PS4 player numbers?

stormyuk · Jul 27, 2017

Hello CMDRs,

Is there a way even if an approximation of how many people are playing Elite Dangerous on PS4. I am really, really curious after the initial start and influx of people how many actually do play. I guess Frontier probably have the numbers and I guess will not release them to us.

I am pretty much resigned to the fact this is an unanswerable question, but I really would love to know the answer!

Edit: out of interest I noticed Elite Dangerous did not make the top 20 PSN sellers in June at least in Europe. It might have been a big ask I guess releasing at the end of the month.

Edit 2: Nor in the US top 20 for June.

Also most of my PSN friends who started with it, are still with it, but to be fair a lot of those are the die hard Elite fans from here!

Fly safe CMDRs. o7

acidburn2k20 · Jul 27, 2017

stormyuk said:
Hello CMDRs,

Is there a way even if an approximation of how many people are playing Elite Dangerous on PS4. I am really, really curious after the initial start and influx of people how many actually do play. I guess Frontier probably have the numbers and I guess will not release them to us.

I am pretty much resigned to the fact this is an unanswerable question, but I really would love to know the answer!

Edit: out of interest I noticed Elite Dangerous did not make the top 20 PSN sellers in June at least in Europe. It might have been a big ask I guess releasing at the end of the month.

Edit 2: Nor in the US top 20 for June.

Also most of my PSN friends who started with it, are still with it, but to be fair a lot of those are the die hard Elite fans from here!

Fly safe CMDRs. o7

well i can say still getting new recruits to my group on forum and inara so i am guessing there are still people buying the game

stormyuk · Jul 27, 2017

acidburn2k20 said:
well i can say still getting new recruits to my group on forum and inara so i am guessing there are still people buying the game

Good to hear acid!

isaack_hunt · Jul 27, 2017

i'm definitely still playing.... if somewhat slowly due to work commitments.

Old Duck · Jul 27, 2017

Not what you asked for, but ED Legendary has 41 reviews in the US Amazon store, whereas Nier: Automata has over 400. Nier released a couple months earlier, but most game sales are in the first month. Even if you assume linear sales, the math shows ED to be behind.

I picked Nier because it too is a unique, out-of-left-field niche game. The difference is Nier received proper marketing. They have a fun little demo on the PS4 that was available a month before the release, and all I ever read about in my various gaming news sites was Nier: Automata and Horizons Zero Dawn. I have to do a deep search to find news about Elite Dangerous (the Salome event being a rare occasion when ED broke into mainstream gaming news).

Of course I'm sure the sexy robots might have just a tad something to do with it. If Frontier would just give us that NPC crew I keep asking for, and the ability to walk around my ship, and a Dojo down in the cargo hold where I can practice my sword skills with my NPC Nier: Automata crew during those long supercruise runs... Profit!

ps - I personally LOVE Elite Dangerous!!! I keep thinking the honeymoon is soon over, but I'm still making lovely whoopee with ED every free moment I have, so it's good. Happy one month anniversary ED!

Mr Fad · Jul 27, 2017

They never really released xbox figures either just a sort of total sales for all platforms a year or so ago :/

I have noticed cg active participants have pretty much doubled in size tho!

Apollo Jenkins · Jul 27, 2017

It's even not possible to find any sales figures on VCChartz

Brother Sabathius · Jul 28, 2017

Calls to the Fuel Rats on PS4 are not slowing down much, and are massively more than on XB. It appears to me hat the PS4 player base is large indeed!

Deleted member 110222 · Jul 28, 2017

Seeing as nobody has quite said this, I should tell you that you're never going to get an official tally from FD. Player numbers seem to be their most closely guarded secret.

stormyuk · Jul 28, 2017

Un1k0rn said:
Seeing as nobody has quite said this, I should tell you that you're never going to get an official tally from FD. Player numbers seem to be their most closely guarded secret.

I pretty much know that FDev wont tell us. My post pretty much says that. Just speculatiive.

DustyArne · Jul 28, 2017

Elite Dangerous was in the top 10 in the UK charts in release week.

Im on mobile atm, otherwise would have linked some articles.

But the game is doing good, its healthy.

stormyuk · Jul 28, 2017

DustyArne said:
Elite Dangerous was in the top 10 in the UK charts in release week.

