Game Population Question

Highplains Sailor · Sep 8, 2018

I've been playing DCUO since late Jan of this year and I've seen a number of people on Forums or in chat say 'the game is dying'. I've seen this on other games too.

From what I understand (and I could be wrong) the game companies don't publish the numbers of subscribers (paid or F2P) and the number of users logged on at any one time. So I don't know how people judge a games popularity / player base.

When Star Trek Online came out I played it from Beta. I've since played it on-and-off (a lot more off than on, that's just me). Last year I logged on after a two year hiatus and heard the same thing; STO is dying, will soon end, etc. But everywhere I went I saw plenty of players. I went to an area in an older expansion and figured 'I'll never be able to progress through the story arc because no one will be here for the many group missions'. To my surprise the zones were quite active. I had no trouble getting the group missions done. Yes, the time of day can affect the given population, but overall it seems there are always people playing STO no matter what time I log on, even on holidays. To me, looks like the game is doing fine.

For DCUO I've heard it can be difficult to get people for older alerts / raids, but is that a DCUO game population issue? Or is it more along the lines of 'there are plenty of people online, its just that not many are interested in the older content'. Items that used to drop as loot no longer do so, so no ones needs to go there any more, etc' ?

Just curious as to what everyone thinks. Thanks very much.

Saami · Sep 8, 2018

Depends on server. US servers are more populated than EU.

FlawlessTime · Sep 8, 2018

Also allot of player's just like to stand around either in HQs or near and in some safehouses. I've heard that it's just either to pvp duels or chill and hang out .

I don't get it myself.

TheLorax · Sep 8, 2018

Highplains Sailor said: ↑

“I've been playing DCUO since late Jan of this year and I've seen a number of people on Forums or in chat say 'the game is dying'. I've seen this on other games too.

From what I understand (and I could be wrong) the game companies don't publish the numbers of subscribers (paid or F2P) and the number of users logged on at any one time. So I don't know how people judge a games popularity / player base.

When Star Trek Online came out I played it from Beta. I've since played it on-and-off (a lot more off than on, that's just me). Last year I logged on after a two year hiatus and heard the same thing; STO is dying, will soon end, etc. But everywhere I went I saw plenty of players. I went to an area in an older expansion and figured 'I'll never be able to progress through the story arc because no one will be here for the many group missions'. To my surprise the zones were quite active. I had no trouble getting the group missions done. Yes, the time of day can affect the given population, but overall it seems there are always people playing STO no matter what time I log on, even on holidays. To me, looks like the game is doing fine.

For DCUO I've heard it can be difficult to get people for older alerts / raids, but is that a DCUO game population issue? Or is it more along the lines of 'there are plenty of people online, its just that not many are interested in the older content'. Items that used to drop as loot no longer do so, so no ones needs to go there any more, etc' ?

Just curious as to what everyone thinks. Thanks very much.”

People have been saying the game is dying since 2011. It's 2018 so clearly someone lied.

Fawkes2574 · Sep 8, 2018

TheLorax said: ↑

“People have been saying the game is dying since 2011. It's 2018 so clearly someone lied.”

Maybe its a very slow agonizing death.

TheLorax · Sep 8, 2018

Fawkes2574 said: ↑

“Maybe its a very slow agonizing death.”

Slow? Yes. Agonizing? No. I look forward to the next 8 years.

Fawkes2574 · Sep 8, 2018

TheLorax said: ↑

“Slow? Yes. Agonizing? No. I look forward to the next 8 years.”

That was metaphorically and hypothetically speaking.

Knarlydude · Sep 9, 2018

Highplains Sailor said: ↑

“I've been playing DCUO since late Jan of this year and I've seen a number of people on Forums or in chat say 'the game is dying'. I've seen this on other games too.

From what I understand (and I could be wrong) the game companies don't publish the numbers of subscribers (paid or F2P) and the number of users logged on at any one time. So I don't know how people judge a games popularity / player base.

When Star Trek Online came out I played it from Beta. I've since played it on-and-off (a lot more off than on, that's just me). Last year I logged on after a two year hiatus and heard the same thing; STO is dying, will soon end, etc. But everywhere I went I saw plenty of players. I went to an area in an older expansion and figured 'I'll never be able to progress through the story arc because no one will be here for the many group missions'. To my surprise the zones were quite active. I had no trouble getting the group missions done. Yes, the time of day can affect the given population, but overall it seems there are always people playing STO no matter what time I log on, even on holidays. To me, looks like the game is doing fine.

For DCUO I've heard it can be difficult to get people for older alerts / raids, but is that a DCUO game population issue? Or is it more along the lines of 'there are plenty of people online, its just that not many are interested in the older content'. Items that used to drop as loot no longer do so, so no ones needs to go there any more, etc' ?

Just curious as to what everyone thinks. Thanks very much.”

Keep in mind that this is for PC players that log on through STEAM.
I'm PC & do not log in through STEAM just as many others do.

Steam charts.
https://steamcharts.com/app/24200

Also,
PS players outnumber PC players at least 6/7 to 1

You could probably take those steam numbers and double them to get close to the number of PC players that log in daily. Then take that number & multiply it buy 7 to get a close approximation of DCUO's player base.

LadyLightning · Sep 9, 2018

Highplains Sailor said: ↑

“For DCUO I've heard it can be difficult to get people for older alerts / raids, but is that a DCUO game population issue? Or is it more along the lines of 'there are plenty of people online, its just that not many are interested in the older content'.”

It is exactly this, but also another thing factors in:
- new players don't know about the LFG channel everyone else uses to communicate - that's why they see no communication at all!
- an effect of dilution: Even with a therorectically constant number of players playing each content equally, the number of players in content has to go down because we have more and more and more content to play. This was also the reason for map rotation in PvP...