ESO Population Declining @ SteamCharts

Left4Daud · September 2019

However bad ZOS continues to butcher this lore and franchise all they have to do is release Skyrim nostalgia low effort content in 4 parts over a year and they can coast on that until TESVI launches. That and the whales dropping thousands on loot boxes, this combat team has nothing to worry about. It’s basically like it or leave it at this point. Complaints have fell on deaf ears for years ya’ll.

zaria · September 2019

Ratzkifal wrote: »

Are we really discussing steam charts again when most ESO players are not playing through steam?

However the number of steam players is 2-3 order of magnitude more relevant than forum posts.
25K sounds low? Well its on 50 most active games.
And yes its the autumn dip, however this will have some impact on the bottom line.

Jayroo · September 2019

You would be an excellent news writer for fox news. This can be in your portfolio

wolfie1.0. · September 2019

To be fair we really cant go off of just what steam charts indicate. As others have said not everyone uses the steam client. We cant really know how the game is doing unless we know what percentage of players actually use steam. In other words we need to know the sample size in order to have a frame of reference to compare the data. Without that we are just speculating or trying to justify what we think is going on. Unfortunately ZOS isn't going to provide us that information.

Vlad9425 · September 2019

The population fluctuates, usually after a new patch or if there's an event on there's a fair amount of people. During periods without events or around DLC release dates the population does drop often.

Tandor · September 2019

TragedyOA wrote: »

Ratzkifal wrote: »

Are we really discussing steam charts again when most ESO players are not playing through steam?

Link?

You don't need a link to establish that, it's beyond debate. Steam wasn't available for the first few months of ESO and in any event two-thirds of the players aren't on PC (that's based on the ZOS statement that the population is evenly spread across the three platforms, you can doubtless find that quote if you doubt its veracity). There are lots of things that can be fairly debated and contested, but the Steam population only being a small proportion of the playerbase seriously isn't one of them.

Kalik_Gold · September 2019

WoW players went back to Vanilla

Facefister · September 2019

Evanis wrote: »

MartiniDaniels wrote: »

Dev's listed that ESO has 13.5 mils in May and then just 13 mils in August.

Game is clearly less active then half-year ago.

Links to source data, please.

Show me any MMO with 13 million ACTIVE players. The value you quoted is likely the number of ACCOUNTS.

And Blizzard says that Overwatch has over 40 million registered accounts. And that game is pretty much dead. The amount of ESO+ members would be interesting, and I think that 200k~300k sounds right.

Elsonso · September 2019

idk wrote: »

maddiniiLuna wrote: »

Hello,

Keep in mind, that this chart is in no way an accurate representation of the player numbers in ESO. It's only for steam players and only for EU Servers. There is also NA Servers, Non-Steam Users, All the console users etc. Besides the fact, that it doesn't record your activity, if you are set to invisible in Steam. The "real" numbers will be way higher then this.

Well, you are correct that it only shows a subset of the player base though I think it is both EU and NA since Steam is just looking at total number of player playing the game via steam linked accounts.

However, this is the only metrics we really get on the game as nothing is published by Zos. Considering pretty much every month ESO Steam charts shows growth over the same month they year before it seems Zos is doing pretty good. I do not think OP will be missed.

Well... Steam charts suggests that Elsweyr was not as interesting as Summerset. June 2018 to June 2019 shows that, among Steam players, Elsweyr was nowhere near the draw. While the numbers are higher, Elsweyr lost player interest faster. Also, year-to-year, if you look at the screen shot posted, August is down this year from last.

SoLooney · September 2019

The majority of players on eso are role players, casuals, housing fanatics, and marketers and crafters

These big nerfs are only affecting the hardcore pvp and pve players

Population wont dip that much, there arent that many end game players who still play to this day

It will most likely be an exodus maybe in the thousands, millions will still stick around

Facefister · September 2019

"millions"
Lol haha.

Darcwolf · September 2019

Cause steam is the only way to buy the game? I didn't realize anyone even used steam for eso. I purchased direct from zenimax and shut off steam while playing because conflicts.

Iskiab · September 2019

lordrichter wrote: »

idk wrote: »

maddiniiLuna wrote: »

Hello,

Keep in mind, that this chart is in no way an accurate representation of the player numbers in ESO. It's only for steam players and only for EU Servers. There is also NA Servers, Non-Steam Users, All the console users etc. Besides the fact, that it doesn't record your activity, if you are set to invisible in Steam. The "real" numbers will be way higher then this.

