The wife and I just recently picked up ESO and we're having a blast. I gotta admit that the game has come a long way since the last time I tried it, which was beta.
I'd believe that there's been an influx of people since the Morrowind announcement. The tutorial zones were nuts when I was going through them. Even the Tier 1 zones I was in were extremely lively. I could barely get a couple of bow shots off on the boss at the anchor events before it was over, it's pretty insane.
The only thing I really don't like is the crafting bag being locked behind the ESO plus membership. Of course, since you get 1500 crowns with the sub, it almost feels like a wash. The crafting bag is just far too important for inventory management to not have, especially if you're a gaming hoarder like I tend to be.
If ZO keeps up with releasing multiple DLC packs for crowns/included with eso plus and then an expansion every couple of years, I feel the game will remain healthy for a very long time.
UPDATE: This is based on units sold NOT registered accounts.
Those two are the same thing. You need one account for each unit bought. The only possible difference between those two would be the very rare case where someone buys it but never logs in even once.
ESO+ accounts would be the more interesting detail since that would be the sub number and more indicative of current activity.
Still... going from 7 to 8.5 mil in less than a year indicates an ability to continue attracting new players. And that is never a bad thing especially for a 3 year old MMO.
I'm just guessing here so don't assume I know what I'm talking about, but units sold could include units sold to retailers, in which case there would be material amount of that figure still held by retailers in inventory.
UPDATE: This is based on units sold NOT registered accounts.
Those two are the same thing. You need one account for each unit bought. The only possible difference between those two would be the very rare case where someone buys it but never logs in even once.
ESO+ accounts would be the more interesting detail since that would be the sub number and more indicative of current activity.
Still... going from 7 to 8.5 mil in less than a year indicates an ability to continue attracting new players. And that is never a bad thing especially for a 3 year old MMO.
I'm just guessing here so don't assume I know what I'm talking about, but units sold could include units sold to retailers, in which case there would be material amount of that figure still held by retailers in inventory.
*shrugs*
Yeah. The numbers could also be totally made up since they're not publicly traded. But announcing sales to retailers as part of this would be a bit much even for gaming company spin doctors.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
It sounds like total box sales over all 3 platforms, its a pity they didn't give out any figures for concurrent users, though perhaps not unsurprising given Zenimax's history. It goes without saying however, that the number of boxes sold has no bearing on existing player base numbers, not the first time Zenimax has used this tactic however.
tactic? Sometimes I misread things on the internet, but your statement seems to imply that in actuality, they aren't doing so well. Am I reading you right? Otherwise why would this be a tactic? I cannot verify numbers, but purely anecdotally that the zones are full at various times and locations. It seems to be doing well regardless of the tactic.
We won't see it, but if Zenimax told us how many Morrowind expacs they sell, i would be impressed. As for the zones, it means little, megaservers never look empty, if they did it would be a very, very, bad sign. Are Zenimax doing badly, no idea as they don't publish figures, of course it also means there is no way of telling if they are doing well either. Of course, publishing overall box sales does imply they are doing well, but its anybody's guess if they are or not.
Selling 1.5 million units since the last time they reported isn't a sign they are doing poorly. With the timing of the announcement, I wonder how much of that was a large uptick from the Morrowind announcement.
Morrowind has such high regard in the Elder Scrolls series that you have to wonder how many are just now purchasing due to the announcement. In addition to the fact that it's designed for 1-50 content, so you potentially don't ever have to touch old tamriel during your leveling experience. I imagine that there's going to be the option to start in Morrowind as opposed to the usual starting zones per alliance.
It'll be interesting to see how well regarded this new expansion is. There's massive potential for this to blow up in their faces, since people can't seem to get past their own nostalgia.
It sounds like total box sales over all 3 platforms, its a pity they didn't give out any figures for concurrent users, though perhaps not unsurprising given Zenimax's history. It goes without saying however, that the number of boxes sold has no bearing on existing player base numbers, not the first time Zenimax has used this tactic however.
tactic? Sometimes I misread things on the internet, but your statement seems to imply that in actuality, they aren't doing so well. Am I reading you right? Otherwise why would this be a tactic? I cannot verify numbers, but purely anecdotally that the zones are full at various times and locations. It seems to be doing well regardless of the tactic.
