We Finally Know How Many Active Players Are Adventuring In Tamriel

Korah_Eaglecry · December 2017

Jim_Pipp wrote: »

One quarter of the 10 million accounts sold are active?

Doesn't pass the common-sense test. Maybe 2.5 million is true but it doesn't sound likely.

1) more than three quarters of players I knew at launch have stopped playing. Many players have multiple accounts they log into occasionally because of horrible inventory management. Bots buy accounts that get banned. The game is 4 years old and has some terrible reviews, so I don't believe a quarter of all players are still playing.

2) interesting timing. Just after a competiton that was entered simply by logging in, an in-game event which rewarded crown store items for the first time, and a free-play weekend. Even IF (it's a big if) zos didn't count free play accounts in their 10 million players headline, I see no evidence they didn't count free play accounts in the 2.5 million active players claim.

It is quite possible that the 2.5 million includes free to play accounts. If the 2.5 million number was pulled from this months count it could include the free to play weekend for the PS4/PC. And if it was pulled from November it could include the X Box One F2P weekend. The downside to the numbers theyre giving us is that we dont know what is being used as the prerequisite to make an account an "active player".

BuddyAces · December 2017

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

BuddyAces wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

According to an article on MCV mcvuk.com/articles/publishing/ten-million-in-tamriel-the-slow-build-success-story-of-elder-scrolls-online published just 2 days ago indicates that the actual active playerbase month-to-month is in fact far smaller than the 10 million milestone ZOS likes to boast. The actual number is 2.5 million players, which is still a healthy number for an MMO, but by far nothing close to the very misleading number reflective of players that have made accounts over the life of the game.

Theres still a question of how many of those 2.5 million are actual players and not bots. But at least we now know that the game is indeed healthy.

EDIT: Fixed link to article.

I do not think anyone thought for a moment there were 10 million active players in any given month, even a given year. Zos' statements have always been clear that it was based on sales and never suggested they were all active players at the time.

Since they are not publicly traded I am actually surprised Zos would state how many active players the game has. Heck, probably the most successful MMO, let along MMORPG that is privately owned.

This right here. I never figured, outside of that 10 million number they love to throw around every chance they get, they would ever release numbers of actively playing users for a month.

BTW, that number is atrociously f'ing high for no g'damn tanks in Q. SERIOUSLY.

I think you and the other poster are missing the trees for the forest here. The thread is about the 2.5 million number, not the 10 million.

Yeah we know what the thread is about. In case you missed what was going on I'll give ya a brief run down:
-I thought they were spouting off their 10 million number they like talking about
-It was pointed out that I was wrong and it was said 10M active players
-Probably slip of tongue
-Astonished that they actually released numbers that are DIFFERENT from the 10M that they bring up every speaking chance they get
-Debating on how they are counting the 2.5M number now whether that includes f2p or folks who logged in for a minute

That's this thread in a nutshell.

EDIT:
Either way, whether they are counting every single folk from around the world, cross platform, length of time logged in, it does not matter. If they had 2.5 million unique logins in one month then that is damn good.

TheUndeadAmulet · December 2017

I very highly doubt its 2.5 mil. Including bots.

Animus-ESO · December 2017

leepalmer95 wrote: »

It's likely the 2.5m is misrepresented.

Most 'players' are bots.

I don't know about other servers but my server is pretty dead. Even in peak hours its very notable how much less players there are around the main city's.

We don't even have a full pvp campaign anymore, its never pop locked by everyone, usually 1-2 bar for most of the day and maybe 1-2 alliances will go to 3 bars later on.

maybe on console. But PC NA on wensday night i had to wait in a 83 person que to enter pvp. *** was bonkers.

monktoasty · December 2017

It has to be low or else they'd give us a definite answer.

Yes..there is 2 million on the server for more than 5 minutes at any given time.

I think more like 5 to 10k players if that who ate actually playing at any given time.

frausty · December 2017

Is it just me or does it matter if it's 100,000 or 2.5m or 10m players? As long as the game keeps developing and you're happy playing it then surely that's what's important?

