Previously: seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8 and 9 (plus How large are squadrons?)
On each graph, points are on the Y-axis, and squadron position on the leaderboard is on the X-axis. Both scales are logarithmic. The light grey line (diamond marker) is the numbers for the previous season, the dark grey line (triangle marker) is the numbers for the same season last year (season 3), and all stats are PC only. As in previous seasons, the approximate power-law distribution continues, allowing estimates of total activity to be made without spending too long reading the boards.
Anti Xeno (108 pages)
Winners: AXI with ~13% of all points. Black Birds Squadron and 143rd St Men of F. Oregon take the other trophies.
AXI after a few seasons' of Silvers go back to taking the Gold in Anti Xeno, while two new names get the other trophies. The season as a whole, reflecting the lack of Thargoid activity, was the quietest full-length season since season 3!
Combat (1304 pages)
Winners: Lavigny's Legion with ~1% of all points. New Pilots Initiative and Brazilian League of Pilots take the other trophies.
After three seasons at Bronze, Lavigny's Legion move up to take the Gold in combat, and two other squadrons get their first trophy. Total combat activity is significantly up, with around 25% more combat taking place than in an average season - though as you can see from the graph, this hasn't resulted in a similar rise in competition for the top few spots: instead, it's a consistent boost in combat activity everywhere below the top 10.
CQC (111 pages)
Winners: The Winged Hussars (6th time) with ~17.5% of all points. CQC Discord and Silverbacks take the other trophies
The top two squadrons are the usual ones, with Winged Hussars setting a new season record of just over 4.5 million points, and Silverbacks get a CQC trophy to go with their AX trophy from season 9. Overall, however, CQC activity is way up on previous seasons - this is the first time there have been more than 1000 participating squadrons, and also the first time that there have been more CQC squadrons than AX squadrons. Perhaps the "queue from main game" and "be stuck in a hangar for five minutes with nothing else to do" features coming soon will lead to even higher totals in future.
Exploration (1499 pages)
Winners: Interstellar Communist Union with ~2.5% of all points. Azgharie and New-Lunar Republic take the other trophies.
Three new names on the Exploration leaderboard this season, though ICU have previously won some Political trophies. Comparing the results with last year's (season 3) numbers is interesting - the top few places (except ICU in first) are lower than the Distant Worlds-fuelled data sales of season 3, but at every other level exploration is significantly up - though still not as high as the DW2 heights of season 1. The total squadron count is also incredibly high - more on that later.
Powerplay (69 pages)
Winners: Federal Liberal Command with ~13% of all points. Federal Republic Command and Aisling Wing Command take the other trophies.
A standard trophy set in the standard order this season - but overall activity is very high. 69 pages of squadrons beats the previous highest level by about 20%, and total activity is the second highest ever, only beaten by season 3.
Trade (1422 pages)
Winners: Dark Enterprise with ~1.5% of all points. Brazilian League of Pilots and Anti-Xeno Initiative take the other trophies.
So, carriers, then. Trade income in this season is the highest on record by a substantial margin - almost as high as the previous two highest seasons (6 and 9) combined! The top 39 squadrons each got at least 100 billion trade credits each - enough for a top 5 finish in most seasons, and would have got the Gold in season 4 - and the top 1177 squadrons all got at least 5 billion credits each.
Total trade earnings this season are estimated at around 33 trillion credits, or enough to buy 6,600 Fleet Carriers - obviously the earnings won't be optimally distributed for that, equally obviously not everyone was starting their saving exactly eight weeks ago, at any rate there's going to be a lot of them about in a couple of weeks.
Other comments
Last season I wondered if the upward trend in the number of active squadrons might start to plateau a bit ... well, not this time. In fact, while normally a season would add an extra 100 active squadrons compared with the previous ... this one added around 200. Whether this is new squadrons or the reanimation of long-inactive squadrons is of course hard to tell - either way next season's change is likely to be a lot smaller, and may even be negative ... unless, of course, the actual release of Fleet Carriers continues the general increase in player activity.
With ten seasons, it's also time to look at the general trends (season 2 volume has been doubled to compensate for it being half-length, to get a consistent activity/week level)
The huge amounts of Trade and significantly above average CQC and Combat in season 10 are clearly visible, but it's also interesting to see the patterns - combat is incredibly consistent, trade varies a lot, AX varies with the intensity of the Thargoid conflict, Distant Worlds sold a lot of exploration data especially in its early "hopping between stations" phase, rise and fall of one activity is rarely correlated with other activities.
On each graph, points are on the Y-axis, and squadron position on the leaderboard is on the X-axis. Both scales are logarithmic. The light grey line (diamond marker) is the numbers for the previous season, the dark grey line (triangle marker) is the numbers for the same season last year (season 3), and all stats are PC only. As in previous seasons, the approximate power-law distribution continues, allowing estimates of total activity to be made without spending too long reading the boards.
Anti Xeno (108 pages)
Winners: AXI with ~13% of all points. Black Birds Squadron and 143rd St Men of F. Oregon take the other trophies.
AXI after a few seasons' of Silvers go back to taking the Gold in Anti Xeno, while two new names get the other trophies. The season as a whole, reflecting the lack of Thargoid activity, was the quietest full-length season since season 3!
Combat (1304 pages)
Winners: Lavigny's Legion with ~1% of all points. New Pilots Initiative and Brazilian League of Pilots take the other trophies.
After three seasons at Bronze, Lavigny's Legion move up to take the Gold in combat, and two other squadrons get their first trophy. Total combat activity is significantly up, with around 25% more combat taking place than in an average season - though as you can see from the graph, this hasn't resulted in a similar rise in competition for the top few spots: instead, it's a consistent boost in combat activity everywhere below the top 10.
CQC (111 pages)
Winners: The Winged Hussars (6th time) with ~17.5% of all points. CQC Discord and Silverbacks take the other trophies
The top two squadrons are the usual ones, with Winged Hussars setting a new season record of just over 4.5 million points, and Silverbacks get a CQC trophy to go with their AX trophy from season 9. Overall, however, CQC activity is way up on previous seasons - this is the first time there have been more than 1000 participating squadrons, and also the first time that there have been more CQC squadrons than AX squadrons. Perhaps the "queue from main game" and "be stuck in a hangar for five minutes with nothing else to do" features coming soon will lead to even higher totals in future.
Exploration (1499 pages)
Winners: Interstellar Communist Union with ~2.5% of all points. Azgharie and New-Lunar Republic take the other trophies.
Three new names on the Exploration leaderboard this season, though ICU have previously won some Political trophies. Comparing the results with last year's (season 3) numbers is interesting - the top few places (except ICU in first) are lower than the Distant Worlds-fuelled data sales of season 3, but at every other level exploration is significantly up - though still not as high as the DW2 heights of season 1. The total squadron count is also incredibly high - more on that later.
Powerplay (69 pages)
Winners: Federal Liberal Command with ~13% of all points. Federal Republic Command and Aisling Wing Command take the other trophies.
A standard trophy set in the standard order this season - but overall activity is very high. 69 pages of squadrons beats the previous highest level by about 20%, and total activity is the second highest ever, only beaten by season 3.
Trade (1422 pages)
Winners: Dark Enterprise with ~1.5% of all points. Brazilian League of Pilots and Anti-Xeno Initiative take the other trophies.
So, carriers, then. Trade income in this season is the highest on record by a substantial margin - almost as high as the previous two highest seasons (6 and 9) combined! The top 39 squadrons each got at least 100 billion trade credits each - enough for a top 5 finish in most seasons, and would have got the Gold in season 4 - and the top 1177 squadrons all got at least 5 billion credits each.
Total trade earnings this season are estimated at around 33 trillion credits, or enough to buy 6,600 Fleet Carriers - obviously the earnings won't be optimally distributed for that, equally obviously not everyone was starting their saving exactly eight weeks ago, at any rate there's going to be a lot of them about in a couple of weeks.
Other comments
Last season I wondered if the upward trend in the number of active squadrons might start to plateau a bit ... well, not this time. In fact, while normally a season would add an extra 100 active squadrons compared with the previous ... this one added around 200. Whether this is new squadrons or the reanimation of long-inactive squadrons is of course hard to tell - either way next season's change is likely to be a lot smaller, and may even be negative ... unless, of course, the actual release of Fleet Carriers continues the general increase in player activity.
With ten seasons, it's also time to look at the general trends (season 2 volume has been doubled to compensate for it being half-length, to get a consistent activity/week level)
The huge amounts of Trade and significantly above average CQC and Combat in season 10 are clearly visible, but it's also interesting to see the patterns - combat is incredibly consistent, trade varies a lot, AX varies with the intensity of the Thargoid conflict, Distant Worlds sold a lot of exploration data especially in its early "hopping between stations" phase, rise and fall of one activity is rarely correlated with other activities.