We won't see it, but if Zenimax told us how many Morrowind expacs they sell, i would be impressed. As for the zones, it means little, megaservers never look empty, if they did it would be a very, very, bad sign. Are Zenimax doing badly, no idea as they don't publish figures, of course it also means there is no way of telling if they are doing well either. Of course, publishing overall box sales does imply they are doing well, but its anybody's guess if they are or not.
It'll be interesting to see how well regarded this new expansion is. There's massive potential for this to blow up in their faces, since people can't seem to get past their own nostalgia.
I'm optimistic. I'm not a big fan of the vanilla content, honestly, but the DLC additions have been a massive improvement in terms of narrative and world design. If Vvardenfell is just a giant Orsinium set in Morrowind, I think a lot of people will be happy.
How goes the console numbers? Does anyone have a link?
No info, however ESO+ (optional subscription) has been among the Best-Selling-Addons on PS4 every month since it was released there (most of the time in top 3).
For those of you wanting active numbers Steam Charts tracks the data of Steam installed users.
It shows steady growth from July 2014 to current. Over the last 4 months they have 8k average concurrent players and 20k peak concurrent players. Keep in mind this does not count all PC players as you can download it directly from the official website. From what I have read the player bases on XB and PS are comparable, so you are looking at roughly an average concurrent players of 24k and average peak of 60k. They saw their biggest growth (300%) from October to November last year. It was also when the reach their all time highest peak number of just over 29k concurrent players. Stats link is listed below.
During the console launches, which was before the release of Tamriel Unlimited they reached 235,000 people playing simultaneously and over 200,000 in queues (console numbers only).
so many people here are so weird about this topic.
for me i log in= iam in 3 very big active guilds one is mainly pvp- ive never had issues with 'dead' zones its always packed - lfg has never been an issue for me, not sure why people posting here feel to drag down or try to find faults on a very active mmo.
bottom line ive never felt the game was/is dying like ive felt in other mmos. they have constant content and updates to keep many in interest- so i dont see this game fading anytime soon.
The headline should be 8.5M boxes sold not players right now, what a joke.
8.5 MM units sold for any video game is a big deal. To act like that should be a joke is fool hardy. It's absolutely not 8.5 MM current active players but it's something worth sharing. Especially the fact that they have sold 1.5 MM in the past few months. That's great growth for a game that's a few years old at this point.
so many people here are so weird about this topic.
for me i log in= iam in 3 very big active guilds one is mainly pvp- ive never had issues with 'dead' zones its always packed - lfg has never been an issue for me, not sure why people posting here feel to drag down or try to find faults on a very active mmo.
bottom line ive never felt the game was/is dying like ive felt in other mmos. they have constant content and updates to keep many in interest- so i dont see this game fading anytime soon.
For those of you wanting active numbers Steam Charts tracks the data of Steam installed users.
It shows steady growth from July 2014 to current. Over the last 4 months they have 8k average concurrent players and 20k peak concurrent players. Keep in mind this does not count all PC players as you can download it directly from the official website. From what I have read the player bases on XB and PS are comparable, so you are looking at roughly an average concurrent players of 24k and average peak of 60k. They saw their biggest growth (300%) from October to November last year. It was also when the reach their all time highest peak number of just over 29k concurrent players. Stats link is listed below.
During the console launches, which was before the release of Tamriel Unlimited they reached 235,000 people playing simultaneously and over 200,000 in queues (console numbers only).
There's an interesting thing about steam. You can actually run the game without it triggering steam if you bought it via steam. So I'm not sure if will accurately track users assuming many people launch the game that way.
so many people here are so weird about this topic.
for me i log in= iam in 3 very big active guilds one is mainly pvp- ive never had issues with 'dead' zones its always packed - lfg has never been an issue for me, not sure why people posting here feel to drag down or try to find faults on a very active mmo.
bottom line ive never felt the game was/is dying like ive felt in other mmos. they have constant content and updates to keep many in interest- so i dont see this game fading anytime soon.
For those of you wanting active numbers Steam Charts tracks the data of Steam installed users.
It shows steady growth from July 2014 to current. Over the last 4 months they have 8k average concurrent players and 20k peak concurrent players. Keep in mind this does not count all PC players as you can download it directly from the official website. From what I have read the player bases on XB and PS are comparable, so you are looking at roughly an average concurrent players of 24k and average peak of 60k. They saw their biggest growth (300%) from October to November last year. It was also when the reach their all time highest peak number of just over 29k concurrent players. Stats link is listed below.