Im on mobile atm, otherwise would have linked some articles.

But the game is doing good, its healthy.

Yeh I wrote an post about that too on PS4, the UK chart position was good and that was not obviously including digital. I just wonder how many people play on PS4 on a regular basis.

I realise I probably will never know but its good to speculate. It will be interesting to see if Elite Dangerous makes it into the PSN charts for July. It might not considering most would have bought it earlier.

skullblits · Jul 28, 2017

check the CG 's it gives a bit of a idea. then again half the people may not play em..

Tetzmol · Jul 28, 2017

I'm playing whenever I can. Sadly I have to work.

And the next 2 weeks I'll be on vacation, so not at home playing. As a matter of fact, ED is the only game I want to play the coming years.

Old Duck · Jul 28, 2017

Something to consider is that ED doesn't need to be in top charts to be successful, financially-speaking. The game I mentioned is play once and put it away game, like most of the "top chart" games. I would not be surprised if Frontier makes more money in the long run on paint jobs, ship kits, and bobbleheads. I've seen the screenshots and met enough non-forum players in the game to know serious money is being spent on these things.

Now on the flip-side, those play once and put away games are not MMOs with a massive server architecture to manage and support... It might be that the paint jobs barely cover the electric bill that keeps BGS online..

Out of curiosity Stormy, is it the desire to have other players to interact with in-game, or were you thinking of Frontier's financial success when you to ask the question?

stormyuk · Jul 28, 2017

Old Duck said:
Out of curiosity Stormy, is it the desire to have other players to interact with in-game, or were you thinking of Frontier's financial success when you to ask the question?

Probably both I think, but honest curiosity as well to know what level of success its having on PS4 specifically, hopefully it has done well. I think lots of people do play it, I was doing the Rare trades run last night for the CG and there was loads of hollow dots all over the trade route, especially at Lave and Orrere, and then of course loads at Harma. People were actually using local chat in Lave I was shocked!

(Was nice to see, and at the time I didn't have time to stop and chat, I had even less time than I realised with my later mishap and nearly 7M rebuy).

Apollo Jenkins · Jul 28, 2017

It's indeed a valid question because if ED sales are like any other game the amount of players should have skyrocketed with the PS4 release. With most games it's divided like a 10% PC, 30% Xbox and 60% Playstation. But ED is not like any other game so it's interesting to know by how much we outnumber the other platforms.

Blackjack14 · Jul 28, 2017

I wont guess sales are too well on PS4. But to my surprise there was no promotion or advertising at the PS4 store at all.

Try to locate the game, you wont find it under any highlighting category. No surprise its not selling tha well.
In addition all the bad reputation with many people having had disconnections and unplayable game experience within the first three weeks, that would not ad to a hype to buy the game.

Coming from a retail/sales background - tbh I think marketing needs a vast improvement.

Jammie1789 · Jul 28, 2017

Apollo Jenkins said:
It's indeed a valid question because if ED sales are like any other game the amount of players should have skyrocketed with the PS4 release. With most games it's divided like a 10% PC, 30% Xbox and 60% Playstation. But ED is not like any other game so it's interesting to know by how much we outnumber the other platforms.

That only really applies to simultaneously released multiplatform games - with the time it's had to build up a playerbase I doubt we outnumber the PC players, possibly XBOne.
I expect it's done pretty well on PS4, there was never a big promotional push for it so it won't be up at the top of the charts. Plus it's not really a mainstream game, that would be more like a bigger version of CQC. As long as there's enough for the money to keep coming in to Frontier then it's all good - once you leave the bubble it doesn't really matter how many other players there are.

MAD DOG MacD · Jul 28, 2017

Trying to buy a Legendary Edition for my Step Son so far has proven fruitless. I arrived on June 27th, first day, at 10am in the morning to get my copy. There was already 4 people behind me looking for the same game. A week later, the store (Gamespot/EB Games) had already sold all their copies, none left. Should have bought two, but didn't think he'd be interested in this type of game.

Guessing that based on my travels, everyone seems to be "sold out" of the Legendary Edition I would wager VERY popular. I'd love to play more, but life (my business, family) comes first, Elite is definitely second though when I get those moments of time for myself.

Gary

PS4 player numbers?

Deleted member 110222