How Many players in ESO currently?

Talrenos · September 2014

No I have no idea how many players, but I do want all those that say the game is not dying to pause and think about something.

There is only one server, the MegaServer. Now given that there is a limit on how many people a particular zone can handle at any given time, there is a logical limit on how may players the game can handle total. How does ZOS fix this issue? Phasing !! When the Auridon Zone gets too high in players, anyone entering the zone after that moment gets put in a new phase of Auridon. If you play with other people, you have seen this, where you both login and are standing near each other in town yet you cant see each other. You have to 'travel to player' to get in the same phase. Well, that's not an accomplishment for a Megaserver, its actually a pathetic hack to spread people out on what they call a single server. Its not, each phase layer not only separates the population more, but is actually another server, just not in the traditional sense.

Ok, so more to the point here: How many people do you really see in a day? Go to a busy city, maybe 150? Travel around a lot, maybe 50 per area? Add in 10 more per zone based on chat window... (remember your on a single server!!) Go ahead, estimate upward, be generous!

You will come out to about 2k in players that you could potentially see. Wait, you only see YOUR faction lands!! Assuming the population is equal across factions, we can add up to 6k total in the world. WIth that said, factor in the people in a different phase, so add in another 4k and we get about 10k people online at peak periods.

But how many are not logged in? well, triple the amount for people not playing and you get close to 33128 players. That's not a lot. That's not even a single WoW server amount.

Yeah, In other games when players complain its 'dying' they rarely take into account the other servers the game has, but here, there is only one server, so if it feels like its dying, IT ACTUALLY IS....

Ragefist · September 2014

Amen brother! Repent! The end is nigh and sinners will be judged!

Bleakraven · September 2014

Well, you're kind of arguing against yourself. You're only taking into account the people you see online and around your zone, not counting Cyrodiil, etc. The game is doing fine, really.

Attorneyatlawl · September 2014

Talrenos wrote: »

No I have no idea how many players, but I do want all those that say the game is not dying to pause and think about something.

There is only one server, the MegaServer. Now given that there is a limit on how many people a particular zone can handle at any given time, there is a logical limit on how may players the game can handle total. How does ZOS fix this issue? Phasing !! When the Auridon Zone gets too high in players, anyone entering the zone after that moment gets put in a new phase of Auridon. If you play with other people, you have seen this, where you both login and are standing near each other in town yet you cant see each other. You have to 'travel to player' to get in the same phase. Well, that's not an accomplishment for a Megaserver, its actually a pathetic hack to spread people out on what they call a single server. Its not, each phase layer not only separates the population more, but is actually another server, just not in the traditional sense.

Ok, so more to the point here: How many people do you really see in a day? Go to a busy city, maybe 150? Travel around a lot, maybe 50 per area? Add in 10 more per zone based on chat window... (remember your on a single server!!) Go ahead, estimate upward, be generous!

You will come out to about 2k in players that you could potentially see. Wait, you only see YOUR faction lands!! Assuming the population is equal across factions, we can add up to 6k total in the world. WIth that said, factor in the people in a different phase, so add in another 4k and we get about 10k people online at peak periods.

But how many are not logged in? well, triple the amount for people not playing and you get close to 33128 players. That's not a lot. That's not even a single WoW server amount.

Yeah, In other games when players complain its 'dying' they rarely take into account the other servers the game has, but here, there is only one server, so if it feels like its dying, IT ACTUALLY IS....

__________

Bleakraven wrote: »

Well, you're kind of arguing against yourself. You're only taking into account the people you see online and around your zone, not counting Cyrodiil, etc. The game is doing fine, really.

And not counting different times of day, seasons, holidays, days of the week, lack of nameplates to even tell who is around is even the same group of people, etc. This is a very flawed original post.

KhajitFurTrader · September 2014

Talrenos wrote: »

There is only one server, the MegaServer.

Nope, there are two, actually. With numbers three (Sony PS network) and four (XBox network) coming up. ^_^

(yeah, I didn't count in the PTS, duh!)

Qyrk · September 2014

Lots of assumptions,but lacks any logic and true sample sizes. Next

Garion · September 2014

TLDR - I am going to pull some random numbers out of my rear and say that is how many people are currently playing this game.

Ragefist · September 2014

I suppose it must be really horrible for doomsayers not knowing the numbers. Good move from ZOS

nerevarine1138 · September 2014

Guys, give the poor OP a break. These people have to find some doom and gloom on the horizon after the "inevitable" free-to-play transition didn't happen.