During the console launches, which was before the release of Tamriel Unlimited they reached 235,000 people playing simultaneously and over 200,000 in queues (console numbers only).
There's an interesting thing about steam. You can actually run the game without it triggering steam if you bought it via steam. So I'm not sure if will accurately track users assuming many people launch the game that way.
Yup, I bought it on Steam but I always play it directly through the ESO launcher, so my playtime is never seen by Steam.
OK OK ZeniMax, you got the word out that you have millions of accounts sold. Now it's time to increase the number of instances so that players aren't jam packed so much. I'm on the NA PC megaserver and every place is too crowded.
I am playing the game but you also have to remember. A LOT of people have bought this game on more than one platform. May have switched consoles or moved from PC to consoles or vice versa.
If you havent bought yet or even if you have bought and havent put much into it buying the Gold Edition now at 30 bucks is a no brainer. I actually bought it and basically started over. Getting that now is cheaper than buying the DLC bundle. (when crowns go to 40% off it will be about the same)
But A LOT of people are playing this game, and it isnt housing. I started a few new toons today and those areas were loaded. Could be people doing it just to farm for housing recipes, but unlikely. Right now during prime time every map is full and if you go to the banks of those places you cant see the banker.
Now not sure how their phasing is working these days, seems like they have a much higher threshold but there are dozens of people in those cities on every map .
But we all know there arent 8 million people playing. But its not a surprise they have sold that many copies. And obviously many other like myself have bought more than one copy.
If they fixed housing and the economy/Auction house system it would be close to a perfect MMO.
I'm just guessing here so don't assume I know what I'm talking about, but units sold could include units sold to retailers, in which case there would be material amount of that figure still held by retailers in inventory.
*shrugs*
I doubt they'd use the phrasing of calling those sales players in that case.
Post edited by Distopia on
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
It sounds like total box sales over all 3 platforms, its a pity they didn't give out any figures for concurrent users, though perhaps not unsurprising given Zenimax's history. It goes without saying however, that the number of boxes sold has no bearing on existing player base numbers, not the first time Zenimax has used this tactic however.
Is there really in upside for a company to give out those numbers unless they are the best in the market. Seems others have learned from Blizzard that numbers can be used against you easily.
Of course there is, positive numbers are good PR, which is why they gave out the box sales numbers, if they had other numbers that looked good to give out, likely they would have used them. There is of course, no up side for a company to give out numbers that are, lets say, less than encouraging.
They gave a positive number and you spun into something negative. Wouldn't more detailed metrics be used the same way? CCP, Blizz, and Squeenix don't provide any more details than this either.
Activision/Blizzard is a publicly traded company that provides quarterly sales records for their earnings so, yes they do provide more accurate information about their games than ZOS does. Zenimax is a privately controlled company and does not have to provide actual figures about their games/company.
IDK about that number but it's definitely in the TOP 5 most-played MMO crowd right now. I'd say it's right up there with FFXIV and Black Desert. WoW is still #1 obviously in terms of population. ESO is what I am playing because I can tell it's developers put the most work in (and money) and I respect that.
Now Playing: Bless / Summoners War Looking forward to: Crowfall / Lost Ark / Black Desert Mobile
It sounds like total box sales over all 3 platforms, its a pity they didn't give out any figures for concurrent users, though perhaps not unsurprising given Zenimax's history. It goes without saying however, that the number of boxes sold has no bearing on existing player base numbers, not the first time Zenimax has used this tactic however.
tactic? Sometimes I misread things on the internet, but your statement seems to imply that in actuality, they aren't doing so well. Am I reading you right? Otherwise why would this be a tactic? I cannot verify numbers, but purely anecdotally that the zones are full at various times and locations. It seems to be doing well regardless of the tactic.
We won't see it, but if Zenimax told us how many Morrowind expacs they sell, i would be impressed. As for the zones, it means little, megaservers never look empty, if they did it would be a very, very, bad sign. Are Zenimax doing badly, no idea as they don't publish figures, of course it also means there is no way of telling if they are doing well either. Of course, publishing overall box sales does imply they are doing well, but its anybody's guess if they are or not.