Well, you are correct that it only shows a subset of the player base though I think it is both EU and NA since Steam is just looking at total number of player playing the game via steam linked accounts.

However, this is the only metrics we really get on the game as nothing is published by Zos. Considering pretty much every month ESO Steam charts shows growth over the same month they year before it seems Zos is doing pretty good. I do not think OP will be missed.

Well... Steam charts suggests that Elsweyr was not as interesting as Summerset. June 2018 to June 2019 shows that, among Steam players, Elsweyr was nowhere near the draw. While the numbers are higher, Elsweyr lost player interest faster. Also, year-to-year, if you look at the screen shot posted, August is down this year from last.

There was a big ESO promotion on steam during summerset. Thank god I read the forums and bought it direct, but there was a big wave of new players from then.

Anyways, point being no promotion will lead to less activity.

GraphicArtistYT · September 2019

Rip ESO

Jaraal · September 2019

So, what are you folks saying that Steam users are just a small portion of the total player base trying to infer? That even though Steam metrics show a steady decline in log-ins over the last few months, that maybe console players and eso.exe players are increasing? Sure, it may be a small sampling, but if you think Steam players are just some kind of special snowflakes that don't really represent the overall mood of ESO players in general, you'd be sadly mistaken.

Wayshuba · September 2019

idk wrote: »

Again declining? That chart shows a continued growth year over year so to say it is declining again is a false statement for dramatic purposes.

I must be missing something. The displayed chart goes back one year to August. From Aug 2018 to August 2019 it is showing a 22% decline. So I don't know where in the chart it is showing continued growth.

There are growth spikes, yes, but definitely not continued or sustainable growth.

russelmmendoza · September 2019

Eso steam population, ok, got it.

Where can I see overall population on all platform?

Before I make a decision to abandon ship.

ZarkingFrued · September 2019

Nerfs=delete game

Wayshuba · September 2019

Evanis wrote: »

https://mmo-population.com/r/elderscrollsonline

The daily player population has been very steady since June, with a gradual increase of ~1.5%/month.

The game is far from declining, nerfs and all...

Umm, don't know where they get their data from but it sure ain't from the games.

Wildstar shut down in November 2018 yet they show months in 2019 with substantial active users. How can this be in a game that doesn't exist anymore?

furiouslog · September 2019

If you really wanted to prove your point, , you'd need more data, and you'd need to stick it into a regression that controlled for seasonality, promotions (e.g. events), and new content releases. Without controlling for that stuff, you can not conclude anything from these data.

Commancho · September 2019

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Wait, there are people who actually use Steam to play ESO?

Yeah and I will continue to do so and f... other platforms.

jircris11 · September 2019

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

Steam is not the only launcher hell most ppl have it via launcher not steam.

bluebird · September 2019

To all the people arguing about Steam: it doesn't matter, and doesn't take away from OP's point.

If he was making the case that the game's population is under 20k (based on the Steam figures only) then yes that would obviously be a mistake because Steam doesn't reflect all people playing on the other platforms.

But when talking about trends, you'd have to make the rather unlikely case that Steam users are a magical and mysterious type of player who behave differently from everyone else (e.g.if you really think that Xbox and the ESO Launcher have a different playerbase that still maintains as high numbers as they did in June and aren't affected by the player dropoff like Steam is).

So no, unless proven otherwise that would indicate that the different platforms have mysteriously different behaviors that aren't affected by the same trends, seeing the stats for Steam should be representative enough of the game's popularity. And yes the game's popularity is decreasing. Now, it remains to be seen whether it will pick up again when the next DLC drops - seeing the dramatic nerfs of Dragolhold that will be interesting to see - but for now yes the game pretty much already lost as many players as it gained during the Chapter's successful release (was 13k average before the Chapter, 17k during the Chapter, and now back to 12k average). If you had data from other platforms, they would likely tell the same story.

StormeReigns · September 2019

bluebird wrote: »

To all the people arguing about Steam: it doesn't matter, and doesn't take away from OP's point.
If he was making the case that the game's population is under 20k (based on the Steam figures only) then yes that would obviously be a mistake because Steam doesn't reflect all people playing on the other platforms.

