Previously: seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8, 9 and 10 (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.
(Political is excluded, because there are well-known exploits to allow very high scores, and because it's not clear even without the exploits what it's supposed to be measuring: the in-game description of "large and happy faction" is clearly wrong - possibly this will change if they ever implement BGS happiness properly)
Anti Xeno (126 pages)
Winners: AXI with ~15% of all points. Torgue Company and The LOSP take the other trophies.
Another win for AXI and a return to the top places for Torgue Company. While the number of squadrons involved is at a record high, the total activity is the lowest ever, due to reduced levels of competition for the top places and a very quiet Thargoid battlefront.
Combat (1500 pages)
Winners: Brazilian League of Pilots with ~1% of all points. New Pilots Initiative and Lavigny's Legion take the other trophies.
The top three the same as last season, though with the Brazilian League moving to take the Gold and pushing Lavigny's Legion down into third. With 1500 pages there's a lot of shooting going on, and the total activity reaches an all-time high.
CQC (160 pages)
Winners: The Winged Hussars with ~10.5% of all points. CQC Discord and Silverbacks take the other trophies
The same three winning squadrons as last season, in the same order, all on slightly lower scores and a slightly smaller margin between the top two. The rest of the board, however, looks significantly different, with the previous participation record broken by a clear 50%, points needed for a place noticeably up everywhere outside the top 10, and a 50% increase in total activity compared with most previous seasons, it's clear that the "queue from main game" feature has been a big success for getting people back into CQC. It's possible this will rise slightly further in Season 12, as the queueing improvement only came in about half way through this season.
Exploration (1743 pages)
Winners: Intergalactic Astronomical Union with ~2% of all points. Wild Cards and Dark Enterprise take the other trophies.
Two more new names on the Exploration leaderboard this season, taking the top two places. Unsurprisingly totals are a little down on last year, where Season 4 had the end of Distant Worlds 2, but this is still (barely beating last season) the highest non-DW2 exploration activity yet.
Powerplay (77 pages)
Winners: Federal Liberal Command with ~20% of all points. Federal Republic Command and Lavigny's Legion take the other trophies.
Activity is up yet again, with the highest ever number of active Powerplay squadrons, and the second highest total activity after Season 3. A new trophy winner in Lavigny's Legion, pushing the regular Imperial trophy-holders of their rival Aisling into 4th this season.
Trade (1663 pages)
Winners: The Greatwall of China with ~2% of all points. Skeleton Krew and Dark Enterprise take the other trophies.
If last season's trade score was unprecedented, this season needs some new adjectives. Led by two small and previously obscure squadrons, earnings are up substantially across the board, with all of the top 5 squadrons breaking the one trillion credit barrier, and the top 11 all beating last season's record. Every squadron in the top 100 gets more than 100 billion credits of trade points - which would have been enough to win Season 4 by a substantial margin.
Total trade earnings are estimated at 83 trillion credits - over twice that of the previously record-breaking season 10 - or enough to buy 16,600 Fleet Carriers in currency units with fewer zeroes. It'll be interesting to see what effect recent mining and trade rebalancing has on this - next season may well be lower, but likely still very high by historic standards.
Other comments
For all the complaints that "mining has made everything else pointless" that doesn't seem to be true - yes, lots of people have been getting lots of money from mining, but activity levels on other activities are also significantly up on last year with new activity records set in Combat and CQC, and substantial rises in participation on the other boards. The score increases on trade are likely more reflective of increased productivity for much of the season, rather than of increased time spent.
Total active squadrons takes another giant leap from season 10, with at least 17430 squadrons now carrying out some leaderboard-relevant activity. As with season 10, this probably represents some returning squadrons overlaid on the general activity increase around the Fleet Carriers release, and it's unlikely that season 12 will sustain this rate of increase - and it may even fall back slightly in at least some boards.
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.
(Political is excluded, because there are well-known exploits to allow very high scores, and because it's not clear even without the exploits what it's supposed to be measuring: the in-game description of "large and happy faction" is clearly wrong - possibly this will change if they ever implement BGS happiness properly)
Anti Xeno (126 pages)
Winners: AXI with ~15% of all points. Torgue Company and The LOSP take the other trophies.
Another win for AXI and a return to the top places for Torgue Company. While the number of squadrons involved is at a record high, the total activity is the lowest ever, due to reduced levels of competition for the top places and a very quiet Thargoid battlefront.
Combat (1500 pages)
Winners: Brazilian League of Pilots with ~1% of all points. New Pilots Initiative and Lavigny's Legion take the other trophies.
The top three the same as last season, though with the Brazilian League moving to take the Gold and pushing Lavigny's Legion down into third. With 1500 pages there's a lot of shooting going on, and the total activity reaches an all-time high.
CQC (160 pages)
Winners: The Winged Hussars with ~10.5% of all points. CQC Discord and Silverbacks take the other trophies
The same three winning squadrons as last season, in the same order, all on slightly lower scores and a slightly smaller margin between the top two. The rest of the board, however, looks significantly different, with the previous participation record broken by a clear 50%, points needed for a place noticeably up everywhere outside the top 10, and a 50% increase in total activity compared with most previous seasons, it's clear that the "queue from main game" feature has been a big success for getting people back into CQC. It's possible this will rise slightly further in Season 12, as the queueing improvement only came in about half way through this season.
Exploration (1743 pages)
Winners: Intergalactic Astronomical Union with ~2% of all points. Wild Cards and Dark Enterprise take the other trophies.
Two more new names on the Exploration leaderboard this season, taking the top two places. Unsurprisingly totals are a little down on last year, where Season 4 had the end of Distant Worlds 2, but this is still (barely beating last season) the highest non-DW2 exploration activity yet.
Powerplay (77 pages)
Winners: Federal Liberal Command with ~20% of all points. Federal Republic Command and Lavigny's Legion take the other trophies.
Activity is up yet again, with the highest ever number of active Powerplay squadrons, and the second highest total activity after Season 3. A new trophy winner in Lavigny's Legion, pushing the regular Imperial trophy-holders of their rival Aisling into 4th this season.
Trade (1663 pages)
Winners: The Greatwall of China with ~2% of all points. Skeleton Krew and Dark Enterprise take the other trophies.
If last season's trade score was unprecedented, this season needs some new adjectives. Led by two small and previously obscure squadrons, earnings are up substantially across the board, with all of the top 5 squadrons breaking the one trillion credit barrier, and the top 11 all beating last season's record. Every squadron in the top 100 gets more than 100 billion credits of trade points - which would have been enough to win Season 4 by a substantial margin.
Total trade earnings are estimated at 83 trillion credits - over twice that of the previously record-breaking season 10 - or enough to buy 16,600 Fleet Carriers in currency units with fewer zeroes. It'll be interesting to see what effect recent mining and trade rebalancing has on this - next season may well be lower, but likely still very high by historic standards.
Other comments
For all the complaints that "mining has made everything else pointless" that doesn't seem to be true - yes, lots of people have been getting lots of money from mining, but activity levels on other activities are also significantly up on last year with new activity records set in Combat and CQC, and substantial rises in participation on the other boards. The score increases on trade are likely more reflective of increased productivity for much of the season, rather than of increased time spent.
Total active squadrons takes another giant leap from season 10, with at least 17430 squadrons now carrying out some leaderboard-relevant activity. As with season 10, this probably represents some returning squadrons overlaid on the general activity increase around the Fleet Carriers release, and it's unlikely that season 12 will sustain this rate of increase - and it may even fall back slightly in at least some boards.
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