Dropping playernumbers

[Bearwall]

Clarification: I'm pretty biased against submarines and CVs (since the rework) and this may be the reason for my causality analysis.

 

I'm wondering wether we have any official data on the development of playernumbers across all the servers? I've been seeing the numbers drop in my prime time on the EU servers but since my observations is purely anecdotal I was wondering if it was a general trend. 

 

If we look at steamcharts I think we can call a general trend atleast among WoWS players users via steam. The playerbase has seen a steady drop since July with a slight uptick in September only to be hit hard with a 11,7% drop in October. 

So I was wondering a few things:

 

https://steamcharts.com/app/552990

 

1) Do wargaming have any insights on the causes for the exodus?

2) Do wargaming have any plan to rectify the drop?

 

 

Personally I've been noticing a trend in the past few weeks/months and it may just be me who's been extremely unfortunate, but more and more games feature CVs and with the addition of submarines it's basically becoming an unplayable game unless you like sitting behind an island hitting someone with impunity or in the case of subs magically "guiding" your torps with a ping to basically say 'I click, I win' on anything.. I can't help but feel - and yes it's about as unscientific as you can get, that the playerbase is dropping as a result of the combined effects of submarines and carriers, with the addition ofc of superships (I don't myself feel as aggrieved by the superships since most playing them is kinda.. well idiots who don't understand how to position themselves).

 

I've only checked world of warships on steamcharts.. but I was just wondering if we have any official stats?

[COPlUM]

Most wows players use wargaming's launcher, not steam. Player # in steam charts and what you see in client correlates with school holidays, kids get 2 months off in july/august and another month around christmas. There is no exodus, kids are in classrooms now, they have homework when they get home, mom told them no computer until you finish your chores. You're seeing what you're trying to see, it's a phenomenon called confirmation bias.

[ColonelPete]

11 minutes ago, Bearwall said:

Clarification: I'm pretty biased against submarines and CVs (since the rework) and this may be the reason for my causality analysis.

 

I'm wondering wether we have any official data on the development of playernumbers across all the servers?

Not official, but as close as it gets:

https://stats.wotapi.ru/stats/wows/eu/EU

Player activity dropped by 0.8% since 2019.

 

Steamcharts are not reprensative of the game. Many players from there came during Covid. Now they have less time.

[COPlUM]

4 minutes ago, ColonelPete said:

Many players from there came during Covid. Now they have less time.

Yeah, the era of wear this mask, stay home, play video games, don't worry we will send cash is over. That and summer holiday for schools is out.

[Floofz]

7 minutes ago, ColonelPete said:

Not official, but as close as it gets:

https://stats.wotapi.ru/stats/wows/eu/EU

Player activity dropped by 0.8% since 2019.

 

Steamcharts are not reprensative of the game. Many players from there came during Covid. Now they have less time.

 

Theres no stats that tells you who plays the game thou. If WoWs only lost 0.8% of its playerbase since 2019 I can assure you its because when the old players left new ones replaced them, new and very temporary players who dont spend much money. I have personally played this game very little during the past 1-2 years or so, I only recently came back after the operations rework and I have played a few randoms and quiet a lot of ranked aswell. All I can say oh dear lord. I dont think its as visible for you as it is for me, seeing as how you apparently have been active during my absense, but if you havent played for a while and you come back it becomes pretty clear that the playerbase has changed drastically. Not only are basically all my old friends gone, my old clans gone. But every game even at higher tiers are filled with players with no flags and no camos playing like absolute potatoes. Theres clearly a LOT of very new players, lured in by ads, streamers and events just like any other mobile game (which this basically has become) but these players usually dont spend any money, and they usually dont stay very long.

 

This game is in an absolute disastrous state. The playerbase is HORRIFIC, the matchmaking is absolutely terrible (currently rocking 38% Winrate in ranked right now). And add to that are submarines and CVs which very few people like.

Speaking from personal experience, if WG wants people to stay they need to drastically make the game less frustrating and anger inducing.

[ColonelPete]

1 minute ago, Floofz said:

If WoWs only lost 0.8% of its playerbase since 2019 I can assure you its because when the old players left new ones replaced them,

That is the way F2P games work.

2 minutes ago, Floofz said:

and very temporary players who dont spend much money.

Which is extremly speculative. Considering that WG does not show much effort to keep long term players, it is more likely the new players must bring in more money.

