In April, the gaming trends from Raptr show a rather sobering picture for the classic MMORPGs World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, and Final Fantasy: the big three are losing playtime.
Every month, Raptr analyzes its data and reveals how much playtime PC gamers using their program have spent in each game. These are of course not official figures, as there are none, but merely a trend indicator. The best way to read the numbers is in relation to the previous months, as one can see how the “core audience” of Raptr users behaves and reacts to the developments in the games.
The blockbuster GTA V made a big splash this month. The game came to PC and it was significant. For the “classic” MMORPGs and for the online long-runners that usually dominate the list, it went downhill instead.
Quartet of MMORPGs takes a significant hit
World of Warcraft lost 30% of playtime in the content-poor April. Guild Wars 2 lost 34%, Final Fantasy XIV 24%. The sandpark MMORPG ArcheAge also lost 10% playtime, but managed to gain positions, as it lost overall less than its competitors. For the MMORPG classic SWTOR it is also going downhill in terms of Raptr hours. It is one of the games that lost more than 20% of its hours in April.
We make a little prediction: WoW will likely continue to lose in May, as nothing new has come yet, perhaps it will recover in June with the 6.2 patch.
For Final Fantasy XIV and Guild Wars 2 expansions are coming this year, so it should soon go up. For FF14 likely from June, for GW2 in the second half of the year. Probably there will be events and actions in advance of the expansion to create buzz and increase playtime.
Further content patches are also planned for ArcheAge in the near future. Yesterday in Korea, patch 2.0 was released, which is supposed to give the game a second wind. We’ll see how that impacts in the distant future.
Things are going mediocre at Blizzard
Other games that we cover at mein MMO are doing fairly mediocre. Hearthstone and Diablo 3 are doing well. Hearthstone benefits from the new adventure “Blackrock Depths” in April and increases by 7.4%; Diablo 3 can even increase by 11% thanks to the new season.
Blizzard’s MOBA Heroes of the Storm however lost some steam in April, shrinking by 5%. World of Tanks saw playtime increase by 6%.
It seems that overall, April was rather a month of stagnation for MMOs, and little will change in May. There were no major upheavals recorded here. On the contrary: the blockbuster The Witcher 3 could play the role in May that GTA V took in April.
The larger patches, expansions, and upheavals that should bind PC players back to their online favorites will not come until June.