I've only been playing for a few months, (and I realise this may invite the "well you can't have an opinion unless you've been here from the Alpha test"), but I've found an active guild and, as a mainly PvE player I can, on occasion, find some empty delve's for some "alone" time and at the same time enjoy the dungeon's and other content with other players or guild mates.

I'm sure if there were 10m players then everyone would be complaining that the game is completely unplayable due to lag, (although that seems a common problem with the current player base at times anyway), and never being able to queue for a dungeon etc

The time to worry is when no new content is being scheduled and the developers stop trying to hype the game with such headlines as 10 million stories etc.

I'm going to retreat back in my box now but just wanted to try and bring some positivity to the forum instead of all the ZOS bashing that seems to dominate these pages

The_Brosteen · December 2017

@Jarryzzt really great post. I would say you are probably quite accurate in your number crunching. Just a little curious of one thing though. Zenimax media is an umbrella corporation that owns various companies that create and maintain various games, zenimax online studios is one of the subsidiaries owned by zenimax media. The relationship between zenimax media and providence is simply a means for zenimax to gain capital. They are just investors, so there is a partnership but it's not like providence owns eso. I may be missing something here or just didn't fully understand what you wrote, so correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think providence would have anything to do with zenimax media or even just zos going public. In any case, great explanation.

Edit: The most I could find about providence is that through its investment of Zenimax media it owns at least a 25% stake in the company. So, they aren't the sole owners of it but after acquiring more stock in 2010 they probably own the biggest chunk. I doubt they would issue an IPO, but probably just sell their stake to various other entities at some point.

leeux · December 2017

@MakoForce

MakoFore wrote: »

what i wonder is why compared to BDO and warframe and WOW- the streamer viewer base is literally 10 percent of those other games. those games regularly hit 3000 viewers at a time- this game barely hits 300. if our player base matches those- why is the support on twitch so poor i wonder?

Twitch numbers for games that aren't competitive (aka "eSports" or "Mobas") are based on purely (big/medium) streamer's followers.

The ESO numbers just reflect the fact that there are no big/medium/popular ESO streamers atm, with most of them streaming other games or having quit the game.

It used to be that ESO reached ~1800 viewers just a couple of months before Morrowind, and it was something that remained almost constant during the day (you'll have to take my word on it, I used to check back then hourly... :thinking: not sure if there's any data mining services for Twitch for looking at historical trends, actually.)

Comparatively, I think ESO streamer scene offer is varied and healthy... there's a lot of streammers out there, but sadly there's just not much interest in viewers it seems. If BGs would have been any good, it'd have probably attracted a lot of more viewers to the game, IMO.

But I've seen a few streamers grow in popularity over the past few months, maybe it will turn around and start growing again in the future, who knows?

zaria · December 2017

monktoasty wrote: »

It has to be low or else they'd give us a definite answer.

Yes..there is 2 million on the server for more than 5 minutes at any given time.

I think more like 5 to 10k players if that who ate actually playing at any given time.

http://steamcharts.com/app/306130
10K steam users in average. Now steam users is 1/3 of pc population who is 1/3 of total.
It counts both servers but peak time for US and EU is different so it rather flatten the curve.

So around 90K players in average, The peak the last 30 days was 29K users on steam, this was probably during the random dungeon event. 29*9= 261K, now to get an free crown crate you only had to log in and kill an wolf or something, this would count as an active player so yes 10 time more or 2.5 millions is plausible.

Ohtimbar · December 2017

I'm not sure why anyone cares about specific numbers. The game is obviously healthy and profitable. If it was bleeding money or barely staying afloat it would already be dead, or in maintenance mode awaiting death at a later death.

kaiage · December 2017

All I know is with all the money you people (and I) spend on crown crates, ZoS should be set for another three expansions.

xIRONxHULKx911 · December 2017

I can't speak for PC but vivec on Xbox is almost always full with a wait to get in on all sides this morning around 7am cst is the lowest I've seen since the campaign start and it was still ep2 ad2 dc1 and the major cities are still plenty full and very active

Dracane · December 2017

While on EU Server pvp, there are the same 50 players since 2 years.
This is why I always tell these 1vXers on YouTube to get over to the EU server. Because you will not find any pugs here anymore, the playerbase has not changed in years as it seems. I see the same names everywhere, the same kill squads.

