You told us in a survey which launchers you use. Despite complaints about too many different launchers, a large part of you has more than just Steam installed on your PC.
This was the topic: In the past, Steam and Battle.net were the only major launchers installed on most PCs. Over time, more have been added, which many gamers did not like. A single central launcher would be preferable for these people – or at least not so many.
We asked you in a survey which launchers you have installed and use on your PCs. You gave us numerous answers, both in the voting and in the comments.
Here are the results.
More than half of you use more than 3 launchers
A total of 1135 readers participated in the survey. You could select multiple launchers, which is why the total percentage exceeds 100%.
- Steam: 94.36%
- Battle.net: 67.58%
- Uplay: 60%
- Origin: 59.47%
- Epic Launcher: 44.14%
- GoG Galaxy: 23.61%
- Rockstar Launcher: 20%
- Microsoft Store: 18.15%
- Bethesda Launcher: 15.52%
- Other: 4.85%
- PlayStation Now: 4.49%
Your Top 5: It’s not surprising that Steam dominates this choice significantly. After all, Valve’s launcher has been around for 16 years and is equipped with more social features than its competitors. For example:
- Community forums where players can exchange ideas
- Support for modders
- A marketplace where players can resell items from games
Almost every MeinMMO reader has Steam installed on their PC.
Following closely in 2nd to 4th places are Battle.net, Uplay, and Origin. Battle.net is one of the oldest launchers and has been around since 1996, accompanying many of you through your favorite games like Diablo and Warcraft.
Origin (2011) and Uplay (2012) are significantly younger but still had enough time to establish themselves. This was especially due to the exclusive titles from publishers EA and Ubisoft, which could only be played on PC through their launchers.
In 5th place is the notorious Epic Launcher, with which Epic Games wants to dethrone King Steam. Although they are still far from it, the Epic Launcher still made it into the Top 5 among MeinMMO readers despite all criticism and the boycott calls on Twitter.
According to the comments from some of you, however, the launcher is only installed on your desktop because of the free games.
The exclusive games have an effect
That’s what makes this interesting: The results clearly show that more than half of you have three or more launchers installed on your PC. Each new launcher is met with rather negative reception from the community.
When the Rockstar launcher was announced 5 months ago, for example, one of our readers wrote:
You have to install the launcher every time you want to play a game from that launcher. Both for the initial installation and when setting up a new PC, cleaning up the PC and uninstalling it, or installing a new hard drive. Moreover, you have to create passwords for each launcher, store them somewhere, remember them, or note them down. Additionally, there are always security breaches, and your data ends up somewhere on the black market.
MeinMMO reader pvpforlife
The Epic Launcher, in particular, received a large amount of criticism upon its announcement. This was mainly due to Epic Games’ strategy of securing exclusive rights to games for PC, but also because yet another new launcher has come onto the market that you need to install.
However, the strategy of publishers with their launcher-exclusive games seems to be working. Despite the many protests, a substantial 44.14% of you are using the apparently unpopular Epic Launcher, and more than half of you have installed at least Battle.net, Uplay, and Origin alongside Steam. Even the Rockstar Launcher, which is relatively new, is installed on every fifth PC.
In your comments under the survey, there was a mix of acceptance and frustration about having no choice but to use the launchers if you want to play exclusive games.
[…] To get to the point: ALL and it bothers me!
MeinMMO reader Vallo
I have (unfortunately) almost all the launchers currently available on my PC.
MeinMMO reader Maxunit
Now, those that make the game necessary.
As of today: All mentioned above except PSNow.
MeinMMO reader Hugo
Others, on the other hand, wrote that the number of launchers does not concern them, or they chose only 1 to 2 selected ones and skipped the rest.
Are there differences compared to other communities?
Here’s how it is at GameStar: Our colleagues at GameStar previously conducted the same survey. We wanted to see if there is a noticeable difference between our readers in the choice of their launchers.
After all, MeinMMO readers are more interested in online multiplayer games, while GameStar readers prefer single-player games.
In most cases, individual launchers gain or lose a few percentage points among GameStar readers compared to MeinMMO readers. However, there are also differences:
- Steam: 96.56% (+2.2%)
- Origin: 62.51% (+3.04%)
- Uplay: 61.5% (+1.5%)
- Battle.net: 53.49% (-14.09%)
- GoG Galaxy: 45.47% (-21.86%)
- Epic Launcher: 43.13% (-1.01%)
- Rockstar Launcher: 23.97% (+3.97%)
- Microsoft Store: 21.42% (+3.27%)
- Bethesda Launcher: 11.94% (-3.57)
- Another: 3.9% (-0.95)
- PlayStation Now: 3.1% (-4.39%)
So Battle.net is more popular among MeinMMO readers than among GameStar readers. Most games available on the Activision Blizzard launcher focus heavily on multiplayer and are popular with MeinMMO readers. World of Warcraft, for example, can be found on Battle.net.
GOG Galaxy, on the other hand, received a substantial 21.86% fewer votes in the MeinMMO survey than in GameStar’s survey. Only 23.61% of you use the launcher, while GameStar has 45.47%, which is even more than the Epic Launcher.
What do you think of the results? Did you expect this, or were there some choices that surprised you? Share it in the comments!
You also told us which next-gen console you will buy. Here are the results of the survey:
