DCUO isn't going anywhere - by the numbers

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by Magnificent, Dec 3, 2020.

  1. Magnificent Loyal Player

    Every few weeks or so there's a thread predicting the end of the DCUO world. It's usually "supported" by "hardly anyone plays anymore", "I can never find a group", "it's old" and the ever-popular "it sucks". Let's put those fairy tales to rest for a while with some reasons based on factual accounting data (as opposed to feelings).

    First, the source: https://www.enadglobal7.com/wp-cont...entation-Dec-2020-Acquires-Daybreak-Games.pdf

    This investor presentation by EG7 gives us the best numbers on both Daybreak and DCUO's health we've seen in a long time. Fair warning: I'm not familiar with all the acronyms and the estimate amounts will be rough guesses but I'll supply how I arrive at them.

    Next we'll get into the numbers (note: this is not the pro forma numbers, just the information from the initial pages because those have more breakdown options)...

    First off, WOW! DCUO is responsible for the lion's share of the money Daybreak is bringing in.

    According to the data, Daybreak has brought in a net revenue of ~$63M thus far this year (first 3 quarters of the year) from ~$71M in bookings. Adding the bookings listed for all the games comes out to $69.4M so I feel the total bookings number is good enough for our rough estimation purposes.

    Net Revenue is ~10% less than total bookings so it's safe to assume that remains true when we break the numbers down per game. DCUO brought in ~$26.7M in bookings thus far this year, meaning that if the revenue equation is correct then they've brought in net revenues of around $24M thus far (ie: first 3 quarters of the year). That's just under $3M per month (2.966) or $35.6M per year.

    ***The takeaway here for all the doom-n-gloomers is that a company with NET revenues in the tens of millions of Dollars per year isn't shutting down. Along with that, the game bringing in the lion's share of that net revenue is also not shutting down.

    Next, we see that DCUO has the 3rd largest number of Members (subscribers) of all. I have no idea what MAU means, also I have no idea how All Access or the lifetime memberships figure into this. Whatever MAU is, DCUO accounts for almost half of Daybreak's total number.

    While DDO is a little higher on the $ per user, DCUO looks to have around 2x the players (going off the active members numbers). So just doing the quick math with the best numbers we have means DDO users brought in around 1.4M ($ per user * Members) in the first 3 quarters of the year while DCUO users brought in around 1.9M.

    Finally, we see that in Q4 of next year (so this time next year) there is a tentative plan to "modernize visuals, upgrade key game systems and add brand new large content update to capitalize on the nextgen consoles growth cycle". While these are a bit vague it does show there are plans already being worked on to enhance and expand the game to make it viable for at least the next few years.


    In summary, DCUO is not only NOT shutting down but it's the financial engine pulling the Daybreak train.
    • Like x 18
  2. Saami Loyal Player

    Good news, but what is DDO?
  3. zNot Loyal Player

    They will still try to find a way to say it is dead :) but dont mind them.
    • Like x 7
  4. Lugo Well-Known Player

    Wow! It's like instead of pushing out loot boxes every week and finding new ways to get people to pay their way through the game instead of play their way through the game, the devs ACTUALLY could've just been working on upgrades to the game and adding exciting new things that are fun!

    It's like the excuses about PVP not bringing in enough money to be worth bringing back to life are not worth discussing when the most popular games right now are competitive PVP games and DCUO has money to blow!

    Wow! I am so shocked, really! :eek:
    • Like x 4
  5. zNot Loyal Player

    You cant compare pvp in a mmo vs fortni... :)

    I know other mmos and pve is always outperforming pvp. In dc this is even more obvious.Most want to fight against brainiac or other bosses from comics and dc superheroes/villains and more with our powers. But i see what you mean they couldve definetly invested more into the game.
  6. Magnificent Loyal Player

    • Like x 1
  7. StealthBlue Loyal Player

    It looks like the stands for monthly active users, after searching online. So as of September, we've had an average of 419k unique accounts logged in per month. At least, I'm assuming that "users" would mean accounts not characters.

    Also, it looks like 40k members is a total. So it includes both people that were subscribed all year and people that subscribed for one month. It would be interesting to know how many of the non members spend money.
    • Like x 5
  8. Magnificent Loyal Player

    "Monthly Active Users" makes sense. I wondered if it meant something along those lines but my Google-Fu is weak today so I just avoided it. I would be interested to see what the average number of subscribers per month is but while we don't really have a ballpark on that, we do have the zip code for the park ;)
  9. Multiverse 15000 Post Club


    Dungeons and Dragons Online
    • Like x 1
  10. Multiverse 15000 Post Club


    Oh they still are.
    Heck yesterdays' news only made them come out of the woodwork saying some more that DCUO is dead.
    Nothing will shut them up at this point. Quite the opposite.
    • Like x 6
  11. Saami Loyal Player

    DCUO is not dead, it just smells funny. Same as rock or was it punk? :)
    • Like x 4
  12. Mepps Sr. Community Manager

    MAU = monthly active users. This is the number of accounts that have logged into the game in the last 30 days from whatever day you are looking at.

    The member number there is also going to be the current number of memberships from that same month/date.
    • Like x 13
  13. MsTickle Fate Devoted Player

    Does that include Lifetime members?
    • Like x 1
  14. Magnificent Loyal Player

    Thanks!!

    How are All Access and Daybreak Lifetime subs counted?
  15. MsTickle Fate Devoted Player

    This line from the report stands out to me in a big way:


    Page 11, Fifth point under "Introduction To Daybreak."
  16. BitGam4r Well-Known Player

    Personally I don't really care about how much money they make a whole. I would like to see a breakdown of the revenue subscriber vs micro-transaction . I'd also like a see a breakdown of the active subscribers going to back Columbus Nova's acquisition and show me a quarter by quarter or year by year. Because I get a strong suspicion this game is hemorrhaging subscribers. I say that because of the amount of micro-transactions in the game have increased by a massive amount since Daybreak took over from SOE and the fact that the past TC ban wave, they had to unban everyone because they were going to lose a ton money. So with the amount of micro-transactions we have, that amount of money is not surprising.
  17. Magnificent Loyal Player

    I noticed that but think it may just be a mistake (some intern putting Marvel instead of DC because all they know about is Marvel). If not though, it might point to whatever this new superhero project is DI is working on. But that's for another thread.
  18. Eve YouTuber

    This looks good to me. As long as the game generate incomes it means the game goes on. I really love that game, so I hope it will reach Everquest's 22 years mark or more. Obviously it won't last forever, but as long as they can possibly develop it. The numbers seems good at least, from what I'm reading. Also I wouldn't hold my breath for a Marvel MMO, it might just be a typo.
    • Like x 2
  19. Magnificent Loyal Player

    Good luck with that. ;) It's rare we get even this much data although with EG7 being publicly traded that will probably change.
    • Like x 1
  20. MsTickle Fate Devoted Player

    There's at least one clear error in that report: it lists Enad Global's games as having the "output channels" (platforms" of "PC, Console, Mobile, Switch." (Page 23.)

    But it lists Daybreak's games as only available on "PC, Console," which is clearly just wrong, since DCUO is available on Switch.