In times of the coronavirus, many players are turning to online games. Currently, 3 MMORPGs are so crowded that regular queues are forming. However, other games in the genre are also seeing an increase in players.
Which games currently have queues? The 3 MMORPGs that are currently experiencing regular queues could not be more different:
- Albion Online focuses on PvP
- Final Fantasy XIV on PvE
- and Dofus is a rather unknown 2D MMORPG.
Yet all three are currently united by the wait to enter. While Final Fantasy XIV has had queues depending on the time of day and server in the past, this is somewhat surprising for the other two titles.
Long queues especially in Dofus
Where do you wait the longest? Waiting times are particularly long for the small and rather unknown Dofus. According to Reddit, you have to wait 3 hours or longer starting from 3 PM to get onto the servers.
The developers of the MMORPG report that many old and new players are currently playing Dofus. Moreover, they are staying online longer. Initial measures in the fight against the queue have already been initiated:
- The capacity on all servers was slightly increased on March 24.
- A new server will be launched on March 31, where everyone must start from scratch.
- Alongside this, free subscription codes have been distributed, which grant you 7 days of subscription status. The code is JAHASH2020 and is valid until March 29.
A glimpse of the MMORPG Dofus is provided by this video from YouTuber Scyushi:
What about the other two MMORPGs? In Albion Online, there have been longer queues repeatedly in recent days. As a user on Reddit showed, he had to wait in line at position 154. Currently, these queues only form in the evenings during prime time.
On Steam, the peak number of simultaneous players in the last 30 days was 8,330 (via Steamcharts). The MMORPG only achieved higher numbers in April and May 2019. At that time, the shift to free-to-play occurred and there were also queues.
Today, the new Patch 8 with some balance changes was also released. Thus, waiting times are likely not to decrease.
In Final Fantasy XIV, queues occur primarily on popular servers and during prime time. While this regularly happens, the waiting times are currently longer than usual.
Here too, extremely good player numbers are being reached on Steam. With an average of 14,379 players in the last 30 days, the third-best month in history was achieved (via Steamcharts). Only in July and August 2019, at the release of the expansion Shadowbringers, were the numbers better.
Other MMORPGs also benefit from player growth
How are the other MMORPGs doing? If you look at the most popular MMORPGs on Steam, you can see that almost all have gained in player numbers over the last 30 days. We used the statistics from the website Steamcharts:
- Black Desert is currently hitting the highest value since its Steam release in terms of average players per day. In addition, there was a massive increase in players in Korea.
- Neverwinter has seen an increase in player numbers for the third consecutive month and is currently achieving figures from May 2019.
- Tera currently has 787 average players per day, the highest number since August 2019,
- Also, Astellia, one of the few MMORPGs from 2019, managed to slightly increase its average players compared to February.
Only The Elder Scrolls Online has lost a bit compared to the previous month. However, the months of January and February were very successful due to the hype surrounding the Greymoor expansion.
However, not only MMORPGs are experiencing player growth due to the current situation. Especially competitive games like CS:GO or LoL are currently breaking their own records.