But when talking about trends, you'd have to make the rather unlikely case that Steam users are a magical and mysterious type of player who behave differently from everyone else (e.g.if you really think that Xbox and the ESO Launcher have a different playerbase that still maintains as high numbers as they did in June and aren't affected by the player dropoff like Steam is).

So no, unless proven otherwise that would indicate that the different platforms have mysteriously different behaviors that aren't affected by the same trends, seeing the stats for Steam should be representative enough of the game's popularity. And yes the game's popularity is decreasing. Now, it remains to be seen whether it will pick up again when the next DLC drops - seeing the dramatic nerfs of Dragolhold that will be interesting to see - but for now yes the game pretty much already lost as many players as it gained during the Chapter's successful release (was 13k average before the Chapter, 17k during the Chapter, and now back to 12k average). If you had data from other platforms, they would likely tell the same story.

Despite the OP's willingness to leave out common information that effects both NA and EU. Like that the months with the lower population readings are during high travel, vacation and holiday peek times. While the higher months are often known to not have any substantial break time longer then a few days or a week or two and common for standard school and business months (depending on states and counties / countries) not including other real world situations that may arise that can effect the chart at any given moment

If Beth/ZoS claim is correct on 13mil + active accounts/Players across all platforms, the steam chart is a fraction of what is really happening / good or bad and still remains a non issue and the OP's point is absolutely and will remain moot without having a combined total of numbers across all platforms for the past 6 months and 5 years to dictate if a trend is really happening or not.

wenchmore420b14_ESO · September 2019

Anyone who was here at launch doesn't use Steam as it was not available till almost 9 months after launch.
I don't play any game thru Steam. Many others don't either. (Steam sucks IMO)...
Using Steam and Reddit for population numbers is sketchy at best.
Having played ESO since 2013, yes player base goes up, goes down, goes up again.
Game is far from being in trouble tho...
Huzzah!!

anitajoneb17_ESO · September 2019

wenchmore420b14_ESO wrote: »

Anyone who was here at launch doesn't use Steam as it was not available till almost 9 months after launch.

Steam was available on Steam on July 2014, that's three months after launch.
Other than that I agree with you : Steam sucks, and ESO is not in trouble.

Iccotak · September 2019

I don't play through steam

bluebird · September 2019

SkerKro wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

To all the people arguing about Steam: it doesn't matter, and doesn't take away from OP's point.
If he was making the case that the game's population is under 20k (based on the Steam figures only) then yes that would obviously be a mistake because Steam doesn't reflect all people playing on the other platforms.

But when talking about trends, you'd have to make the rather unlikely case that Steam users are a magical and mysterious type of player who behave differently from everyone else (e.g.if you really think that Xbox and the ESO Launcher have a different playerbase that still maintains as high numbers as they did in June and aren't affected by the player dropoff like Steam is).

So no, unless proven otherwise that would indicate that the different platforms have mysteriously different behaviors that aren't affected by the same trends, seeing the stats for Steam should be representative enough of the game's popularity. And yes the game's popularity is decreasing. Now, it remains to be seen whether it will pick up again when the next DLC drops - seeing the dramatic nerfs of Dragolhold that will be interesting to see - but for now yes the game pretty much already lost as many players as it gained during the Chapter's successful release (was 13k average before the Chapter, 17k during the Chapter, and now back to 12k average). If you had data from other platforms, they would likely tell the same story.

Despite the OP's willingness to leave out common information that effects both NA and EU. Like that the months with the lower population readings are during high travel, vacation and holiday peek times. While the higher months are often known to not have any substantial break time longer then a few days or a week or two and common for standard school and business months (depending on states and counties / countries) not including other real world situations that may arise that can effect the chart at any given moment

If Beth/ZoS claim is correct on 13mil + active accounts/Players across all platforms, the steam chart is a fraction of what is really happening / good or bad and still remains a non issue and the OP's point is absolutely and will remain moot without having a combined total of numbers across all platforms for the past 6 months and 5 years to dictate if a trend is really happening or not.

ESO does not have 13mill acive accounts. It baffles me that some people could even believe that. That is 13 millions accounts, across all platforms, that have been ever created in the past 5 years in total. Not active accounts.

So it includes free accounts that logged in for one day when the game was free to try, but never logged back. It includes people who tried the game at launch but deleted it immediately and haven't been back in 5 years. It includes bots and secondary accounts for people who started on PS but moved to PC or just made another account. It is not active players. So please @SkerKro don't cite the '13 million active players/accounts' statistic because it was never about acitve players/accounts.

