EU4 - Playerstats

[Johan]

Country Popularity
These are the most popular countries currently, when it comes to games played each day. The stats varies by some 0.02% each day, but when there are big sales spikes, England, Castille & France becomes enormously more popular than their normal daily popularity.

[LIST=1]
[*]England/GBR		8.49%
[*]France			7.59%
[*]Castile/Spain		7.25%
[*]Ottomans		5.62%
[*]Muscowy			4.92%
[*]Brandenburg/Prussia 	4.66%
[*]Portugal		4.09¤
[*]Austria 		4.02%
[*]Poland/Commonwealth	2.96%
[*]Sweden			2.91%
[*]Byzantium		2.63%
[*]Venice			2.40%
[*]Japan			1.92%
[*]Burgundy		1.77%
[*]Denmark			1.60%
[*]
[/LIST]

Multiplayer
Playing multiplayer has turned out rather popular in EU4, as about 31% of all games started/loaded in a day is a multiplayer game. Its been remarkably steady between 29% and 34% since the start, with the spikes over weekends.


Usermods
Using mods is something thats been very popular through the history of Paradox. Including the Steamworkshop has made it much easier for people to find good mods, and to distribute their mods. About 31% of all players use a usermod, with the Extended Timeline mod currently being most popular, with about 1.9% of all players playing with it.

Mod Name				Percentage of all used mods
[LIST=1]
[*]Extended Timeline			6,16%
[*]Bigger Diplomacy View			5,00%
[*]Timeline 9999				3,06%
[*]Deutschkorrektur			2,51%
[*]Flags Improvement Pack			2,50%
[*]Better Terra Incognita			2,42%
[*]Spreading Culture			2,25%
[*]Better UI Mod				1,92%
[*]Tooltip Font Mod			1,89%
[*]Indestructible buildings		1,75%
[*]Even Better Terra Incognita		1,74%
[*]Extended Vanilla Experience		1,70%
[*]The Tenth Idea				1,67%
[*]MEIOU and Taxes v1.13 (19-Jan-2014)	1,65%
[*]Third Odyssey				1,56%
[*]Cash Only Buildings			1,35%
[*]HRE Retexture Project (WIP)		1,27%
[*]Extra Idea Groups			1,18%
[*]WE HAVE CASUS BELLI			1,17%
[*]All Wasteland Unlocked			1,16%
[/LIST]

 

[Xaioxaiofan]

Multiplayer
Playing multiplayer has turned out rather popular in EU4, as about 31% of all games started/loaded in a day is a multiplayer game. Its been remarkably steady between 29% and 34% since the start, with the spikes over weekends.

Wow, a bunch more than I expected, I normally only see a few games when I check multiplayer.

 

[Thracian]

wow. the top three countries are the ones which i play most rarely

 

[Red John]

Wow, a bunch more than I expected, I normally only see a few games when I check multiplayer.

Same. Surprised it's that many.

 

[Frederick III]

I wonder about the quality of these statistics. I often play (for instance) without being connected to the internet at all. Are these statistics saying "31% of all games played are multiplayer" or "31% of all games recorded by Steam are multiplayer," and if it's the second is there any estimate of how many games are being played that aren't being observed?

 

[delra]

31% of all games started/loaded in a day is a multiplayer game

These stats can't possibly be accurate.

 

[TheRevanchist]

I wonder about the quality of these statistics. I often play (for instance) without being connected to the internet at all. Are these statistics saying "31% of all games played are multiplayer" or "31% of all games recorded by Steam are multiplayer," and if it's the second is there any estimate of how many games are being played that aren't being observed?

It's probably Steam only. I mean, if you're not connected then there's no way for them to collect the info.

Unless... Paradox = NSA

 

[newtlord]

Have the constant crashes in multiplayer been worked out?

If not, then have these statistics been in some way corrected for them, so that crashing and restarting the game five times in a single multiplayer session doesn't count as five separate instances of loading up a game?

 

[oblio-]

These stats can't possibly be accurate.

They probably are accurate. But they do not account for total play time.