 

[endlessBoogie]

Vor 25 Minuten, ColonelPete sagte:

Player activity dropped by 0.8% since 2019.

I am sure it will grow again, once enough subs are released.

The silent majority popularly demanded those boats, so they will come to play with their new favourite toy.

 

[HARBINGER_OF_SKULLS]

The real issue is the almost complete transformation from "decently skilled and motivated players" into "utterly incompetent and oblivious cashcows".

[Yosha_AtaIante]

8 minutes ago, HARBINGER_OF_SKULLS said:

"decently skilled and motivated players"

I dont remember having those 5 years ago LOL

[Mad_Dog_Dante]

10 'playernumbers'

20 insert troll comments

30 end loop

[zengaze]

29 minutes ago, AtaIante said:

I dont remember having those 5 years ago LOL

As someone who didn't play for a long period of time, i've noticed a massive drop in average player knowledge. You are right that there was always a lot of morons, but in the old ranked system from rank 5 on you would normally get challenging games. When i mostly played DDs it was very much a game of attrition, and a defensive style. Compare that to gold tier rank and it's like playing at rank 10 in the old system. A smattering of players who understand the mechanics, but the vast majority are just full send YOLO [edited].

[Verblonde]

1 hour ago, Floofz said:

But every game even at higher tiers are filled with players with no flags and no camos

I have no strong view vis-a-vis player numbers (mainly due to lack of data), but this caught my eye - are you talking about before or after the economic rework?

 

I still generally run cammo myself, but there is no longer a practical reason to do so (and the maximum number of signals you need to fly has roughly halved): camouflages no longer do anything other than look pretty. The detection bonus is now baked into the ship, the dispersion bonus is gone completely, and all the economic bonuses are now separate entities. The old approach of 'anyone not running cammo is an idiot (or, I suppose, deliberately playing with the difficulty turned up a bit)' doesn't really apply since the economic rework.

[Floofz]

5 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

I have no strong view vis-a-vis player numbers (mainly due to lack of data), but this caught my eye - are you talking about before or after the economic rework?

 

I still generally run cammo myself, but there is no longer a practical reason to do so (and the maximum number of signals you need to fly has roughly halved): camouflages no longer do anything other than look pretty. The detection bonus is now baked into the ship, the dispersion bonus is gone completely, and all the economic bonuses are now separate entities. The old approach of 'anyone not running cammo is an idiot (or, I suppose, deliberately playing with the difficulty turned up a bit)' doesn't really apply since the economic rework.

 

Its a combo thing. Not running camo, signals or flags usually means you have no idea how the game works, or you dont care, either way its never a good sign.

[ColonelPete]

10 minutes ago, Floofz said:

 

Its a combo thing. Not running camo, signals or flags usually means you have no idea how the game works, or you dont care, either way its never a good sign.

You are aware that camos are not a thing anymore?

[Floofz]

3 minutes ago, ColonelPete said:

You are aware that camos are not a thing anymore?

 

Im pretty sure camos are still in the game

[Cyclops_]

I know it was only a Co op I was in but there was 3 rental Richelieu’s  being sailed by 3 players who’s highest ship was a T3 and all 3 had less than 30 battles between them 😱 enough said.

[ColonelPete]

7 minutes ago, Floofz said:

 

Im pretty sure camos are still in the game

They are, but many Veterans made them into credits. They do not give any benefits anymore and many ships sail without camo now.

[Floofz]

Just now, ColonelPete said:

They are, but many Veterans made them into credits. They do not give any benefits anymore and many ships sail without camo now.

 

Hence why I said the combination of not having camos, flags or signals. Often even stock ships.

[mdjmcnally]

Ships have to be grinded so unless players have the free xp already then they have to grind the upgrade modules,

 

not a lack of understanding but a lack of free xp to instantly upgrade.

 

with the economic rework then free xp is harder to grind out for players working there way through.   Ironically veteran players complained about the speed people could grind and WG.

signals also more stingy in been given out compared to what used to be, so many people will keep them for when playing competitive as opposed to just randoms.

 

not everyone has millions of FreeXP and signal resources living around from years of playing.

 

having said that I see players in co-op sailing around fully flagged up and I have no idea why would do that in co-op unless just have such a huge stockpile.

 

also no idea what benefit you think flags have.    Been a long time since the ranked flags reduced service cost.

 

some of my ships that not played for a while have spotted that not got flags simply because could not be bothered to put one on.

