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Diablo 3 Player Count Drops Big Time on Xfire, Consumers Are Fed Up

sazzy

sazzy

Member
  • Diablo III
  • World of Warcraft
  • League of Legends
  • Diablo 2

Images posted are from here:
http://beta.xfire.com/games/d3 [not all in the article quoted]
Change the 'd3' to 'wow', 'lol' etc to view the corresponding page.

The article itself is kinda trashy because it doesn't really go into actual, probable reasons why players are quitting, but if you want to read the whole thing: http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Diablo-3-Player-Count-Drops-Big-Time-Consumers-Fed-Up-44005.html

New chart stats from Xfire show that there's a massive dropoff in players for Blizzard's Diablo III. The stats also show that over the course of late May to late June, the amount of hours players invested into the game has significantly dwindled by almost half for Xfire users.

For those that don't know, Xfire keeps track of a lot of online gaming stats and numbers, enough to help with market analysts and industry financial reports carried out by groups such as DFC Intelligence, who recently made some fairly significant statistical contributions to the state of the gaming industry's market value.
Click to expand...

The Xfire stats for Diablo III as of June 24th shows the numbers down by more than half since May 24th, which you can check out right here. That's not very impressive. For those of you thinking that maybe this is just Xfire on a one-off, take into consideration that the stats for World of Warcraft are actually consistent and even more-so, have actually risen every-so-slightly over the past month, which you can view right here. This shows that Blizzard as a whole isn't dropping, just players from Diablo III are.
Click to expand...

So what do you think?

Personally, I've stopped playing till they fix it. I just found this data interesting so thought I'd share it.
 
A

Aeana

Member
It seems like a fairly small sample size. I don't even know anybody who uses Xfire anymore, personally. Not that I don't believe that people are leaving Diablo 3 for other games.
 
sazzy

sazzy

Member
Aeana said:
It seems like a fairly small sample size. I don't even know anybody who uses Xfire anymore, personally. Not that I don't believe that people are leaving Diablo 3 for other games.
Click to expand...

I don't think the sample size is small but I do think its self-selected (i.e. hardcore gamers who quickly beat and move on to new games) and not random.
 
S

Salih

Member
not a big shocker, i stopped playing after patch 1.03. This game became a joke after nerfing your character, stupid drop rates on inferno and high repair cost just to stabilize the gold economy. Game is just not fun anymore.
 
sazzy

sazzy

Member
I do think the upward trend for WoW for the same period is interesting. I know of 2 of my friends who resubbed to WoW after quitting D3 about 2 weeks ago.
 
S

Swig_

Member
Eh, I stopped playing because I was sick of terrible drops and exorbitant repair costs. I don't have hours every day to farm to progress a little further into each act. After SC2 and now D3, I'm not sure if I'll be running to buy any more Blizzard games day one.
 
T

The Dutch Slayer

Member
sazzy said:
I don't think the sample size is small but I do think its self-selected (i.e. hardcore gamers who quickly beat and move on to new games) and not random.
Click to expand...
This! "hardcore" moves on because they spend 60 hours in the first week on it. And are a little burned out.
They'll be back.

And everyone who plays it more casually just plays it but not on xfire and not every day.
 
S

Striek

Member
Well yeah, for most people its a game you'll play once, maybe once more a long time later, and never play again. Not everyone actually likes playing the same game over and over for better loot since theres not much of a competitive aspect to Diablo-games.
 
D

Dynoro

Member
I would think if most games kept half their player base for a month they would be overjoyed. Though xfire is a really weird metric to use (I can't think of anyone that uses that still) so will be a special subsection of players (as Sazzy suggests).
 
F

Fredescu

Member
Those graphs are poor comparisons, Diablo 3 is the only newly launched game among them. Not everyone bought that game to play it over and over and over.
 
E

EscapingJail

Member
Kod1ak said:
Eh, I stopped playing because I was sick of terrible drops and exorbitant repair costs. I don't have hours every day to farm to progress a little further into each act. After SC2 and now D3, I'm not sure if I'll be running to buy any more Blizzard games day one.
Click to expand...

Whats wrong with sc2?
 
A

Averon

Member
If I had to always be online to play SP, and I couldn't play my SP game because of sever issues, I'd be pissed as well.
 
