Elite Dangerous (Steam) just set a new All Time record for concurrent CMDRs, beating previous highest in Nov 2015

[Lunchmoney]

Steam is where we can actually see numbers. FD has never told us the full numbers. Ever.

FD release numbers of units sold. This is public info for shareholders.
Is it possible on Steam to see number of game owners? I honestly don't know.
If it is possible then it should be easy to extrapolate number of players across all platforms. Maybe? I'm just thinking out loud but not thinking too deeply, it's hot and sunny in my garden

 

[Deleted member 110222]

FD release numbers of units sold. This is public info for shareholders.
Is it possible on Steam to see number of game owners? I honestly don't know.
If it is possible then it should be easy to extrapolate number of players across all platforms. Maybe? I'm just thinking out loud but not thinking too deeply, it's hot and sunny in my garden

We were never talking about units sold.

We're talking about the number of people actually playing right now.

There is nothing stopping a sold unit never actually getting used. Without FD numbers we simply cannot say either way.

I know it's in vogue to hate on Steam stats. That doesn't mean it is the correct thing to do.

 

[Lunchmoney]

We were never talking about units sold.

Compare units sold to units sold on Steam.
Compare players on Steam to units sold on Steam.
Extrapolate total number of players.

 

[Deleted member 192138]

Once you've bought the game on Steam (or any other platform) you can use the log in that paid for to run the game from the launcher regardless of how that's installed - including FDev's stand alone launcher. You can buy it on steam and never play it on steam. In addition to which, some users have one or more alt accounts which they bought on any given platform during a sale but they don't tend to play all at the same time (unless they're botting, which is a separate issue).

Which is why people are suspicious about Steam's numbers and also just one reason why comparing sold units=/=comparing active player base.

Un1korn is right in that steam active player numbers is the closest we have to knowing how many people are playing but, most importantly, it's a way to see spikes and slumps of activity even if we don't get totally accurate numbers.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

Once you've bought the game on Steam (or any other platform) you can use the log in that paid for to run the game from the launcher regardless of how that's installed - including FDev's stand alone launcher. You can buy it on steam and never play it on steam. In addition to which, some users have one or more alt accounts which they bought on any given platform during a sale but they don't tend to play all at the same time (unless they're botting, which is a separate issue).

Which is why people are suspicious about Steam's numbers and also just one reason why comparing sold units=/=comparing active player base.

Un1korn is right in that steam active player numbers is the closest we have to knowing how many people are playing but, most importantly, it's a way to see spikes and slumps of activity even if we don't get totally accurate numbers.

Exactly. All I am saying is that it's silly to discredit Steam charts because there is literally nothing else providing any insight to the information that we are looking for here.

People may not realise it but by saying "Not listening to team charts" then they are disqualifying themselves from making any opinion on player numbers, as they refuse to acknowledge the only semi-accurate source we have. Albeit, a source limited to one online platform. But the numbers everywhere else are a closely guarded secret.

The question the community should be asking is why FD refuses to release active player numbers.

 

[Robert Maynard]

Exactly. All I am saying is that it's silly to discredit Steam charts because there is literally nothing else providing any insight to the information that we are looking for here.

No sillier than placing any great faith in numbers that only represent a subset of a subset of the player-base.

Does Steam still increase "hours played" just because the game launcher is open?

The question the community should be asking is why FD refuses to release active player numbers.

I expect that Frontier are more than aware that players with an agenda would seek to use them to "prove" whatever they wanted.

The question can otherwise be expressed as "why should any developer release player numbers?".

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Steam charts are useless when comparing volume of players with other games. Like the time some tried to compare player activity with NMS activity.

You can use them to determine trends, but you'd need to be able to quantify all outside influences. Which is pretty hard.

 

[gorankar]

Determining trends is all we have, because it is the only data we have. How many are playing on Steam is a good indicator of general player count trends for a game. It's not perfect and no one should use the numbers to say "only" X number of players are on, (unless it is a Steam only game), but it is still the best indicator we have outside of Fdev giving us actual numbers. There is little benefit for them to do so, so, they are unlikely to.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

The question is, how many of these players just saw a 30 second trailer for fleet carriers and think they're about to get a capital ship they can fly around in, taking their other ships with them, and how many looked into the details and saw they're actually getting a semi-mobile Aldi that won't carry their ships out of the box, only jumps every 2 hours and that FDev will take off them if they don't play for a few months.