 

makes no difference to the ship other then visual 

 

some of the reward or free permacammo look horrible so have turned the visual off as get the economic benefit without inflicting on my eyeballs.

[ColonelPete]

7 hours ago, mdjmcnally said:

Ships have to be grinded so unless players have the free xp already then they have to grind the upgrade modules,

 

not a lack of understanding but a lack of free xp to instantly upgrade.

 

with the economic rework then free xp is harder to grind out for players working there way through.   Ironically veteran players complained about the speed people could grind and WG.

signals also more stingy in been given out compared to what used to be, so many people will keep them for when playing competitive as opposed to just randoms.

 

not everyone has millions of FreeXP and signal resources living around from years of playing.

 

having said that I see players in co-op sailing around fully flagged up and I have no idea why would do that in co-op unless just have such a huge stockpile.

 

also no idea what benefit you think flags have.    Been a long time since the ranked flags reduced service cost.

 

some of my ships that not played for a while have spotted that not got flags simply because could not be bothered to put one on.

 

makes no difference to the ship other then visual 

 

some of the reward or free permacammo look horrible so have turned the visual off as get the economic benefit without inflicting on my eyeballs.

What has this to do with the topic?

[POIfection]

Best to look at revenue (if reported): these numbers could be 50% bots for all we know.

 

I played a few games this weekend, but the experience was unpleasant: I actually had more fun doing my chores (vacuuming and washing).

 

I'm spending more time on other games now: been playing Halo Master Chief Collection with the Wife; ODST next.

 

They have really wrecked this game.

 

 

[coldocean]

Vor 10 Stunden, Bearwall sagte:

Clarification: I'm pretty biased against submarines and CVs (since the rework) and this may be the reason for my causality analysis.

...

 

Ok, so this thread is a steatlh rant about subs and CVs. 

 

Vor 10 Stunden, Bearwall sagte:

I'm wondering wether we have any official data on the development of playernumbers across all the servers? I've been seeing the numbers drop in my prime time on the EU servers but since my observations is purely anecdotal I was wondering if it was a general trend. 

 

Take some notes for a  few weeks, when you are logged it. If the numbers are drastically dropping in the next few weeks, you will notice it for sure. Feel free to publish numbers here then.

 

Vor 10 Stunden, Bearwall sagte:

 

Personally I've been noticing a trend in the past few weeks/months and it may just be me who's been extremely unfortunate, but more and more games feature CVs and with the addition of submarines it's basically becoming an unplayable game unless you like sitting behind an island hitting someone with impunity or in the case of subs magically "guiding" your torps with a ping to basically say 'I click, I win' on anything..

You are a bit dramatic here, but that is ok. I am just surprised about the "few weeks/months" decription, because we have subs, CVs und Superships since many months. The subs are just no more a free for all test, instead they were officially released. Btw ... we got the most of the "subs are okay" phase behind us already. At the moment you can already see people adapting to the situation and bombing subs away with their planes. They will be nerfed to death in the beginning of next year anyway, I guess. I am not even sure you will see a lot of them after the nerf or at least it will be limited to a few ships. 

 

Vor 10 Stunden, Bearwall sagte:

 

I can't help but feel - and yes it's about as unscientific as you can get, that the playerbase is dropping as a result of the combined effects of submarines and carriers, with the addition ofc of superships (I don't myself feel as aggrieved by the superships since most playing them is kinda.. well idiots who don't understand how to position themselves).

 

You have a personal opinion about the game right now and it is totally fine you have that. I just doubt, that all other players have a similar opinions. If nobody would like to play subs, CVs or Superships, you would not have them in most games.

 

[ColonelPete]

27 minutes ago, POIfection said:

Best to look at revenue (if reported): these numbers could be 50% bots for all we know.

 

I played a few games this weekend, but the experience was unpleasant: I actually had more fun doing my chores (vacuuming and washing).

 

I'm spending more time on other games now: been playing Halo Master Chief Collection with the Wife; ODST next.

 

They have really wrecked this game.

 

 

What has revenue to do with player numbers?

[Karasu_Browarszky]

Personally, I'm playing drastically less now and it's down to the subs.

[Figment]

13 hours ago, HARBINGER_OF_SKULLS said:

The real issue is the almost complete transformation from "decently skilled and motivated players" into "utterly incompetent and oblivious cashcows".

What the hell, where have you been hiding those players since when we started this game? I demand an official enquiry into your selfish hoarding!

 

The rest of us have had to make due with RANDOM PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET.