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Outside of a pair of new releases, the PC gaming list of most-played games for May 2014 is a familiar story.
It’s not that nothing new has hit the PC in the last month, but you almost wouldn’t know it by the online play getting the lion’s share of PC gamers’ time in May. League of Legends sat firmly at number one with World of Warcraft in second, followed by DOTA 2, Diablo 3, and Counterstrike: Global Initiative.
LoL got a big host this past month from the League of Legends Championship Series as well as the addition of Braum, a new champion just added to the game’s playable roster. The Elder Scrolls Online was a bit of a surprise in May, as it dropped some 39% in the rankings and lost 22% of its players. It’s not too unusual for an MMO to drop off after the initial flood of players, but that is kind of steep at almost a quarter of it’s players.
Full list of what’s been happening and analysis of the finer points:
ArmA III and Watch Dogs made their debut on the charts, Dark Souls II and War Thunder rose through the ranks, and eSports competitions gave a boost to League of Legends in May.
Highlights
The latest addition to League of Legends’ roster, the champion Braum, led to a 12% increase in week-on-week playtime beginning on May 12. However, the largest spike coincided with the League of Legends Championship Series, which began on May 20, and the Riot 2014 Season Championship Series, which began on May 23.
World of Warcraft secured the number two spot once again. The PVP Live Armageddon Second Series 3v3 Invitational Tournament took place from May 24-25, right around the time of the playtime high for the month. Active players climbed about 8% over April, likely due in part to new members joining Raptr.
Playtime hours for The Elder Scrolls Online were down 39% in May, with a 22% decrease in the number of players. Update 1, released on May 23, gave players a new area to explore. The next major update (Update 2) is (tentatively) scheduled to come out the week of June 23.
World of Tanks rose two spots this month, thanks in part to developer Wargaming.net’s Military Parade Weekend promotion from May 9-12. This event offered players a number of discounts, new missions, and 10 bundles to choose from.
Dark Souls II rose 12 spots this month, after launching digitally on April 24 for PC, with boxed retail copies available on May 2.
Despite an update patch on May 14, Warframe playtime decreased by 15% month-on-month, while the number of players dropped 11%.
The MMO combat game War Thunder saw a massive spike in playtime beginning on May 16 with the open beta of its Ground Forces Expansion, which allows players to create their own military force with tanks as well as aircraft. As a result, week-on-week playtime nearly doubled.
ArmA III made its way back to the charts, thanks to a free Stream weekend from May 16-18 to honor Bohemia Interactive’s 15-year anniversary. After the initial bump, weekly gameplay time settled at about 35% higher than before. The ArmA III kart-racing DLC — an April Fool’s joke turned real thing — launched on May 29.
Finally, despite launching late in the month (May 27), Watch Dogs also made its debut on the charts. It’s got a shot at breaking the top 10 in June if current trends hold.
Also next month — look for WildStar to make a grand entrance.
Note: The Share number by each game represents that title’s gameplay time as a percentage of the total time spent on all the PC games played by Raptr members, and is useful for comparing the relative amount of playtime between particular games.
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