Crowzer · September 2014

Ragefist wrote: »

I suppose it must be really horrible for doomsayers not knowing the numbers. Good move from ZOS

I doesn't mean it's a good thing.

TehMagnus · September 2014

Bleakraven wrote: »

Well, you're kind of arguing against yourself. You're only taking into account the people you see online and around your zone, not counting Cyrodiil, etc. The game is doing fine, really.

If the game was doing fine:
- ZOS would publish a recap of how many players the game has to proove it's awesome and many people are playing it and that it beats this and that game.
- They wouldn't be implementing new Areas to try to keep people from leaving once they hit level cap and have gotten all the best sets from trial runs.
- They wouldn't be trying to lure people in (loyalty rewards, pets with steam purchase, selling the special editions for an even longer time than originally planed).

If game is doing well all they have to do is publish numbers, that would make criticism go down and maybe even bring more players in because "if x people play it, it must be good!".

The fact they aren't doing it is actually kinda scary because it means that even if they cheat to a reasonable extend where it's actually believable (who's gonna go check if they say the truth? On the other hand if they claim to have more than 500k weekly users everybody knows it's BS) numbers would still be bad.

nerevarine1138 · September 2014

magnusnet wrote: »

Bleakraven wrote: »

Well, you're kind of arguing against yourself. You're only taking into account the people you see online and around your zone, not counting Cyrodiil, etc. The game is doing fine, really.

If the game was doing fine:
- ZOS would publish a recap of how many players the game has to proove it's awesome and many people are playing it and that it beats this and that game.
- They wouldn't be implementing new Areas to try to keep people from leaving once they hit level cap and have gotten all the best sets from trial runs.
- They wouldn't be trying to lure people in (loyalty rewards, pets with steam purchase, selling the special editions for an even longer time than originally planed).

If game is doing well all they have to do is publish numbers, that would make criticism go down and maybe even bring more players in because "if x people play it, it must be good!".

The fact they aren't doing it is actually kinda scary because it means that even if they cheat to a reasonable extend where it's actually believable (who's gonna go check if they say the truth? On the other hand if they claim to have more than 500k weekly users everybody knows it's BS) numbers would still be bad.

- Most MMO publishers don't release population data. And since the console release is still coming up, it makes a lot more business sense to wait until that if they're planning on releasing numbers at all.
- Yeah, I hear that all MMOs which add new areas and content are failing miserably. (Seriously? That's your argument?)
- Loyalty pets were a direct response to the absolute tantrum players threw on these forums, and I don't think they're actually a big enough incentive to keep people playing a game they truly don't like. However, you're factually wrong about the Imperial Edition. They said, from the very moment pre-orders were available, that the Imperial Edition was not a limited edition, and that you would be able to purchase/upgrade to the IE at any time.

If a game is doing well, all they need to keep doing is working on their game. If you knew the numbers (which you don't, so please stop with the "OMG, it's totally under 500k" nonsense), you'd find some way to spin them as negative. Are you enjoying the game? Yes? Keep playing. No? Go away and play something else. It's really that simple.

Rosveen · September 2014

Nothing you said makes any sense. How did you even arrive at these numbers without knowing how many phases there are in total?

mutharex · September 2014

Why people devote their entire life and free time to these depressing and sad threads? OP, you need a hobby to get away from your ...hobby. Coz it's unhealthy

vyndral13preub18_ESO · September 2014

Talrenos wrote: »

No I have no idea how many players

You started out so well.

Dominoid · September 2014

Rosveen wrote: »

Nothing you said makes any sense. How did you even arrive at these numbers without knowing how many phases there are in total?

Because he assumes falsely (like the whole post) that the shard he is in is the only one in existence. Don't take into account that the Mournhold you are standing in is only one of 100 identical Mournholds currently running.

bertenburnyb16_ESO · September 2014

lol
just grabbing numbers out of your a** wont make em tru
how do you know how many people a single phase can hold, how many different phases there are, plus spread out over 22pve maps and a couple pvp campains, and that per faction...

Elsonso · September 2014

Interesting analysis.

I would double your numbers, though. Put the cities at 300, the outlying zone at 100. Only if the population drops below those numbers is there any indication that the area you are in is lightly populated with players.

