Please do return every 15 minutes like a clingy ex just to tell us just how much you're loving that [redacted] other game and it was the best decision you ever made.yepp stay bored behind
Huge decline in console player numbers, Hull Seals consider disclaimer & drop support.
- Thread starter [Cancelled Consoleer] boppa_
- Start date
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for sure it's entertainment for you... you are in a bubble boredom
I am? Well thanks for letting me know that.
you're welcome
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Most of the data is publicly available.
While we don't have valid sources for player numbers (as is available for PC via Steam) one of the places we can glean good data about console player numbers directly is the use of the EDSM Console uploader.
With the caveat that this is likely to be in use by only the most dedicated console CMDRs, however they are a good population to look at as the casual player is more likely to be less consistent with their play time.
Graph: Use of the EDSM Console uploader as a percentage of all total uploads, per day.
Source: EDDN
Conclusion: A gradual decline in numbers, more significantly since the first Odyssey console delay was announced.
Firstly, best of luck to the Hull Seals - keeping together a substantial distributed standby force to manage a couple of incidents a day is really tricky to start with, and especially with the expectation that the majority of clients will be well outside the bubble. We never really managed to solve it with Iridium Wing - again, especially on consoles - for similar reasons. People would sign up, build a support ship, do a bit of training, then wait months before there was a call in their timezone and region.
- EDDN jumps within the bubble are down to approximately their September 2020 levels (drop of about 1/3 since Odyssey release)
- Colonia regional in-game traffic levels down to about half of pre-Odyssey levels
- Squadron activity levels on PC look like they'll be noticeably down, but it'll be three weeks before a proper "end of season" comparison can be made. Squadron activity count might also be down which would be the first ever time that's happened.
- "number of pages on my in-game friends list to log in during the last month" is also down by about a third.
- CG participation is down to 1/3-1/2 of pre-Odyssey levels in terms of both headcount and activity, for comparable CGs.
- number of posts by David Braben per month is up several hundred percent.
Obviously most of those you can come up with alternative explanations individually for - but you'd need a pretty convoluted theory to explain all of them at once without involving "less players about".
The interesting thing about those stats is that normally they aren't correlated with the Steam Peak Concurrent figures at all - in previous "Steam Stats are down! Doom!" threads, the other in-game stats stayed either basically flat or even moved slightly in the other direction ... and Frontier showed no public signs of concern.
My conclusions would be:
1) Steam charts are still basically junk for determining player activity because "peak concurrent" is the wrong measure for Elite Dangerous and can fluctuate quite substantially even if both the number of players and the average amount of time they play for are entirely unchanged.
2) However there probably has been a drop of around 1/3 on pre-Odyssey player activity (which may or may not be 1/3 of player headcount).
3) This is not caused by "summer" as none of these measures have previously shown any seasonal patterns.
4) Equally, player activity is only down to "normal for 2019/2020" levels which may be a disappointment to Frontier but is hardly a sign of impending doom either provided that they fix things fairly soon.
In terms of other public statistics:
- EDDN jumps within the bubble are down to approximately their September 2020 levels (drop of about 1/3 since Odyssey release)
- Colonia regional in-game traffic levels down to about half of pre-Odyssey levels
- Squadron activity levels on PC look like they'll be noticeably down, but it'll be three weeks before a proper "end of season" comparison can be made. Squadron activity count might also be down which would be the first ever time that's happened.
- "number of pages on my in-game friends list to log in during the last month" is also down by about a third.
- CG participation is down to 1/3-1/2 of pre-Odyssey levels in terms of both headcount and activity, for comparable CGs.
- number of posts by David Braben per month is up several hundred percent.
Obviously most of those you can come up with alternative explanations individually for - but you'd need a pretty convoluted theory to explain all of them at once without involving "less players about".
The interesting thing about those stats is that normally they aren't correlated with the Steam Peak Concurrent figures at all - in previous "Steam Stats are down! Doom!" threads, the other in-game stats stayed either basically flat or even moved slightly in the other direction ... and Frontier showed no public signs of concern.
