I:R comparative performance with other GSG

[CPU Taro]

Players have many options nowadays to choose what to play and niche games do not have big audiences. I do not think I:R or Vic3 are at fault, the prove is that many other very good games have less peak players.

Much of it has nothing to do with the game itself. In I:R's case, a lot of people aren't willing to pick up a PDX GSG -- typically seen as almost a live service in terms of expected updates and DLC releases -- when it has been distinctly "abandoned" compared to the other games in that 'set'. Even some of those that have already paid for it just get put off and don't give it a second chance.

It's a trust issue, and sadly quite a self-perpetuating problem without dev intervention.

 

[IsaacCAT]

Good afternoon,

This week we see a regression to the mean that seems impossible to break. All GSG loses players (-4,52%) with PDX games following the same trend (-3,64%).

Looking at the big names we see a big drop (-23,03%) in TOTAL WAR: Warhammer III. The other top games show a decrease in players for EU IV (-8,50%), Crusaders Kings III (-7,29%), Sid Meier Civilization VI (-5,96%), Stellaris (-3,14%). From the big seven, only Sid Meier CIV V increases players (+1,90%).

I:R this week has gotten a surprise announcement with a beta for the anniversary patch addressing some long time bugs that the community wanted fixed. Thanks to Niels and PDX Katten love for the game, we will have a better game to play. I:R increases this week players (7,78%).

Victoria 3 with the announcement of the new DLC also increases players this week (+3,24%).

 

[olivenkranz]

Isn't Gorion Niels? Katten is the community manager attached to the update afaik.

 

[IsaacCAT]

Isn't Gorion Niels? Katten is the community manager attached to the update afaik.

My mistake. There is the developer and the community manager, also Johan helped with this patch. Thank you so much to everyone involved for nothing else than love for the game.

 

[juanen]

Hi Isaac, maybe this week you'll have to add a new game to your chart
From what I can gather, the launch of Age of Wonders 4 has been quite decent so far. It will be interesting to observe whether this release has any impact on the player count of Civilization 5 and Civilization 6. Additionally, it remains to be seen whether Age of Wonders 4 can maintain a sufficiently high player count to secure a spot on your chart

 

[IlikeTrains]

Hi Isaac, maybe this week you'll have to add a new game to your chart
From what I can gather, the launch of Age of Wonders 4 has been quite decent so far. It will be interesting to observe whether this release has any impact on the player count of Civilization 5 and Civilization 6. Additionally, it remains to be seen whether Age of Wonders 4 can maintain a sufficiently high player count to secure a spot on your chart

Age of Wonders is not a GSG. On the other hand, neither is Warhammer. It seems the scope has been expanded from what the thread title suggests.

 

[IsaacCAT]

Good morning,

We are in May and yesterday Age of Wonders 4 was released. This shows up in PDX numbers (+31,52%) and overall numbers (+7,47%).

For the top games we see the irruption of AoW4 (+100%) that does not show in the chart as it shares the same point as HOI IV (+2,41%). Other games similar to AoW4 may be affected by the release, like Civ V (+0,37%) and Civ VI (-7,75%). But all other games decreased: TOTAL WAR: Warhammer III (-16,41%), Crusaders Kings III (-5,12%), Europa Universalis (-2,74%) and Stellaris (-0,21%).

​

I:R increases players from last week (+11,27%) thanks to the beta patch that does not stop giving goodies. This Friday we may see an update of the beta patch, behold the civil wars in I:R.

Victoria 3 decreases players from last week (-7,21%)

 

[IsaacCAT]

Age of Wonders is not a GSG. On the other hand, neither is Warhammer. It seems the scope has been expanded from what the thread title suggests.

The definition of what is a GSG is not clearly defined and not the topic of this thread. See here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...erpretation-of-a-grand-strategy-game.1514352/ (moved by PDX mods to OT Forum so an off topic too)

I use the category from https://steamdb.info/charts/?tagid=4364 Steam DB that includes some games that could losely fit a broader definition of the term

 

[Chaostrian]

It doesn't matter whether GSG or not, as long as it's not "the same shooter that keeps appearing on the market without improvements but just a copy of its predecessor" but rather a strategy game, then has a right to be mentioned

 

[IsaacCAT]

Welcome back one more week to the thread. The overall players decrease this week compared to the previous (-5,29%) but less for PDX (-2,80%). Comparing one week after the launch of Victoria 3 and Age of Wonders it seems this time players are sticking more if we look at the updated openning post chart.

When we look at top GSG we confirm the decrease from Age of wonders (-22,79%) is less than Victoria 3 (-32,6%) after one week of release. But the overall numbers are affected by the increase of players for Stellaris (+47,47%) for the release of the latest content patch Galactic Paragons. With CK3 (+1,63%) they are the only games increasing players this week, HOI IV (-2,74%), CIV V (-3,46%) CIV VI (-6,0%), EU IV (-6,90%) and Warhammer III (-14,34%) all lose players.

​

I:R increases players (+3,96%) with yet another update on the open beta anniversary patch and Invictus 1.6 hotfixes.

Victoria 3 follows the downard trend this week (-9,87%).

 

[IsaacCAT]

Good morning!