As long as the population is in that range, it is not possible to use your analysis to estimate server population, and by no means can it be used to estimate server population outside of your local area.

Sometimes a road will have no cars on it. That does not mean all roads are empty or that the people in the city have left.

If you want to find clues to server population, I can think of a simple process. Get a guild or large group on voice chat to have a person in every major city in the game and count the number of unique players over a span of 1 hour.

TehMagnus · September 2014

People asking for numbers:

June 2014:
http://www.lazygamer.net/general-news/these-are-the-most-played-pc-games/

July 2014:
http://caas.raptr.com/most-played-pc-games-july-2014-summers-winners-and-losers/

Statistics taken from Raptr'. Not all the gamers use Raptr, just as not all TV watchers have the box that tells what they are watching and gives rating information, still it's like a survey, and to some extend represents the % of people playing each game. As you can see, TESO is at the bottom of the chart in June and isn't even in the chart in July.

No indication on numbers of how many player are actually playing ESO but, WIldstar's population has been estimated to be around 600k to 1 million players.

Eso is clearly under that. Even more people play Civilisation V than TESO.

Tell me again there are hundreds of thousands playing this please.

Arsenic_Touch · September 2014

Don't worry. Around the time console version comes out (if it comes out) they'll release some figures like "xxx amount of monsters killed, xxx amount of each class, et cetera" like guild wars 2 did trying to make their numbers sound larger than they really are.

Or like when trion worlds said they had a million registered accounts, not players (which is across 2 different games and doesn't require a game purchase to make said account)

Blizzard actually gives their active subscription numbers, you won't see that else where.

Elsonso · September 2014

magnusnet wrote: »

Even more people play Civilisation V than TESO.

You say that like Civilization V is a bad game. I play Civilization V. I also play ESO. I also play Minecraft.

I cannot tell you that there are hundreds of thousands of players in the game. I can tell you that I see more players in the game now than I did in the first week of May.

TehMagnus · September 2014

lordrichter wrote: »

magnusnet wrote: »

Even more people play Civilisation V than TESO.

You say that like Civilization V is a bad game. I play Civilization V. I also play ESO. I also play Minecraft.

I cannot tell you that there are hundreds of thousands of players in the game. I can tell you that I see more players in the game now than I did in the first week of May.

Yeah, people are just playing more a 5y old solo game than a 5 month old game that was supposed to be the "next big thing"

AlexDougherty · September 2014

magnusnet wrote: »

Bleakraven wrote: »

Well, you're kind of arguing against yourself. You're only taking into account the people you see online and around your zone, not counting Cyrodiil, etc. The game is doing fine, really.

If the game was doing fine:
- ZOS would publish a recap of how many players the game has to prove it's awesome and many people are playing it and that it beats this and that game.
- They wouldn't be implementing new Areas to try to keep people from leaving once they hit level cap and have gotten all the best sets from trial runs.
- They wouldn't be trying to lure people in (loyalty rewards, pets with steam purchase, selling the special editions for an even longer time than originally planed).

If game is doing well all they have to do is publish numbers, that would make criticism go down and maybe even bring more players in because "if x people play it, it must be good!".

The fact they aren't doing it is actually kinda scary because it means that even if they cheat to a reasonable extend where it's actually believable (who's gonna go check if they say the truth? On the other hand if they claim to have more than 500k weekly users everybody knows it's BS) numbers would still be bad.

Nope, a number of flawed assumptions here.

Firstly ZOS doesn't need to prove anything.
Secondly Tracking the figures is usually misleading.
Thirdly, of course they would be adding new areas, every MMO adds new stuff regularly. MMOs that don't add new stuff die.
Fourthly, of course they would be trying to lure people in, even WOW tries to get new players. An MMO wants new players, otherwise it's just a matter of time before they pull the plug.
Fifthly, who the hell plays a game because so many people play it, if it was we would all be playing Korean MMOs.
Sixthly, only ZOS knows the actual numbers, all the figures on the internet are either derived figures or just plain made up, and as such highly dubious.

AlexDougherty · September 2014

magnusnet wrote: »

Statistics taken from Raptr'. Not all the gamers use Raptr,

Up until now I had not even heard of Raptr, not planing on using it any time soon.

Hurbster · September 2014

I think you will find that not many people actually use Raptr. And that's only when they gave away free stuff in Rift for so many hours logged. Also, phasing.

