. So we need to do these comparisons ourselves and show those charts rather than the steam charts.
Secondly I didn't suggest that, ZOS said that this was the case when they talked about the success of the Summerfall event and announced more events.
And thirdly, I am aware what google trends is really saying. Did I say that google trends is a good alternative source? No. I think they are both terrible sources making this speculation a bit pointless.

Why do I think that? Because steam users keep having issues that other PC users don't get. There are reasons for steam users to stop using steam to play the game, which negatively affects the steam charts but doesn't affect the actual ESO player numbers. That's why steam charts are not credible. If we consider that and consider as well that most players when asked (ingame and on the forums) reply they don't play the game over steam, leads me to conclude that we can't just extrapolate steam charts onto the whole playerbase. Even if that is the only thing we can use.

idk

Ratzkifal wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Ratzkifal wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Nanfoodle wrote: »

I play ESO sometimes with GeForce now with steam on my phone. Other times on my PC. Steam stats are not a good tell on a cross platform game. It's just part of the PC player base.

@Nanfoodle

So do each console have an indication of the average activity for a game during any given month? If yes then please share. If the answer is no then Steam Charts is still the best indication of what is going on in the game period even though it offers better information for PC/Mac.

People suggest that Steam Charts is not a good source of information but they do not provide a better source of what is going on. If they do not share such information then what are they really saying? It seems they are saying that Steam Charts is still the only and as such best information we have concerning ESO's health. Right now that source of information is showing growth.

What are they really saying? Hmm, idk, maybe that Steam Charts are not a good source despite being the only one we got? Maybe that people should stop speculating on the health of a game when there is no significant info available on the matter?

It doesn't matter if it's "the best" if it's also "the only" one. The burden of proof lies with the people making the claim that the game is dying, not with the people sceptical of that claim and so far nothing sufficiently credible has been brought up.

All we currently know is that popularity regularly declines after chapter releases and that ZOS' idea to offset that with events didn't work. This is supported by both steam charts and google trends, but that doesn't mean the game is "literally dying" every winter due to nerfs, especially not as long as we don't have actual active user numbers instead of speculations based on biased statistics.

I am guessing you are not aware of how to read those steam charts nor understand what google trends is really saying.

First off I will touch on the Steam Charts. Business analysis focuses much more on comparing one month to the same month the year before as it normalizes seasonal fluctuations which is what you are suggesting occurs after a chapter is released.
[...]

Firstly, the Steam Charts don't compare to the same month of the previous year.

I did not read past this first sentence because it appears you are not looking at the steam chart or do not understand what you are seeing.

Scroll down or do not have your screen zoomed in so much. It is very obvious that the months are listed in descending order (nearest month on top) and each month lists the year it is associated with all the way back to July 2014.

So you take that, look at December 2019 then scroll down to December 2018 and compare the two numbers. Compare both the average and peak as both are worthy numbers to look at. For the past few years each month has shown an increase over the same month the previous year for both the average players and peak.

It is laid out clearly.

agegarton

Lord_Eomer wrote: »

ZOS is again on a wrong track, nerfing everything and letting players leave ESO.

Lack of good contents are also to blame, players are asking for new Solo Arena or Duo but Q4 DLC becomes such a disappointment.

I have also taken a break from ESO, will get back once ZOS start putting things back on track.



Source: https://steamcharts.com/app/306130

Statistically speaking, this graph shows absolutely nothing. For example, the two biggest drops in player numbers cannot be validated as a trend or point in time issue as there isn't enough data - not enough months are listed.

At a glance it also looks like player numbers increased and decreased at quite logical times - increases generally fit with content launches, while player declines generally fit with drops other games see, e.g. during Summer when people do things like go on holiday, or venture outside

Additionally, there's no way to correlate this data with corresponding data for overall numbers of Steam users, or the number of players purchasing direct.

In my own experience, more players seem to be returning now than every before. Anecdotally, my two guilds are seeing recoding membership levels and loads of new players.

idk

agegarton wrote: »

Lord_Eomer wrote: »

ZOS is again on a wrong track, nerfing everything and letting players leave ESO.

Lack of good contents are also to blame, players are asking for new Solo Arena or Duo but Q4 DLC becomes such a disappointment.

I have also taken a break from ESO, will get back once ZOS start putting things back on track.



Source: https://steamcharts.com/app/306130

Statistically speaking, this graph shows absolutely nothing. For example, the two biggest drops in player numbers cannot be validated as a trend or point in time issue as there isn't enough data - not enough months are listed.

This is an outdated thread now. Look at the steam chart for the rest of the year and it becomes clear that November and December showed an increase over the same months in the previous yearl.

So you are correct that the brief trend itself was not enough to say anything. With the return to growth before the end of the year it seems that short term dip is related to other events outside of ESO. WoW released a classic version (or something like that) near the beginning of the brief downturn. That would seem to explain things.

Nanfoodle

idk wrote: »

Nanfoodle wrote: »

I play ESO sometimes with GeForce now with steam on my phone. Other times on my PC. Steam stats are not a good tell on a cross platform game. It's just part of the PC player base.

@Nanfoodle

So do each console have an indication of the average activity for a game during any given month? If yes then please share. If the answer is no then Steam Charts is still the best indication of what is going on in the game period even though it offers better information for PC/Mac.

People suggest that Steam Charts is not a good source of information but they do not provide a better source of what is going on. If they do not share such information then what are they really saying? It seems they are saying that Steam Charts is still the only and as such best information we have concerning ESO's health. Right now that source of information is showing growth.

That like taking a poll in one state if people like burgers. From that poll you declared most people in the world like burgers. Steam numbers are one subset of PC and Shield users. I have seen polls from steam that said a MMO numbers were way down but still kept going and kept releasing content. A true sign of a game failing is when content production slows down or stops. Been MMOing for over 20 years. Just calm down and play if you like the game.