G

Goron2000

best junior ever
Not surprised. You should of seen my face when I found out that I had to wait 3 days to play the game I just spent £45 on. Sort yourselves out blizzard, there's only so much your fans will take before they move on.
 
-tetsuo-

-tetsuo-

Unlimited Capacity
This can only mean consumers are fed up. It can not possibly mean that people are moving on to other games after they have beaten it.
 
S

Slycoopr

Member
Haven't played much at all since act 2 inferno was impossible to get through with my wizard. 1.03 made it easier, but I don't feel like playing this game anymore since they lowered my dps, and i'm still getting shit drops.
 
Burger

Burger

Member
I finished it on normal and go back to it again at some point, but my brain doesn't have that bit that releases chemicals when a rare drops so getting loot is not terribly appealing to me...
 
S

Swig_

Member
EscapingJail said:
Whats wrong with sc2?
Click to expand...

I liked the single player, but I hate what it has become because of "ESports". It's all about rushing and you rarely have any games anymore where you're allowed to tech up. At the beginning, I loved when Starcraft (the first one) was played on B.Net. It wasn't this crazy competetive scene (after a while it became that). It was fun.

Also, I was a platinum player, but didn't have the time to keep up with changes that affected builds and all that, so I got pigeon-holed into a spot where I either destroyed people or got my ass beaten. I never had any "fair" (or fun) games after that. Maybe it's not everyone else's experience, but it was mine and I doubt I'll be buying the expansion until its in the bargain bin.

Now Blizzard games are a $60 B.Net chat client to me.
 
S

strem

Member
sazzy said:
I do think the upward trend for WoW for the same period is interesting. I know of 2 of my friends who resubbed to WoW after quitting D3 about 2 weeks ago.
Click to expand...

That is exactly what I did. I just lost interest in D3 really quickly
 
A

Aphallatosis

Member
No idea how representative those stats are, but I went from bored, to a little high on it, to bored again until I quit a bit past 60. It didn't leave me with the fond feelings that Diablo 2 did either.

I felt I had to play for gold to buy my loot, then the when the RMAH came out I felt like I wouldn't even be able to buy good stuff with gold anymore. May have been more my perception than reality, but it still ruined the game for me.
 
S

Sophia

Member
Riggs said:
Shit drops, and rmah, really do not care anymore.
Click to expand...

RMAH is not the reason these players are leaving. The excessively long wait for balance patches and game improvements which should have been done before the game launched is...
 
N

Narag

Member
I'm more surprised going through the graphs and seeing Call of Duty 4 had nearly 90k hours logged on Monday. I had no idea both that and Call of Duty 2 still had such active playerbases.
 
S

Swig_

Member
Aphallatosis said:
No idea how representative those stats are, but I went from bored, to a little high on it, to bored again until I quit a bit past 60. It didn't leave me with the fond feelings that Diablo 2 did either.

I felt I had to play for gold to buy my loot, then the when the RMAH came out I felt like I wouldn't even be able to buy good stuff with gold anymore. May have been more my perception than reality, but it still ruined the game for me.
Click to expand...

Yep. At the rate I was getting terrible drops, it would take a couple of weeks to buy one new piece of gear that was a minor improvement. And if I had kept going, who knows how long it would have taken.
 
S

spindoctor

Member
I haven't played in a week or so (because I've been spending time on some other new releases). This is after putting 150 hours into the game and completing it 7 times. And I fully intend to return to it soon. But if I were an xfire user, even my stats would contribute to 'players leaving the game' which in my case would be total bullshit.

In fact, these stats are total bullshit. Apart from the sample size being miniscule, of course there will be people who stop playing it 6 weeks after release. It's summer and there are other things to do, or heck even other games to play. Or did anyone think the player graph for Diablo 3 would keep increasing for the rest of time?
 
K

Kong Fisso

Banned
One of my friends is super weird when it comes to D3.

He'll slag it himself - complaining about the auction house and what not. But whenever I say I'd rather spend my time doing something worthwhile, he gets super defensive and starts calling me a bully. Stockholm syndrome?
 
A

AdventureRacing

Member
Yet another game touted as a WoW killer is going to fall to the wayside whilst WoW just keeps on chugging. I bet with the release of the next xpac WoW will be somewhere near the peak of its playerbase again. This really is blizzards market to lose at the moment.