Wish there would be fresh players pvping.
When it comes to pve however, we are constanly bothered by players. I feel like the game is very crowded there.

KingYogi415 · December 2017

Cadbury wrote: »

I wonder sometimes if every player I see is a bot and I'm the only human player left...

Hologram theory confirmed.

kaiage · December 2017

KingYogi415 wrote: »

Cadbury wrote: »

I wonder sometimes if every player I see is a bot and I'm the only human player left...

Hologram theory confirmed.

NO CADBURY, THAT'S MY THEORY. YOU CAN'T HAVE IT, IT'S NOT FOR SALE. GO BE LIGHT SOMEWHERE ELSE.

duendology · December 2017

I am curious whether ZOS differentiate between users and accounts... given than a single player can own even 3 or more accounts on the same server!

starkerealm · December 2017

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

starkerealm wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

ArchMikem wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

ArchMikem wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

indicates that the actual active playerbase month-to-month is in fact far smaller than the 10 million milestone ZOS likes to boast. The actual number is 2.5 million players, which is still a healthy number for an MMO, but by far nothing close to the very misleading number reflective of players that have made accounts over the life of the game.

You just contradicted yourself. They never claimed there were 10 million active accounts, they claimed there had been 10 million unique accounts created over the course of the game's lifetime, as you stated.

That's not misleading. People just can't think hard enough apparently.

Pretty sure I didnt contradict myself. At no time do I claim 10 million accounts were active accounts. In fact I say the actual number is 2.5 million. Which you can read earlier in that very sentence.

Apparently people, ie you, cant think hard enough to read something thoroughly before posting.

Dude, you said ZOS' claim was misleading. How is it misleading when it's true?

Because it is misleading. Something can be true and misleading at the same time. Honestly, Im not even sure why that is something you decided to pick apart unless you were looking to pick an fight.

No, the representation of the 10m accounts as "active players," is misleading, but you did that. ZOS was fairly careful to say that 10m people had played their game, which is somewhat debatable, given players who have multiple accounts, but they weren't going out and saying that ESO had 10m people logged in. That was you.

Specifically cite where I state there were 10 million active players.

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

...the actual active playerbase month-to-month is in fact far smaller than the 10 million milestone ZOS likes to boast.

altemriel · December 2017

how could they get this number, when ZOS is not willing to share the actual numbers?

ZOS only told about 10 million players, which probably was 10 million accounts ever created, but nothing about active players

Tandor · December 2017

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

Assuming that 1/3 of the player base is on each platform, as ZOS has previously claimed, and that the population is evenly split across EU and NA, then there are around 400k players per server on each platform. That number doesn't seem so high.

The only thing that is off to me though is that it isn't corroborated by the Steam user data. Steam says that there are only 15-30k uniqe logins each month. ZOS has previously stated that Steam represents about 1/3 of the total PC player base, which would put the total monthly PC player base at 45-90k concurrent players. or just 20-45k per server.

Does anyone have a link to where that was said please? It's news to me.

Eyesinthedrk · December 2017

Are we seriously going to nitpick this topic every other day?

Knootewoot · December 2017

Wii sports had more then 80 million copies sold. These numbers don't mean anything if you don't know how many unique active users actually login regularly to play the game.

I don't even know why people want to know these numbers. I played Vanguard saga of Heroes when it had around 250 players left across the last 2 servers(which you could see for yourself with /who). 5 on Halgar, and 245 on the other one (Telon it was I think).
But even with that low number of players I still had fun and played until they pulled the plug. Even with that low number I found full raids on the ancient port warehouse every week all weekend.

The smaller the community the tighter people hang to each other. So it's not even that bad when the numbers are low.

But ESO might not have as many active players on PC as it had the first weeks. But it is still healthy I think. PvP is to low, but still has at least one server packed most of the day, which is Vivec.

So, just play and have fun. Enjoy the game while it lasts. Can take 1 year from now or 5 or maybe even 10 years before the plug is pulled.

SnubbS · December 2017

That 2.5 million number—I'm not sure how they've arrived at that, but I put no credence in it at all. Xbox NA is known to be the most populated of all the Servers, and there's probably not even 100,000 Unique Users per month.