Given the standard 1:9:90 ratio of posters:readers:ignorers for games fora, I suspect a lot of these players are going to be disappointed come release.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Wanna know what they are doing, They're grinding their rears off.

I think many are just having fun. I have been, even if the prison tip off mission was a bit beyond my SRV skills.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Determining trends is all we have, because it is the only data we have. How many are playing on Steam is a good indicator of general player count trends for a game. It's not perfect and no one should use the numbers to say "only" X number of players are on, (unless it is a Steam only game), but it is still the best indicator we have outside of Fdev giving us actual numbers. There is little benefit for them to do so, so, they are unlikely to.

We don't even have numbers for the amount of people playing on steam. All we have is the amount of people playing at any one time (concurrent players).

The closest we used to have was steam spy which had the amount of people that had played in the last 2 weeks, as not everyone plays everyday or every week. They don't show that any more.

When numbers where this high on steam it was usually around 150000 odd players had played in the last two weeks. That's a reasonable amount. Add in none steam users and the consoles, the games population is probably pretty good.

 

[Lightspeed]

It would be interesting to know if 2nd (even multiple) commander accounts are contributing significantly to the increase in Steam numbers.

 

[StuartGT]

Concurrent Steam players has now reached a four year high of 14,687 CMDRs, the highest it's been since 1st December 2015 (Horizons launched on 15th Dec 2015).

 

[khalismur]

Concurrent Steam players has now reached a four year high of 14,687 CMDRs, the highest it's been since 1st December 2015 (Horizons launched on 15th Dec 2015).

The fact that the peak was reached before instead of after Horizons release is awkward, considering right after its launch was Xmas.

 

[StuartGT]

The fact that the peak was reached before instead of after Horizons release is awkward, considering right after its launch was Xmas.

Indeed. That was the time of the shoddy marketing/pricing structure of Horizons expansion, and the review-bombing and negative reputation the game got as a result.

The peak happened as a result of the Black Friday sale, so many new players felt understandably duped: "I just bought this game for £10, and now you want me to pay another £40 for an expansion?!". Very poorly planned and handled by FDev.

 

[khalismur]

Indeed. That was the time of the shoddy marketing/pricing structure of Horizons expansion, and the review-bombing and negative reputation the game got as a result. [...]

Oh I totally didn't know that. It was before my time. Thanks for the info!

Very poorly planned and handled by FDev.

Oh whoa, that's surprising!

 

[SP_Predicador]

I don't care about Concurrent Players in Steam. EA has a lot of games that has gigantic sales, and I don't feel interested. I care about quality.

 

[Lightspeed]

Concurrent Steam players has now reached a four year high of 14,687 CMDRs, the highest it's been since 1st December 2015 (Horizons launched on 15th Dec 2015).

Assuming each concurrent Steam player has a minimum of 2 accounts, and assuming they run both accounts while the game is running (which might be the case if they are testing Fleet Carriers in beta) then the "14853 current players" reduces to about 7400 players, a halving of the Steam Stats figure !

Granted, it's quite possible not all concurrent accounts are running at the same time, but the Steam Stats might not be as rosy as immediately appears.

Then there is the issue that not all accounts are Steam accounts, of course. So actual player numbers would be higher than the 7400, but we don't know that kind of proportion.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

No sillier than placing any great faith in numbers that only represent a subset of a subset of the player-base.

Does Steam still increase "hours played" just because the game launcher is open?

I expect that Frontier are more than aware that players with an agenda would seek to use them to "prove" whatever they wanted.

The question can otherwise be expressed as "why should any developer release player numbers?".

True. I mean really, both interpretations here are simply not wrong.

They're both valid questions.

The reality is though, that if you or I want numbers, Steam chats are all we have available. Anything else is frankly, made up nonsense with nothing to base it on.

 

[gorankar]

I would assume people with multiple accounts is the exception rather than the rule. Further, of those with multiple accounts I would assume, very, very few run at the same time. Just take the Steam numbers for what they are, a general indicator of an unsurprising, given the sale, the plague, and the FC beta, upwards trend in player count. Why do so many seem dedicated to making everyone believe this is either fake news or a dead cat bounce?