Goes to show there's still a pretty big market for a functional MMORPG. So many newish MMORPGs have fundamental problems (bots, hacking, p2w, no endgame, no group content etc) that render them basically unplayable after awhile.
I really do not think there's anything special about ESO, but I find it encouraging that it's doing pretty well.
I believe all the rumors of the demise of the MMORPG genre are greatly exaggerated. Many are doing poorly, but I believe that's primarily because they are not functional on a basic enjoyable level.
Comments
I'd believe that there's been an influx of people since the Morrowind announcement. The tutorial zones were nuts when I was going through them. Even the Tier 1 zones I was in were extremely lively. I could barely get a couple of bow shots off on the boss at the anchor events before it was over, it's pretty insane.
The only thing I really don't like is the crafting bag being locked behind the ESO plus membership. Of course, since you get 1500 crowns with the sub, it almost feels like a wash. The crafting bag is just far too important for inventory management to not have, especially if you're a gaming hoarder like I tend to be.
If ZO keeps up with releasing multiple DLC packs for crowns/included with eso plus and then an expansion every couple of years, I feel the game will remain healthy for a very long time.
*shrugs*
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Morrowind has such high regard in the Elder Scrolls series that you have to wonder how many are just now purchasing due to the announcement. In addition to the fact that it's designed for 1-50 content, so you potentially don't ever have to touch old tamriel during your leveling experience. I imagine that there's going to be the option to start in Morrowind as opposed to the usual starting zones per alliance.
It'll be interesting to see how well regarded this new expansion is. There's massive potential for this to blow up in their faces, since people can't seem to get past their own nostalgia.
It shows steady growth from July 2014 to current. Over the last 4 months they have 8k average concurrent players and 20k peak concurrent players. Keep in mind this does not count all PC players as you can download it directly from the official website. From what I have read the player bases on XB and PS are comparable, so you are looking at roughly an average concurrent players of 24k and average peak of 60k. They saw their biggest growth (300%) from October to November last year. It was also when the reach their all time highest peak number of just over 29k concurrent players. Stats link is listed below.
During the console launches, which was before the release of Tamriel Unlimited they reached 235,000 people playing simultaneously and over 200,000 in queues (console numbers only).
http://steamcharts.com/app/306130
http://www.polygon.com/2016/10/14/13283030/elder-scrolls-online-player-numbers-console-pc-split-matt-firor-bethesda
for me i log in= iam in 3 very big active guilds one is mainly pvp- ive never had issues with 'dead' zones its always packed - lfg has never been an issue for me, not sure why people posting here feel to drag down or try to find faults on a very active mmo.
bottom line ive never felt the game was/is dying like ive felt in other mmos. they have constant content and updates to keep many in interest- so i dont see this game fading anytime soon.
There's an interesting thing about steam. You can actually run the game without it triggering steam if you bought it via steam. So I'm not sure if will accurately track users assuming many people launch the game that way.
. . .since I no longer play it would be 8,499,999 AT BEST.
And of course, gratz ZOS.
Eleventy million
But A LOT of people are playing this game, and it isnt housing. I started a few new toons today and those areas were loaded. Could be people doing it just to farm for housing recipes, but unlikely. Right now during prime time every map is full and if you go to the banks of those places you cant see the banker.
Now not sure how their phasing is working these days, seems like they have a much higher threshold but there are dozens of people in those cities on every map .
But we all know there arent 8 million people playing. But its not a surprise they have sold that many copies. And obviously many other like myself have bought more than one copy.
If they fixed housing and the economy/Auction house system it would be close to a perfect MMO.
I got it for 20 bucks a long time ago. Worth every penny.
According to the statement it is game purchased not actual players logging into the game regularly.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Activision/Blizzard is a publicly traded company that provides quarterly sales records for their earnings so, yes they do provide more accurate information about their games than ZOS does. Zenimax is a privately controlled company and does not have to provide actual figures about their games/company.
Looking forward to: Crowfall / Lost Ark / Black Desert Mobile
1+ as I plan on getting the x-pac.
I really do not think there's anything special about ESO, but I find it encouraging that it's doing pretty well.
I believe all the rumors of the demise of the MMORPG genre are greatly exaggerated. Many are doing poorly, but I believe that's primarily because they are not functional on a basic enjoyable level.