Kod1ak said:
I liked the single player, but I hate what it has become because of "ESports". It's all about rushing and you rarely have any games anymore where you're allowed to tech up. At the beginning, I loved when Starcraft (the first one) was played on B.Net. It wasn't this crazy competetive scene (after a while it became that). It was fun.
Click to expand...

This simply doesn't describe reality at all. Brood war was super competitive (as was SC1) and going online in it was a much more daunting experience. Brood war had just as much rushing on the ladder.

SC2 is far friendlier for casual players and for people who have less time to play the game.

Maybe it was slightly less competitive when it first released (though by memory it wasn't) but for the vast majority of its life span it was.
 
S

Swig_

Member
spindoctor said:
I haven't played in a week or so (because I've been spending time on some other new releases). This is after putting 150 hours into the game and completing it 7 times. And I fully intend to return to it soon. But if I were an xfire user, even my stats would contribute to 'players leaving the game' which in my case would be total bullshit.

In fact, these stats are total bullshit. Apart from the sample size being miniscule, of course there will be people who stop playing it 6 weeks after release. It's summer and there are other things to do, or heck even other games to play. Or did anyone think the player graph for Diablo 3 would keep increasing for the rest of time?
Click to expand...

I think they're pretty accurate. Everyone I know who was playing D3 has stopped and have went back to Wow, EVE, LoL, Dota2, etc.. If I logged on I would be blown away if I saw any of my friends playing D3.
 
C

CheesecakeRecipe

Stormy Grey
Hardly surprising, I've been fucked with Error 3007 since just after launch and doing all of Blizzard's workarounds have resulted in me being able to play for 5 minutes at a time instead of 2. It has yet to be resolved, and yet more players are getting the error after subsequent patches.

Also, horrible balance patch decisions. O lawd dem sum messed up nerfs.
 
S

Swig_

Member
AdventureRacing said:
This simply doesn't describe reality at all. Brood war was super competitive (as was SC1) and going online in it was a much more daunting experience. Brood war had just as much rushing on the ladder.

SC2 is far friendlier for casual players and for people who have less time to play the game.

Maybe it was slightly less competitive when it first released (though by memory it wasn't) but for the vast majority of its life span it was.
Click to expand...

I played a TON of SC and I always enjoyed myself. It wasn't like it is now until BW came out. Back then the idea of ESports was a joke. I didn't play as much after BW was released.

Either way, like I said, that was my experience. I sign on to b.net and that's how it is for me. You can have your opinion, I can have mine. My Blizzard games gather dust while I play other games that keep bringing me back. Same goes with almost everyone I know. That's a fact.
 
M

michaelius

Banned
As they say there are lies, bigger lies and statistics.

But of course hater would ignore simple fact that D3 has single player mode which forces people to go online - which means people who just wanted to finish it are included in stats for early weeks after release as well as completly normal behaviour of people moving to other game or playing it less after a month.
 
R

Riggs

Banned
Marrshu said:
RMAH is not the reason these players are leaving. The excessively long wait for balance patches and game improvements which should have been done before the game launched is...
Click to expand...
It's one of my reasons. Plus everything you just said also to honest. 1 build type that is viable in inferno per class makes this game boring as hell.

Kept my original post super short on purpose, was typing on my phone sorry.
 
C

ch0mp

Member
Not at all surprising. Games by AAA developers are always going to have the most people playing shortly after release.
 
T

toastyToast

Member
Not surprising. Unless you happen to be part of the 0.5% of people who gets a decent drop every once in a while the end game (if you can call it that) is incredibly unsatisfying.

Game becomes a gear check in Inferno, especially so because there is an absurd amount of guaranteed damage. Hitboxes are atrocious and areas become smaller and smaller in scope as the game progresses. There really is no such thing as being good at the game. A cookie-cutter build with the right gear and even an infant can clear Inferno.

That said, the combat is fun while it's still possible to shrug everything off. Can't say I was ever bored chaining bloody explosions with my monk. Gonna wait until Blizzard gets a firm idea of what they want the game to be. Too much fluctuation at the moment.
 
Z

Zaptruder

Banned
Yeah... I quit shortly after patch too. Mainly because I wanted to play Dragon's Dogma which had just arrived...

But after playing Dragon's Dogma, I realised that the core gameplay... you know, the clicking and killing on things... is actually shit and not that much fun.

Oh wells. Looking forward to better genres ripping off the good mechanics in the game (which really a lot weren't even theirs to begin with. Limited active skill selection that can be swapped in and out of comes straight out of Guild Wars).
 
