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The rankings assembled by social gaming site Raptr got a little bit of a shake up this month as the Steam Summer Sale and the debut of new MMO Wildstar made an impression on the service and the gamers that use it.
MMOs are weird things, especially from the viewpoint of an outsider and non-fan. Other than World of Warcraft, which has a pretty firm foothold (still!) on gamers attention, it seems lilt new titles emerge, make a splash, and then fade away into nothing at an alarming rate. Take The Elder Scrolls Online for instance.
The game debuted to great acclaim (including from us) and excellent fan response only to get buried a few months later and beat out by The Elder Scrolls (decidedly not online) Skyrim. Now, Skyrim might have had a boost from the Steam Summer Sale’s incredibly cheap pricing on it, but that doesn’t account for the Online title’s complete bottoming out. Enter Wildstar.
The new game has made a splash on Raptr and placed at number 6 on the most-played list for June. That’s impressive, but how long will it last? There are a ton of MMOs out there collectively and none of them seem to be more than the flavor of the month for PC gamers. Multiplayer game on the other hand (not of the ‘massively’ variety) have a chokehold on the ranks with only really Watch_Dogs and a few others standing toe to toe with them.
Have a look at the list and description of what’s happening in PC gaming land below, and then leave your one thoughts on MMOs and online gaming in the comments section.
Most Played PC Games: June 2014 — WildStar on the Rise, Steam Summer Sale Aftermath
WildStar, the new MMORPG from Carbine/NCSoft, had a strong launch, Battlefield 3 made a comeback thanks to Origin’s On the House program, and Payday 2 climbed the ranks due to new content and Steam’s Summer Sale. Overall, gameplay time among Raptr members in June was up 15% over last month.
Highlights
League of Legends playtime climbed 13.26% in June, despite a decrease in the game’s Share percentage. The game received character, item, and map patches throughout the month and featured a limited run of the One For All: Mirror Mode that ended early in the month. Overall, League of Legends had a steady increase in playtime in June, which was probably driven in part by Raptr’s growing userbase.
DOTA 2 regained the number two spot from World of Warcraft, helped by a 24.52% playtime boost in June compared to May. Increased Summer Sale-related Steam activity was likely a factor, and on the content side the game added ranked team matchmaking. World of Warcraft, on the other hand, saw an 8.76% playtime decrease in June, due in part to WildStar stealing some players.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s playtime rose 10.88% in June despite losing a small percentage of Share time. The game was part of Steam’s Summer Sale in June and also had the Arms Deal Update that included major weapon balancing.
WildStar made a resounding 6th-place entry into Most Played as it released on June 3, with weekly patches throughout the month. The new MMO impacted the playtime of The Elder Scrolls Online, WoW, Dark Souls II, and Final Fantasy XIV Online, and was definitely a factor that led to those games slipping in the ranks.
Watch Dogs jumped 11 spots to claim 8th place. The game released very late in May, so June was its first full month of availability. A stability/performance patch on June 18 had little impact on the expected post-launch playtime fall-off.
Battlefield 4 saw a slip in the rankings due to the Battlefield: Hardline beta. Gameplay time for BF4 cratered between June 19-26, which coincided with the opening of Hardline’s beta to all PC players. Battlefield 3, on the other hand, saw a 230% playtime surge. BF3 benefited from Origin’s On the House Program, which offers up a free game to Origin members for a limited amount of time.
Payday 2 also got a major bump in the rankings thanks to two different Steam sales (one Summer, one not) and a comparatively smaller boost from the June 17 Big Bank Heist DLC.
Elder Scrolls Online was in bad shape in June as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim edged out the MMO in the rankings. This is most likely due to a big Summer Sale discount for Skyrim and WildStar claiming a chunk of ESO playtime; ESO hours were down by nearly half in June compared to May. We could very well see both Elder Scrolls games out of the top 20 in July.