And regarding your high travel and vacation times, it really makes no difference. In June 2018 average Steam player count increased by 4k. In July it fell by 2k and in August it went up again by 1k. In 2019 it has been falling since May with no increase. Or are you suggesting that in 2019 way more people went on vacation than in 2018 so that's the reason more people stopped playing?

In September 2018, ESO still had 2k more average Steam users than it did before the Chapter launched (12k in Sept vs 10k in May with a June peak of 15k) while in 2019 we already lost way more people (we're already back to 12k after a 17k May).

Also, if you look at the trends, the post-Elsweyr drop over the past three months was a far greater decrease in player engagement than any other drop ESO had since 2016! This year dropped by 32% since May, while others summer declines are around 18-26%.

StormeReigns · September 2019

bluebird wrote: »

SkerKro wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

To all the people arguing about Steam: it doesn't matter, and doesn't take away from OP's point.
If he was making the case that the game's population is under 20k (based on the Steam figures only) then yes that would obviously be a mistake because Steam doesn't reflect all people playing on the other platforms.

But when talking about trends, you'd have to make the rather unlikely case that Steam users are a magical and mysterious type of player who behave differently from everyone else (e.g.if you really think that Xbox and the ESO Launcher have a different playerbase that still maintains as high numbers as they did in June and aren't affected by the player dropoff like Steam is).

So no, unless proven otherwise that would indicate that the different platforms have mysteriously different behaviors that aren't affected by the same trends, seeing the stats for Steam should be representative enough of the game's popularity. And yes the game's popularity is decreasing. Now, it remains to be seen whether it will pick up again when the next DLC drops - seeing the dramatic nerfs of Dragolhold that will be interesting to see - but for now yes the game pretty much already lost as many players as it gained during the Chapter's successful release (was 13k average before the Chapter, 17k during the Chapter, and now back to 12k average). If you had data from other platforms, they would likely tell the same story.

Despite the OP's willingness to leave out common information that effects both NA and EU. Like that the months with the lower population readings are during high travel, vacation and holiday peek times. While the higher months are often known to not have any substantial break time longer then a few days or a week or two and common for standard school and business months (depending on states and counties / countries) not including other real world situations that may arise that can effect the chart at any given moment

If Beth/ZoS claim is correct on 13mil + active accounts/Players across all platforms, the steam chart is a fraction of what is really happening / good or bad and still remains a non issue and the OP's point is absolutely and will remain moot without having a combined total of numbers across all platforms for the past 6 months and 5 years to dictate if a trend is really happening or not.

ESO does not have 13mill acive accounts. It baffles me that some people could even believe that. That is 13 millions accounts, across all platforms, that have been ever created in the past 5 years in total. Not active accounts. So it includes free accounts that logged in for one day when the game was free to try, but never logged back. It includes people who tried the game at launch but deleted it immediately and haven't been back in 5 years. It includes bots and secondary accounts for people who started on PS but moved to PC or just made another account. It is not active players. So please @SkerKro don't cite the '13 million active players/accounts' statistic because it was never about acitve players/accounts.

And regarding your high travel and vacation times, it really makes no difference. In June 2018 average Steam player count increased by 4k. In July it fell by 2k and in August it went up again by 1k. In 2019 it has been falling since May with no increase. Or are you suggesting that in 2019 way more people went on vacation than in 2018 so that's the reason more people stopped playing? In September 2018, ESO still had 2k more average Steam users than it did before the Chapter launched (12k in Sept vs 10k in May with a June peak of 15k) while in 2019 we already lost way more people (we're already back to 12k after a 17k May).

Also, if you look at the trends, the post-Elsweyr drop over the past three months was a far greater decrease in player engagement than any other drop ESO had since 2016! This year dropped by 32% since May, while others summer declines are around 18-26%.

