The EVE-convenient Truth - A story of pilot decay.
May 4th, 2013 Saw 65,303 active pilots online. Not since or before have we reached more active pilots. The decade from alpha to 2013 was an increase of a few hundred to 65,000. The almost half decade since has seen a 100% steady pilot decay.
The following yearly peak was in Feb 2014 at 57,213 active online pilots.
From 2003 to 2005 there was a small player base that started to take off during 2005 and continued to rocket by the same amount or average each year till the peak of 2013. 2013, while maybe not the best fiscal year for revenue, was the best year in EVE history for steady active players online and peaks throughout the year of over 50k many many times.
After the 2013 peak of 65,303 pilots, EVE began its slow descent down losing pilots. Pilot decay has not been worse before or after. The pilot decay has been continining since 2013. While our loss of players is at a steady downward pace we are not losing them as fast as we gained them during EVE Circa 2005 - 2013 named by most; the “Good Ol Days”. From 2010 to the end of 2013/start of 2014 the average player count was 50,000 players on the weekends and holidays. Now That player average from 2014 to 2016 is less than 30k. Somewhere around the 26-28k mark. Still slowly progressing down from 2013 to now. Taking the last year into consideration we are looking at an average of only 30k -33k at it’s highest average for 2017.
2016 saw a spike at Christmas of 51,000 players but dropped from there and again has not stopped dropping to where we currently sit. 2017 averages out at like I said 30k - 33k active players on peak times. Weekends and holidays. All peaks are holidays, esp Christmas as well as winter, and summer. These 3 things metrics have been in the EVE statistics and analytics since 2003 beta.
The fact of the matter remains. EVE is bleeding pilots. If you take into consideration the banning of a lot of high-level players who’s fan base followed them to their biomassed graves and the EULA changes regarding multi-boxing, ISBoxer, and bot mining which disrupted the economy as well as the player base, it still does not make up the difference in the steady decay.
From June of this year to about 2 months ago, September, we stagnated at the same 25k-31K-ish players. Longest stagnation of low peak in 3 years. EVE reached the hight of it’s popularity in 2012 through 2013. What we have now are a fanbase of loyal players, returning vets, and newbs who keep the game going.
THIS IS NOT ANOTHER EVE IS DEAD POST! Just to put that out there. EVE is CLEARLY NOT dead. However, DIEING? Maybe. Maybe Not. This is simply the empirical facts based on data generated from the server. (COURTESY AND CREDIT to Chribba - OMG Labs) Based on the data of over ~14 years if current data remains true and the decay remains steady as it has for many many years in just 2 years we will only have 15-20k players on during Friday and Saturday nights. less than 10k players during the weekday. SOLO PVP will be an afterthought at that point as well as much more.
So with this all being said what can we as players do to KEEP the EVE alive and bring in more players to stop the steady pilot and player decay. Or what are your thoughts in general?
NOTE: I have already anticipated the mass trolling of this post. So, by all means, Go ahead. = ) This post was meant for more like-minded people who are open to analytics, business and industry metrics and statistics and care about their in-game assets and what their worth will be in a few years. Or the average interested player. That Guardian vexor You’ve had for 10 years, or the Mega Fed, or any other legacy items or t2 BPO’s that are priceless now will be priceless in the worst of ways in years to come if we as players do not fix this.
Thanks to the very very few who will read this and understand.
Regards,
Oryion - Tek
