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 measured season (in this case, 27). 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 (255 pages)
Winners: AXI with ~4% of all points. Elite Dangerous ANZ and The Brotherhood of Arms take the other trophies.
The Thargoid War continues - participation and squadron count are down a little bit compared with Season 28, but still significantly up on pre-war seasons. Two new entrants to the leaderboard take Silver and Bronze
Combat (844 pages)
Winners: Stellanebula Project with ~1% of all points. Lavigny's Legion and AXI take the other trophies.
Combat activity is down at all levels, as three regular winners take the trophies. The reduction in AX activity has secondary effects on this board, of course - the total number of participating squadrons is not that much lower than in season 28. All of the top 5 places are very close, though with combat points nearly impossible to stockpile, unlikely to change before season end.
CQC (30 pages)
Winners: We Rock You Roll with ~40% of all points. Cloud oo Land and Celestial Light Brigade take the other trophies.
Two new names get the Silver and Bronze this season as activity overall is actually somewhat up on the previous record low season. Perhaps if the worst bugs get fixed in a couple of weeks it might continue to rise for season 30.
WRYR, meanwhile, take a new record for the fraction of leaderboard points scored by a single squadron.
Exploration (885 pages)
Winners: Stellanebula Project with ~2% of all points. The Longflight Club and Intergalactic Astronomical Union take the other trophies.
Another new entrant gets the Silver this time, and unlike many of the other leaderboards, overall activity is slightly up - the season starting off with a 2-week exploration CG followed by a further 2 weeks of significantly increased payouts perhaps having something to do with this. Comparisons with seasons before 25 are difficult due to the data bug, but this is almost certainly the highest exploration season since the Odyssey release. Unless there are further exploration CGs, of course, this will probably fall back a bit next time
Powerplay (31 pages)
Winners: Federal Liberal Command with 11% of all points. Lavigny's Legion and Madmen of the Mojongo take the other trophies.
Powerplay, Powerplay never changes. Wait, no, I did that comment last time.
Anyway, another reshuffle of the top 3 squadrons - at least it's an ordering that hasn't been done before this time, so we've now seen four of the six possible ones. Overall activity is slightly up on previous seasons as the Thargoids fail to eat anything particularly important to Powerplay
Trade (714 pages)
Winners: Pilots Booze Network Squadron with ~4% of all points. Stellanebula Project and Brazilian League of Pilots take the other trophies.
As with many of the other leaderboards, activity is down overall here, with perhaps the unusual complete absence of Trade CGs during the season contributing to that - especially after last season's Palladium Trade CG finish. Gold and Silver are the same as last time, while Brazilian League of Pilots return to take their first Trade trophy - and first trophy of any sort - since their spectacular season 14 run.
Other comments
Overall activity slightly defies the prediction from the end of last season - with three boards down and three up, and total participation numbers relatively flat, there's not been so much reduction as anticipated.
The importance of CGs in driving activity is quite noticeable on both Exploration and Trade boards - the relatively rarity of CGs recently helps to make this more obvious. With Update 15 coming less than two weeks into season 30, it's going to be hard to predict what effect that will have - a rise in AX activity again seems fairly likely, though.