Still absolute moot and remains, and forever will be a non issue, without having concrete evidence and undeniable access to all the numbers from start to now on every platform (Steam, PC, Console)this thread is simply a bias speculation bait page to gather +1s to be mindlessly linked to at a future date to "back up" other troll threads. Also if you read it correclt, I stated and quote "IF" their "claim is correct." And as such, to ignore real world unexpected situations (good and bad for any game and genre) that happen on a daily occurrence only focusing on the narrow personal experience and bias view point(s) of a handful truly shows and dictates the true intention of this thread as pure baiting.
And falls into the same category as this thread:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/494525/cyrodiil-server-performance-is-realated-to-animation-cancelling-la-weaving/p1

bluebird · September 2019

SkerKro wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

SkerKro wrote: »

bluebird wrote: »

To all the people arguing about Steam: it doesn't matter, and doesn't take away from OP's point.
If he was making the case that the game's population is under 20k (based on the Steam figures only) then yes that would obviously be a mistake because Steam doesn't reflect all people playing on the other platforms.

But when talking about trends, you'd have to make the rather unlikely case that Steam users are a magical and mysterious type of player who behave differently from everyone else (e.g.if you really think that Xbox and the ESO Launcher have a different playerbase that still maintains as high numbers as they did in June and aren't affected by the player dropoff like Steam is).

So no, unless proven otherwise that would indicate that the different platforms have mysteriously different behaviors that aren't affected by the same trends, seeing the stats for Steam should be representative enough of the game's popularity. And yes the game's popularity is decreasing. Now, it remains to be seen whether it will pick up again when the next DLC drops - seeing the dramatic nerfs of Dragolhold that will be interesting to see - but for now yes the game pretty much already lost as many players as it gained during the Chapter's successful release (was 13k average before the Chapter, 17k during the Chapter, and now back to 12k average). If you had data from other platforms, they would likely tell the same story.

Despite the OP's willingness to leave out common information that effects both NA and EU. Like that the months with the lower population readings are during high travel, vacation and holiday peek times. While the higher months are often known to not have any substantial break time longer then a few days or a week or two and common for standard school and business months (depending on states and counties / countries) not including other real world situations that may arise that can effect the chart at any given moment

If Beth/ZoS claim is correct on 13mil + active accounts/Players across all platforms, the steam chart is a fraction of what is really happening / good or bad and still remains a non issue and the OP's point is absolutely and will remain moot without having a combined total of numbers across all platforms for the past 6 months and 5 years to dictate if a trend is really happening or not.

ESO does not have 13mill acive accounts. It baffles me that some people could even believe that. That is 13 millions accounts, across all platforms, that have been ever created in the past 5 years in total. Not active accounts. So it includes free accounts that logged in for one day when the game was free to try, but never logged back. It includes people who tried the game at launch but deleted it immediately and haven't been back in 5 years. It includes bots and secondary accounts for people who started on PS but moved to PC or just made another account. It is not active players. So please @SkerKro don't cite the '13 million active players/accounts' statistic because it was never about acitve players/accounts.

And regarding your high travel and vacation times, it really makes no difference. In June 2018 average Steam player count increased by 4k. In July it fell by 2k and in August it went up again by 1k. In 2019 it has been falling since May with no increase. Or are you suggesting that in 2019 way more people went on vacation than in 2018 so that's the reason more people stopped playing? In September 2018, ESO still had 2k more average Steam users than it did before the Chapter launched (12k in Sept vs 10k in May with a June peak of 15k) while in 2019 we already lost way more people (we're already back to 12k after a 17k May).

Also, if you look at the trends, the post-Elsweyr drop over the past three months was a far greater decrease in player engagement than any other drop ESO had since 2016! This year dropped by 32% since May, while others summer declines are around 18-26%.

Still absolute moot and remains, and forever will be a non issue, without having concrete evidence and undeniable access to all the numbers from start to now on every platform (Steam, PC, Console)this thread is simply a bias speculation bait page to gather +1s to be mindlessly linked to at a future date to "back up" other troll threads. Also if you read it correclt, I stated and quote "IF" their "claim is correct." And as such, to ignore real world unexpected situations (good and bad for any game and genre) that happen on a daily occurrence only focusing on the narrow personal experience and bias view point(s) of a handful truly shows and dictates the true intention of this thread as pure baiting.

Yes you said 'if' their claim is correct but the claim was never about 13 million active players. That's what I pointed out.
Also, there is nothing trolling about this thread. OP pointed out facts. They did lose more players over this summer than they lost over any other summer. So neither vacations nor platforms are are of any impact on this because it's all the same statistic in the same time of year.

And as stated earlier, Steam statistics can absolutely be taken as representative for the whole (when it comes to trends, not to numbers obviously), until someone actually makes a good argument for why we should believe that other platforms of ESO have a different playerbase that acts and reacts differently.