[Graph] Planetside's population relative to August 2013

Taken from SOE's API (thank you BorderlineTacical). I added the peak logins of every day during each month, averaged them and compared them to August 2013. (I know June hasn't ended yet, but these are averages, so the numbers are relevant)

Just to be clear, the numerical values are % of the August 2013 value?

Yes, every month's population is compared to August 2013 and put into a percentage. That means that January has 15.16% more players/ 115.16% of August's players.

So what happened in april for a 20% drop

Jeez... What happened in January?

Lib update.

You should run another one with the raw numbers for worldwide peak active logins (all servers and all factions combined), and post that as well.

The percentages are interesting, especially in terms of the trend over time your graph shows. But the actual numbers also are highly relevant. In fact they're a bigger cause for concern at the moment than the recent relative changes.

According to BTL's latest numbers, the game now is struggling to maintain even 5,000 peak active logins worldwide. The magnitude of that number should be a huge concern for players and for SOE. We're now putting up numbers that are barely outpacing DUST 514, which Massively.com recently referred to as an "unmitigated failure."

That is not the sort of company you want to keep if you want your game to keep running for long.

My purpose was to make a graph where showing the general population trend during one year (but i got bored and decided to publish it right now)

But i'll grant your wish: http://i.imgur.com/Ny0k0GN.png

Performance update.

Then what happened in January for a 20%+ drop before the Lib update then? -_-

Getting really bored of people blaming the Lib update for the declining populations. Hit detection and general gunplay/FPS mechanics in this game are utterly atrocious. Kill trading, hit markers that do no damage, getting shot behind corners..??? Base design is terrible on all but 1 continent. Lattice system promotes funnelling and zerging. Loads of rehashed weapons that water down faction flavour every iteration. General performance of this game is awful unless you shell out for a really good gaming rig.

Yet it is 'Liberators OP' that spring to mind when talking about population issues.

could just be a winter/summer cycle

WDS happened in January. Zergzergzergzergzerg....

Just wow.... never thought its THAT bad...

Hope for summer break population bump? That's starts soon, I think.

Damn you Liberators, you killed everyone

Don't know if you can use any of this data, but here is another graph going back to March 1, 2013. It has some small periods of missing numbers and broken super high spikes, but most of it is correct.

http://sirisian.com/planetside2/population.php?world=all&timezone=-4

I don't think we'll see the same population again in August, it's merely 2 months away and we're missing 30% pop

Agh, the reliability of those graphs are really all over the place...
That, and i can't seem to get the exact amount of players for some reason

Cross linking my own thread on examining server populations here.

Here's a list of changes that happened to the live game and the dates those happened:

GU14 (August 12, 2013)- No significant gameplay changes
PU01 (November 12, 2013)- Better performance, bug fixes, lattice modifications
PU02 (December 17, 2013)- Better performance, Harasser nerf, Baslilisk buff, Enforcer, Vulcan and Halberd nerf, LMG nerf, UBGL nerf, ZOE nerf
ESF Update (January 16, 2014)- Added Hornets and Coyotes, nerfed Tomcats
Infiltrator Update (February 13, 2014)- Added Stalker Cloak, Motion Detector, and crossbow, improved cloaking
Liberator Update (March 13, 2014)- Liberator buff, Death Screen revamp, Lightning nerf
Balance Update (April 16, 2014)- Added carbines, Vanguard nerf, TR buff
Implant Update (May 20, 2014)- Added implants, added assault rifles and NS shotgun, allowed Galaxies and Lightnings to spawn everywhere

It's not 100%, but should cover most major changes.

In addition to that there were a number of game events which may have affected populations:

Discounted Best Buy SC Cards (August 16-18, 2013)
World Domination Series Preseason 1 (September 16-October 27, 2013)
Black Friday SC Sale (November 29, 2013)
Discounted Game Stop SC Cards (November 4-24, 2013)
Cyber Monday SC Sale (December 1, 2013)
Auraximas (December 18-25, 2013)
World Domination Series Preseason 2 (February 7-28, 2014)
Spring Splurge Sale (March 27-30, 2014)
Summer Kickoff Sale (May 27-30, 2014)

It's look like balance update stop the lowering trend a little. Plus since ESF update the game was going down. Implants on the other hand kill faith of many people in SOE...