Kashiwagi · December 2017

In f2p games (at least in those I worked with) daily active users to monthly active users is about 1/5-1/10. More if audience consist mostly of newcomers, less otherwise. It's also counter dependent on quality since it's basically another form of retention. I have no idea how much new traffic ESO is getting, but it's not exactly f2p and it's great, so the ratio should be lower than 1/5. 1/3-1/4 maybe? That would be 600-800k unique visitors a day across all platforms.
Now, I've never had a chance to analyze dau/ccu ratio in worldwide client games (ccu - concurrent users, users that are online at given moment. It's what steam shows), but in browser games it's +/-10 at peak hours. Well, let's suppose that in ESO it's the same. That's 20-26k users playing at the same time on 1 platform.

MLGProPlayer · December 2017

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

Assuming that 1/3 of the player base is on each platform, as ZOS has previously claimed, and that the population is evenly split across EU and NA, then there are around 400k players per server on each platform. That number doesn't seem so high.

The only thing that is off to me though is that it isn't corroborated by the Steam user data. Steam says that there are only 15-30k uniqe logins each month. ZOS has previously stated that Steam represents about 1/3 of the total PC player base, which would put the total monthly PC player base at 45-90k concurrent players. or just 20-45k per server.

Was the steam comment a recent comment or is it older?

Here is the Steam sales data: http://steamspy.com/app/306130

About 1.5 million players have the game installed on Steam, which implies Steam is closer to 50% of the PC population at the moment.

Peekachu99 · December 2017

What kind of bizarro world are some of you living in where 2.5 million individual monthly users isn’t an amazing figure? Most MMORPGs struggle to hit 1/10th of that figure. Yes, ZoS has the advantage of having three platforms and the ES pedigree, but the only other games in this stratosphere are WoW and FFXIV.

Game hasn’t even peaked yet, in terms of content or features. I expect 2019 will be the year for ESO.

Spacemonkey · December 2017

dwemer_paleologist wrote: »

i play daily, and if i was to give an estimation of how many people i see daily in both PvP and PvE i would have to say is around maybe at MOST about 10,000 people. and that would be an exaggeration and very leaniant amount of people.
now your numbers might be just accounts opened and not actually playing eso, but my numbers are stating people i see daily.

Daily isnt monthly though, think of the amount of servers (PS, XBOX, NA, EU etc...)
Now think of those who play once a week or once every two weeks (there are) - I myself play around 4-5 hours weekly in average, already that means there are clearly some days I dont play, somtimes even weeks I don't play.
Finding the average playtime of players is a ridiculously tough task without any actual Database data to back it up.

One could venture an insightful guess by calculating the amount of monthly hours 2.5 million people are likely to cumulate. And see if it makes any sense.
So if we take a reasonable figure of 10 hours of gameplay per month(it IS an mmorpg). W'ed have 25,000,000 hours per month played. There are in average 720 hour in a month. So if you divide the population equally amongst all 6 servers you end up with an estimate 5800 players online per hour per server in average.

This seems a bit high to me but also plausible considering the amounts of zones (over 30 - not counting all quest areas, dungeons, different pvp campaigns etc...) (That averages barely 200 players per zone)

Remember all this assumes a 10 hour playtime per player. It's nothing more than a guess. (But while you may play 10h daily, some play 2-3 hours aka once monthly - and yes , they do count.)

Malmai · December 2017

There is no way its 2.5mil i would say around 20-30k max

danno8 · December 2017

People saying bots make up a large amount of users...lol.

Even if bots opened 1000 new accounts daily, that would only be 30,000 unique logins per month by bots. Bringing the 2.5 million number down to 2.47 million.

"It's just the festivals..." There is almost always some festival going on.

"I don't see 2.5 million people on my platform..." :rolling_eyes:

I know it's cool to bash on big companies (and games you are secretly bitter towards) but come on.

Spacemonkey · December 2017

Malmai wrote: »

There is no way its 2.5mil i would say around 20-30k max

20-30k is way too low, across 6 servers, the game would be entirely empty. I wouldnt believe (referencing my earlier post) that the game population is anywhere below the hundreds of thousands.

ArcVelarian · December 2017

I can't speak for you console peasants, but the population on PC is fairly healthy.