My conclusions would be:
1) Steam charts are still basically junk for determining player activity because "peak concurrent" is the wrong measure for Elite Dangerous and can fluctuate quite substantially even if both the number of players and the average amount of time they play for are entirely unchanged.
2) However there probably has been a drop of around 1/3 on pre-Odyssey player activity (which may or may not be 1/3 of player headcount).
3) This is not caused by "summer" as none of these measures have previously shown any seasonal patterns.
4) Equally, player activity is only down to "normal for 2019/2020" levels which may be a disappointment to Frontier but is hardly a sign of impending doom either provided that they fix things fairly soon.
I've read all the negative Steam reviews, and every single one list COVID-19 and summer heat as the reason they can't play the game. So you're wrong!
Oh wait, I'm confused. It was the positive reviews I read, and they all said they are playing Elite because there's nothing else to do during the heatwave and COVID resurge
Nice, nice, but so boring. Could we get back to extreme steam charting between Wilhelm screams and stuntmen running on fire, please?
I dunno, my stats teacher was pretty hot. And to be honest, I kinda enjoyed learning statistics.
You, sir, are a very strange cat.
To be honest, though, I did learn some things that were very useful: 1) While statistics can be a useful tool if analyzed properly, they can also be massaged to say absolutely anything that you want them to. At least until somebody who knows what they're talking about comes along and 2) approximately 99.9% of people using statistics to bolster their argument are either a) too terminally dumb to know what they're talking about or b) guilty of 1) above, hoping that nobody comes along to call them on it.
Thanks Ian
Annoyingly, my Squadron is asking everyone not to play Odyssey in "our space" at the moment as they haven't worked out how it actually affects the BGS, so I'm fighting for Manticore munitions to say thanks for their excellent weapons.
Most of their missions are being offered in System, and I've quickly built up a hostile relationship with the dominating faction. Annoyingly every time you die with a bounty, you end up detached from your ship at the detention centre and unable to get back to it until you next die without a bounty. As a result I've been going days without jumping, haven't contributed to my Squadron goals and haven't been able to do anything CG related.
So, maybe 30% of the player base are playing Odyssey and experiencing the same? Don't you just love how there are always other ways to interpret statistics.
Aa a longtime player that stopped play awhile ago let me offer the converse. This is for all the "good riddance", "bye", "Don't let the door hit you", "DOOM" responders.
ED is never better! Confidence in FD has never been better. Gameplay, graphics, and in game content is riveting. The player base is exploding and all you can see in social media and the forums is how FD and ED are hitting all the switches. It is the HOT game with a clear future of continued enhancements.
So. That is the converse of DOOM. I'm guessing that feels as accurate as "the game is dead" posts to most. The reality however is that regardless of the hyperbole things are trending objectively to one of those extremes.
You can whistle past the graveyard all day, and maybe FD pulls a rabbit out of the hat, but I think we can all acknowledge things are rough. Things are rougher than I have seen them in my time playing. Do I think the game is dead, no. Do I think FD has cut deep into their community, yes. Did they cut a main cable, and its going to bleed out, I don't know. But I would advocate getting a tourniquet.
ED is never better! Confidence in FD has never been better. Gameplay, graphics, and in game content is riveting. The player base is exploding and all you can see in social media and the forums is how FD and ED are hitting all the switches. It is the HOT game with a clear future of continued enhancements.
So. That is the converse of DOOM. I'm guessing that feels as accurate as "the game is dead" posts to most. The reality however is that regardless of the hyperbole things are trending objectively to one of those extremes.
You can whistle past the graveyard all day, and maybe FD pulls a rabbit out of the hat, but I think we can all acknowledge things are rough. Things are rougher than I have seen them in my time playing. Do I think the game is dead, no. Do I think FD has cut deep into their community, yes. Did they cut a main cable, and its going to bleed out, I don't know. But I would advocate getting a tourniquet.
87% of statistics are just made up.
100% of statistics that disagree with my world view are made up.