Johan, you probably have the data - trick question - what is the average play time for a multiplayer game versus a single player one? I'd bet SP = 10-20-30x MP.

How many MP games reach 1550, let's say? Probably only a very small percentage.

 

[Sensational]

Remember that anyone can start say, a duo game with their buddy, no one knows that these 2 players play EU4 (Except for the people with the data), they never visit the forums or join the big games, they never allow anyone to join their game.

While the stats are probably a bit murky due to variables like MP instability, offline statistics and SP game length vs MP game length, there's probably scores of casual players who play casual MP games without ever announcing them.

 

[Thracian]

does multiplayer stat include the total clicks of start, or does it indicate (total clicks of start)/(number of human players in that session)?

 

[Frederick III]

Remember that anyone can start say, a duo game with their buddy, no one knows that these 2 players play EU4 (Except for the people with the data), they never visit the forums or join the big games, they never allow anyone to join their game.

While the stats are probably a bit murky due to variables like MP instability, offline statistics and SP game length vs MP game length, there's probably scores of casual players who play casual MP games without ever announcing them.

True, but for every "casual MP" pair why wouldn't we expect there to be a larger number of quiet solo-players?

 

[CyaN]

That a lot of MP games are started means that a lot of MP games are started.

That's all. Interpret that as you want.

I have started around 10 SP games, which account for around 400 hours. I have also started 10 MP games, which account for around 2 hours. I'm not 50/50 SP/MP: I'm playing a game with buggy MP.

 

[Sensational]

True, but for every "casual MP" pair why wouldn't we expect there to be a larger number of quiet solo-players?

We do. The difference is that everyone is sceptical of how large the MP number is, even though it's not even one third of the played games. Previous experience, confirmation bias (Many of us probably engage in the forum based MP games when we do play MP, for example) and what-not would definitely point us in that direction, I'm just providing potential variables for why the stats might be more accurate than people estimate them to be.

 

[LarryLeica]

A more meaningful MP/SP stat would be hours played, not games started.

Would have expected Austria and Muscovy to be slightly higher, however, they are nations that people tend to play after they've played a couple of games of the more popular nations I think.

 

[highsis]

So I'm the minority to always play the hardest country? Surprising.

Doesn't the game with major power end with like two wars? As England, the game's over if you eat France and Scotland.

Also I didn't expect MEIOU and Taxes v1.13 (19-Jan-2014) to sit at 1,65%. Performance hits really hard, I guess.

 

[highsis]

BTW Thank you for posting stats like this Johan. Very insteresting.

 

[TheBloke]

BTW Thank you for posting stats like this Johan. Very insteresting.

Yeah, interesting stuff!

A more meaningful MP/SP stat would be hours played, not games started.

Yeah, that is the meaningful stat.

My "total games started", excluding games I've used for testing stuff (which is actually quite a lot, but irrelevant for the point in hand), would be about 4. Amongst which I have around 600 hours played. I am somewhat atypical in that regard, having started far fewer new games than most people, but still the general point applies: people start a small number of SP games and play them for a long time.

This may well not be true of MP games, where I would think the average game length could be a lot shorter.

EDIT: oh, OK, a reload of a save is a new start. So what I said above about new games doesn't apply quite as I thought. But I think it does still apply in general - the average SP session will be longer than the average MP session, with fewer reloads. And people might start 10 MP games and leave fairly soon, but this does not apply so much for SP.

~ 30% is still higher than I expected, and it's interesting to see. But the stat I find most interesting is the comparison of hours played.

 

[Johan]

That a lot of MP games are started means that a lot of MP games are started.

That's all. Interpret that as you want.

I have started around 10 SP games, which account for around 400 hours. I have also started 10 MP games, which account for around 2 hours. I'm not 50/50 SP/MP: I'm playing a game with buggy MP.

each reload of a savegame is a "start"

 

[WeissRaben]

each reload of a savegame is a "start"

Which means that my SP game, which has been open for 7 hours or so in the background or being played, counts for one, while an MP game which has to be restarted 2-3 times counts for 2-3?