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Dispute over whether DotA2 has passed LoL in the west; LoL 500k concurrent US+EU

Big-E

Member
Completely believable if only looking at the West. Taking Asia into account and it wouldn't even be close.
 

Crub

Member
While I'm very sceptical of the claim, LoL's concurrent users numbers are misleading. I'm sure plenty of people have the community/matchmaking client running without actually playing the game, similarly to how plenty of people have Steam running even when they're not using it. This of course is true for Dota 2 as well, but likely to a much lesser extent.



The claim can be easily questioned just by twitch viewers alone.
No, it can't. If anything those numbers would actually support the claim made in the OP.
 
DOTA2 is so good. All those years ago playing DOTA, I had no idea it would blow up into this. Also, guys remember the 12 Blademasters? DOTA2 needs its own version!
 
5 million isn't even the concurrent daily users playing games on Steam, it's everyone who is signed in to Steam.

Not sure where this number is coming from or why Xfire gets involved.
 

Exuro

Member
Yeah I'm not seeing it. I don't know how many people play LoL vs Dota 2 in the west/east but on xfire it shows a a much higher concurrent base and hours played for LoL. I'd like to see more stats on their info.
 
LoLKing (the big LoL stat website) claims to get their statistics directly from Riot and that there isn't an API for this sort of thing.

Considering how low the stats are compared to Dota 2 there is something definitely fishy.
 
While I'm very sceptical of the claim, LoL's concurrent users numbers are misleading. I'm sure plenty of people have the community/matchmaking client running without actually playing the game, similarly to how plenty of people have Steam running even when they're not using it.

Speaking as someone who never closes Steam and frequently leaves the League client running, the League client will often kick you out after a certain period of inactivity, thought not always, and when it doesn't, it can still kick you out of chat or bug out when you try to resume playing. That really encourages you to just re log-in each time you play.

Also, Steam and the League client aren't the same; the former is a way to keep all your PC gaming managed, and the latter is a portal to just one videogame. It seems there are quite a lot of other people who just don't close Steam period, based on people I see on friends list or talking about it on podcast/internet.
 

Wynnebeck

Banned
Would have to see actual numbers but I expect Dota 2's concurrent numbers to jump dramatically once the game goes live to everyone.
 

Koeta

Member
Lets break this down since some people find it hard to read the op.

"in the West"
"based on the DFC Intelligence PC Game Meter service which combines data from multiple sources"
"including real-time stats from Xfire's 23 million users"


Keep in mind the title "Dota 2 passes League of Legends as most played PC game in the West" the number of players doesn't match up that much is for sure but as people have suggested, it might be more based on playtime and not players.
 

Gadirok

Member
Xfire keeps track of players online? Or is it the amount of players using xfire?

Because none of my friends use xfire.

Infact, LoL is extremely popular on my campus, in fact my entire city. Its insane, and I don't know of a single player who uses xfire.

Typically, we all communicate through skype, tbh. I haven't played in over a year though so maybe things have changed. I also haven't used xfire since 2008.
 

Kunan

Member
The only fishy thing is that previous reports, citing the same reports as a source, used concrete numbers and provided a metric. This just says in the west it's the most played. There are a hundred different ways you can spin that if you don't say any metric like hours/repeat visits/etc, or attach any numbers (both things provided by news outlets when this was on league). Saying most played in the west alone could be anything when provided without context.

I'm totally willing to eat my words if DOTA is ahead. I am a fan of league but have no problem with the competition. This is just me being skeptical of a news outlet. News outlets are notorious for one hit wonder titles, created to generate clicks, with no real substance within.
 
No it hasn't. The numbers just plain don't add up. LoL has 5 million PCU worldwide and Dota has 300k PCU, and I highly doubt the east makes up 94% of LoL's playerbase.

Also that report cites Xfire, lol.

Maybe DOTA2 players play more games but do not have many peeps online at once?
 

kswiston

Member
Not saying Dota 2 is bigger but your numbers are wrong.

Dota 2 has a unique players counter in the client that is never below 3 million per month.

Concurrent players for DOTA 2 top out at around 300k depending on the time of day, while LoL tops out in the millions. I think that is what he meant. League of legends has over 30M monthly players.