And why Civ 5 ? I've been playing that since it came out with hundreds of hours logged. You might as well have used Skyrim as an example.

And 2 servers, not 1. And soon (tm) to become 4.

Are you STILL pissed at no flying mounts ?

TehMagnus · September 2014

AlexDougherty wrote: »

magnusnet wrote: »

Bleakraven wrote: »

Well, you're kind of arguing against yourself. You're only taking into account the people you see online and around your zone, not counting Cyrodiil, etc. The game is doing fine, really.

If the game was doing fine:
- ZOS would publish a recap of how many players the game has to prove it's awesome and many people are playing it and that it beats this and that game.
- They wouldn't be implementing new Areas to try to keep people from leaving once they hit level cap and have gotten all the best sets from trial runs.
- They wouldn't be trying to lure people in (loyalty rewards, pets with steam purchase, selling the special editions for an even longer time than originally planed).

If game is doing well all they have to do is publish numbers, that would make criticism go down and maybe even bring more players in because "if x people play it, it must be good!".

The fact they aren't doing it is actually kinda scary because it means that even if they cheat to a reasonable extend where it's actually believable (who's gonna go check if they say the truth? On the other hand if they claim to have more than 500k weekly users everybody knows it's BS) numbers would still be bad.

Nope, a number of flawed assumptions here.
Firstly ZOS doesn't need to prove anything.

Secondly Tracking the figures is usually misleading.

Thirdly, of course they would be adding new areas, every MMO adds new stuff regularly. MMOs that don't add new stuff die.

Fourthly, of course they would be trying to lure people in, even WOW tries to get new players. An MMO wants new players, otherwise it's just a matter of time before they pull the plug.

Fifthly, who the hell plays a game because so many people play it, if it was we would all be playing Korean MMOs.

Sixthly, only ZOS knows the actual numbers, all the figures on the internet are either derived figures or just plain made up, and as such highly dubious.

June 2014:
http://www.lazygamer.net/general-news/these-are-the-most-played-pc-games/

July 2014:
http://caas.raptr.com/most-played-pc-games-july-2014-summers-winners-and-losers/

Real statistics that don't lie. People play more Skyrim, Civ 5 and even SWTOR than TESO.

TehMagnus · September 2014

AlexDougherty wrote: »

magnusnet wrote: »

Statistics taken from Raptr'. Not all the gamers use Raptr,

Up until now I had not even heard of Raptr, not planing on using it any time soon.

Program comes with Catalyst so people using AMD video cards with updated catalyst are more likely to have it installed.

No matter how many people use it, it still acts like a survey does. Taking a small amount of the population and observing what they are playing.

[Moderator Note: Edited per our rules on Rude and Insulting Comments]

TehMagnus · September 2014

Hurbster wrote: »

I think you will find that not many people actually use Raptr. And that's only when they gave away free stuff in Rift for so many hours logged. Also, phasing.

And 2 servers, not 1. And soon (tm) to become 4.

Are you STILL pissed at no flying mounts ?

2 servers yeah, which means if there are 400K players, each server has less than that. Regarding the soon 4 <= no date announced and actually irrelevant since we won't be playing with those people so it wont increase our server population.

Who's pissed?

Are you pissed that someone actually brought numbers & stats to the table to leave so much out of arguments you have to talk about unrelated stuff?

Swampster · September 2014

I thought I'd have a look at some other sites that might give some indication of trends, to see if the "calls of imminent doom" held any weight.. and I'm pretty shocked to be honest!

Considering the Raptr detail mentioned previously, I looked at a couple of other game hours logging apps.

Surprisingly it doesn't appear in Steams Top 100 Stats list...
http://store.steampowered.com/stats/?l=english

Yet games such as Defiance do...

And it's way down in 71st on the Xfire Hours played list...
http://social.xfire.com/games

While not pronouncing the imminent demise of the game, those stats can't be a good indicator for a game not yet 6 month old.

Yes the overall figures for ZoS will improve once the console versions release, but bearing in mind there's probably a good number of PC players taking advantage of the 'switch over' offer made once they were delayed it makes the PC situation look even worse going forward!

KhajitFurTrader · September 2014

magnusnet wrote: »

Real statistics that don't lie. People play more Skyrim, Civ 5 and even SWTOR than TESO.

"I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself."
-- falsely attributed to Winston Churchill

Ragefist · September 2014

I guess there are plenty of us ignorants, never heard of it, nor any of my friends