R

Riggs

Banned
toasty_T said:
Not surprising. Unless you happen to be part of the 0.5% of people who gets a decent drop every once in a while the end game (if you can call it that) is incredibly unsatisfying.

Game becomes a gear check in Inferno, especially so because there is an absurd amount of guaranteed damage. Hitboxes are atrocious and areas become smaller and smaller in scope as the game progresses. There really is no such thing as being good at the game. A cookie-cutter build with the right gear and even an infant can clear Inferno.

That said, the combat is fun while it's still possible to shrug everything off. Can't say I was ever bored chaining bloody explosions with my monk. Gonna wait until Blizzard gets a firm idea of what they want the game to be. Too much fluctuation at the moment.
Click to expand...

My problem isn't even that the game does not involve actual skill. (God that sounds so fucked up doesn't it?). I am fine with it being a gear check. What I am not fine with is the build viability. I mean every single class has one, MAYBE two viable builds in inferno. Now with the right gear and I do mean the right gear, one can stretch out and start playing with more builds. But we are talking Kripp levels here, he still uses sword n board lol.

I want to take my barbarian and use a 2hander, I would love to dual wield as a DH, my friend who plays a monk wants to be a dps beast (which is what you think a monk would be, melee dps ..... but whatever entirely different discussion). That is my main problem, being forced to use one build per character. If I wanted play like that I could go back to fucking EQ.
 
Maximus.

Maximus.

Member
Diablo has lost a lot of the appeal to me. I play it time to time, but its not something thats always on my mind or my go to game.
 
N

Neki

Member
Riggs said:
My problem isn't even that the game does not involve actual skill. (God that sounds so fucked up doesn't it?). I am fine with it being a gear check. What I am not fine with is the build viability. I mean every single class has one, MAYBE two viable builds in inferno. Now with the right gear and I do mean the right gear, one can stretch out and start playing with more builds. But we are talking Kripp levels here, he still uses sword n board lol.

I want to take my barbarian and use a 2hander, I would love to dual wield as a DH, my friend who plays a monk wants to be a dps beast (which is what you think a monk would be, melee dps ..... but whatever entirely different discussion). That is my main problem, being forced to use one build per character. If I wanted play like that I could go back to fucking EQ.
Click to expand...

You can easily do that post 1.03 patch. The content is so easy that having all overly defensive stats isn't even needed anymore.
 
S

Sophia

Member
Riggs said:
It's one of my reasons. Plus everything you just said also to honest. 1 build type that is viable in inferno per class makes this game boring as hell.

Kept my original post super short on purpose, was typing on my phone sorry.
Click to expand...

I have not been impacted by the RMH at all. Infact, it's paid for FFXI for me.

However, the stupid balance, design choices, lack of PvP, lack of commodities on the RMAH, all around balance, complete lack of difficult in normal, cheapness in Inferno, and all around WTF item drops and itemization have really impacted me, and why I've virtually stopped playing. :\

Ultimoo said:
You can easily do that post 1.03 patch. The content is so easy that having all overly defensive stats isn't even needed anymore.
Click to expand...

Not easily. It went from impossible to doable, but it is by no means easy.
 
R

Riggs

Banned
Ultimoo said:
You can easily do that post 1.03 patch. The content is so easy that having all overly defensive stats isn't even needed anymore.
Click to expand...

Well maybe I will have to give 2handed barb a try : )

I notice I am only in nightmare and everything is a joke, I can AFK to piss come back and still be alive easily.

I only did inferno up to belial post 1.03 on my DH.

Just remembered trying to dual wield as a life leech frenzy barbarian and it was impossible even in nightmare.


Marrshu said:
I have not been impacted by the RMH at all. Infact, it's paid for FFXI for me.

However, the stupid balance, design choices, lack of PvP, lack of commodities on the RMAH, all around balance, complete lack of difficult in normal, cheapness in Inferno, and all around WTF item drops and itemization have really impacted me, and why I've virtually stopped playing. :\



Not easily. It went from impossible to doable, but it is by no means easy.
Click to expand...


Sweet!!! Happy for you man. I just think RMAH is gross, I rather keep things like that out of my games. PVP will be strange in D3 when you can buy all your gear w/ dad's CC. We will see though I have no idea how that is going to work out.
 
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