This week is the third consecutive week that PDX is well above its long trend peak players, this week has an increase from last week (+7,92%) that pushes up the overall index for all GSG players too (+1,37%).

If we look at the top GSG we can see that CK3 has broken all records in this thread with an astonishing +108,83% from the previous week. This is of course consequence of the latest expansion, tours and tournements that has been very well marketed. Far away are the increases of HOI IV (+9,83%), Stellaris (+5,99%) and Total War: Warhammer III (+3,03%). The other top GSG decrease players from last week: Age of Wonders 4 (-36,70%) CIV VI (-7,23%), EU IV (-3,90%), CIV V (-0,77%).

​

I:R has a very good week (+26,94%) thanks to the beta patch from PDX and the work of moders updating the interest for the game.

Victoria 3 is not capitalizing yet the new DLC voice of the people that will launch next week (-3.98%)

 

[Grandpa Maur]

I wonder if Imp dynamic will last longer. It would be intetesting strategy now to release a small patch every other month, perhaps, little dev time for potential reanimation.

 

[IsaacCAT]

Good afternoon,

This is the last week of May and PDX GSG players are still above the long term trend. However, there is a decrease for PDX (-9,63%) that drags down the overall numbers of players (-0,25%).

The release of Voice of the People for Victoria 3 is a success (+115,76%), puting back Victoria 3 in the Top GSG chart. But it seems players come from other PDX games: Age of Wonders (-35,41%), CKIII (-18,0%), Stellaris (-17,05%), EU IV (-5,72%) and HOIV (-3,20%). GSG from other publishers have different outcomes: CIV VI (+18,82%), CIV V (+0,38%), Total War: WARHAMMER III (-9,70%).

We will see how this situation evolves.

I:R is also affected this week with a lose of -15,95% players from last week.

 

[juanen]

Any reason why Civ 6 got such an increase after so much time losing players?

 

[Herennius]

Any reason why Civ 6 got such an increase after so much time losing players?

Perhaps because another patch released (of which not exactly is known what it fixed, as there was no official statement/changelog)

 

[ashbery76]

I bet many wouldn't think HOI4 is the most played Paradox game.

 

[IsaacCAT]

Good afternoon,

This is the end of May and oh what a month, what a lovely month. We have seen many DLC released and a new game from PDX. As a result, the long term trend for overall GSG players is up (see updated opening post). This week, however, PDX GSG peak players have decreased (-7,82%) while the overall increased a bit (+1,51%).

Looking at the biggest games, we lose sight of Age of Wonders 4 (-28,58%) after 4 weeks in the top games. Victoria 3 also goes under (-26,54%) after the release of its Voice of the People DLC. In comparison, Victoria 3 stayed one more week than Age of Wonders before losing its 77% initial week peak players.

I:R will get out of the beta patch soon, many more bug fixes have been included following PDX_Gorion announce yesterday. We are very happy indeed (+10,56%).

 

[IsaacCAT]

Good afternoon,

This week we see a big decrease of all GSG (-7,45%) with PDX leading the decrease (-8,55%) from last week peak players.

All top games are down, except for CIV V (+2,14%). I cannot say much about seasonality because I do not have enough years data or the median age of players but I would say that in most schools and universities the month of June has many exams going on. We will see if numbers recover at the end of this month back to the upward trend identified in the Opening Post.

If we apply an asburd logic, sorry Spock, the statistics science and all the correlation is not causation defenders, we could imply the proportion of students of each game by the decrease this week, thus the leaderboard of top GSG games played by students would be:

1. Age of Wonders 4 (-36,04%)
2. Victoria 3 (-20,16%)
3. Total War: WARHAMMER III (-20,07%)
4. Crusaders Kings III (-15,85%)
5. Sid Meier Civ VI (-11,31%)
6. Europa Universalis IV (-5,12%)
7. Stellaris (-1,82%)
8. Hearts of Iron (-1,57%)
9. Sid Meiers CIV V (+2,14%)

I:R has a slight decrease of players this week (-3,74%). The full content for the beta is up for testing and we expect a public release soon with much fanfare.

Following the absurd logic of numbers presented before, I:R is a game played mostly by non-students.

 

[darkyodada]

I remain convinced that if we hadn't had COVID, the game would still be in development and we would have at least 3 or 4 more DLCs. I also remain convinced since the last video conference on the youtube of paradox that they will be content to recycle for life their 3 or 4 licenses that work and they will never make other franchises. If, like me, you are expecting periods other than the Middle Ages (CK), the Renaissance (EU) and the Second World War (HOI), I think we will be disappointed.

 

[juanen]

I remain convinced that if we hadn't had COVID, the game would still be in development and we would have at least 3 or 4 more DLCs. I also remain convinced since the last video conference on the youtube of paradox that they will be content to recycle for life their 3 or 4 licenses that work and they will never make other franchises. If, like me, you are expecting periods other than the Middle Ages (CK), the Renaissance (EU) and the Second World War (HOI), I think we will be disappointed.

Companies exist to make money so it makes sense. They cannot experiment all the time launching stuff that makes them lose money. In my opinion they will take some time to reevaluate, and in some years they'll launch something new. Maybe next time we can get a bronze age game, like what total war is doing with the pharaohs.