Also, if 300k people are playing DOTA2 at a time, and only 3M or so are logging in per month as you say, that is a crazy dedicated fanbase.
 

hamchan

Member
Probably more hours played on average per player in Dota 2, since the audience is more core focused compared to LoL's casual. Still, you'd have to be a really dodgy statistician to ever use that to declare the game more played than LoL.
 
But nothing in this thread says anything about concurrent so I don't see how that would be relevant.

I think the reason it's mentioned it is the one measurement we have from both companies, and if that particular factor is 10x in LoL's favor it's hard to believe that DotA 2 actually has more players overall.
 

Fivefold

Banned
Concurrent players for DOTA 2 top out at around 300k depending on the time of day, while LoL tops out in the millions. I think that is what he meant. League of legends has over 30M monthly players.

Also, if 300k people are playing DOTA2 at a time, and only 3M or so are logging in per month as you say, that is a crazy dedicated fanbase.

They're talking about players in the west, the vast, vast majority of those LoL accounts is from korean and chinese net cafes.
 

GavinGT

Banned
I doubt this is accurate, but I do hope Dota 2 eventually passes LoL. All the LoL players I know love Blizzard but hardly even know who Valve is ("They made Steam? I didn't know that"). Hopefully once Valve really starts pushing this game, these folks will begin to see Valve as a dev who's every bit as capable of making a masterfully crafted game as Blizzard.
 

Usobuko

Banned
From 6 months ago:
http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/10i3sx/so_you_thought_dota2_was_getting_large

One of the three chinese dota clients had 4,977,975,857 games played in one year, LoL has 1,015,443,102 games played to date.

Dota is definitely much bigger in china than it is anywhere else.

I think I read somewhere that someone clarify that 90% of the game or so last <10mins? That number is just impossible, really, even for China population and it's only one of the three cilent...
 
I don't see the problem with what they're saying.

It says it's only the west, it's about playtime (not players). It could use clarification and actual data but hey whatever. Also that Riot has used the same place to cite it's numbers from says something.

Also lol xfire.
 
It baffles me that DotA2 and LoL get so little love from gaming media - for years - when they are just the most played thing out there by far.
I think gaming journalism is crippled with stupid stuff like the doritos-gate, but even more importantly it totally lost touch with what gamers actually play.
/gaming coverage rant
 

Zeppelin

Member
It baffles me that DotA2 and LoL get so little love from gaming media - for years - when they are just the most played thing out there by far.
I think gaming journalism is crippled with stupid stuff like the doritos-gate, but even more importantly it totally lost touch with what gamers actually play.
/gaming coverage rant

The esport press cover them. That's enough imo.
 
Not saying Dota 2 is bigger but your numbers are wrong.

Dota 2 has a unique players counter in the client that is never below 3 million per month.

Concurrent. LoL has hit 5 million concurrent users, I haven't seen Dota2 top 300k concurrent yet via Steam stats, but I haven't looked too close (was actually more looking to see how Warframe was doing and just noticed the Dota numbers)
 
The esport press cover them. That's enough imo.

That's a by-product, if it's not on IGN, team portals like Liquid will fill the gap, and develop into medias... I don't see why we should not have MOBAs present on the biggest gaming portals homepage everyday there is no major AAA news. It does not make sense.
 
R

Retro_

Unconfirmed Member
And DOTA2 isn't even officially out yet

Damn

Whatever that means anymore

Invites are in abundance and they've been selling "early access" for about half a year now

Anyone who really wants to play dota 2 is playing dota 2.
 

Drkirby

Corporate Apologist
Yeah, the numbers are sketchy. The best I would argue from it is that Dota may be more played in the "hard core" PC crowd then LoL. Also, my gut says Xfire is likely bigger in (Eastern) Europe then the likes of North America.
 

SamVimes

Member
Whatever that means anymore

Invites are in abundance and they've been selling "early access" for about half a year now

Anyone who really wants to play dota 2 is playing dota 2.

There's no ads and the tutorial isn't nearly complete. It's the difference between seeking out a particular game and just trying it out after stumbling upon it.
 
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