Side by side graph showing player retention on Steam for the last 3 leagues

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Xystre wrote:

this is interesting if actually true, considering I've seen the servers always busy and every single town with always people, 820's very active and globals well always global.

Not entirely true. On one login to Sarn (7:00 am) earlier this week I was all alone:



Actually made me feel like the old days of PoE when being exiled to Wraeclast really was a scary place to be (alone in the wilds).



So scary that my Kiwi wouldn't come with me adventuring for a time. Something scared it so much that it wouldn't leave my stash.

I can play SSF and throw screenshots too.

I find these graphs to be less useful from a developer's POV than most.

League retention and overall retention (i.e., players returning to the game) are two different things. Even if a player disappears after week one of a new league, so long as they come back for the following league and buy new MTXs, who cares?

And you can be sure that GGG thinks this way, too.

Now, I'm not being cynical here: This has definite ramifications upon game design. What you want most of all is content which is compelling in the long term, and content which people miss when they are away from it for a while.

The way to achieve that is to maximize the quality of your game content, not to maximize the perception among players that they will be missing out on some exclusive gear if they skip one league.

If people think the core game is good, they will return to it, no matter how much they hate an individual League. More to the point, such players will continue to suck in new players (i.e., stash tab purchasers).

In short, focusing on game quality and not short-term business outcomes is a perfectly valid way to ensure this game's profitability.

One thing this doesnt show, is just how much players are bored with POE's endgame grind of "Maps", or another of just burnout in general. GGG made the mistake of making an endgame system that never changes, been doing the same maps since day 1, and been farming maps to farm more maps, its gotten tedious and boring. Then add in POE 99% of playerbase farms trash mobs, as they are thousand times more rewarding than killing bosses with only couple endgame exceptions.


This game just doesnt have the replaying draw it used to for players. I have noticed it in most of my friends, and myself. Also with such a crap trade system, once players start to leave, it chain reactions, as at that point trading becomes harder and harder as more leave.

Maybe GGG will follow their usual fault causality and go omg worse player retention when we power creeped again, better not make things faster for once.

Who am i kidding ;p you could use this data to justify anything really but i'm genuinely surprised betrayal outperformed the others to such a degree. Maybe having a steep difficulty increase with some zaney mechanics really was good for the game.

Also those graphs are an abomination -_- so many display fails

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Exile009 wrote:

Tbf, Betrayal has this problem too (Mastermind versus regular Safehouses). In fact, probably even more so. Come to think of it, so does Incursion (Omnitect versus Temple rooms), and Bestiary (First Ones versus beastcrafting), and Delve (regular Delving versus Delve bosses)...and even Synthesis (reward nodes versus boss memories), albeit Synthesis boss rewards got much better later in the league (plus the league itself rewarded high level play in general).

I think it's partly that GGG views the encounter as the reward, and players view the reward as the reward. The last league were the big encounter was really rewarding was probably harbinger.

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MasterAxe wrote:

One thing this doesnt show, is just how much players are bored with POE's endgame grind of "Maps", or another of just burnout in general. GGG made the mistake of making an endgame system that never changes, been doing the same maps since day 1, and been farming maps to farm more maps, its gotten tedious and boring. Then add in POE 99% of playerbase farms trash mobs, as they are thousand times more rewarding than killing bosses with only couple endgame exceptions.


This game just doesnt have the replaying draw it used to for players. I have noticed it in most of my friends, and myself. Also with such a crap trade system, once players start to leave, it chain reactions, as at that point trading becomes harder and harder as more leave.

This is me exactly!
Played since beta, POE just seems tired and monotonous to me and ALL of my friends have quit and never play anymore which sucks.
I watch POE on youtube and see the usual streamers basically doing the same video they have been making for years now. At least they are making money at it right :) I marvel that they are not completely sick of playing the same game over and over and over.

As yo0u can see, i have no achievements whatsoever this league, simply because for time being i stoped playing
I am not interested in cuck melee builds, im not interested in weari9ng dogshit looking armor and all good looks being locked behind real money pay wall, thus, I STOPPED PLAYING
Many others did also
I can guarantee you that once a good arpg comes out on the market, POE is toasted

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MasterAxe wrote:

One thing this doesnt show, is just how much players are bored with POE's endgame grind of "Maps", or another of just burnout in general. GGG made the mistake of making an endgame system that never changes, been doing the same maps since day 1, and been farming maps to farm more maps, its gotten tedious and boring. Then add in POE 99% of playerbase farms trash mobs, as they are thousand times more rewarding than killing bosses with only couple endgame exceptions.


This game just doesnt have the replaying draw it used to for players. I have noticed it in most of my friends, and myself. Also with such a crap trade system, once players start to leave, it chain reactions, as at that point trading becomes harder and harder as more leave.

yea ok not Legion wasn't the most successful league launch with the most amount of players as you spew the exact same words I've seen 5 years ago about how PoE is dying because trade bad and maps bad

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As yo0u can see, i have no achievements whatsoever this league, simply because for time being i stoped playing
I am not interested in cuck melee builds, im not interested in weari9ng dogshit looking armor and all good looks being locked behind real money pay wall, thus, I STOPPED PLAYING
Many others did also
I can guarantee you that once a good arpg comes out on the market, POE is toasted

lmao like what diablo 4?

"retention". there are still more people playing than other leagues.

thing is, there are WAY too many factors involved to just compare league retention statistics.
i would have to agree about betrayal having the "highest retention" because it was the patch that changed around all masters, and thus brought back so many previously sought after leagues all in one.

not sure what any of these graphs or conversations matter though. the game is basically a solo game anyway. the real question is, are you still playing it? i personally am, so w/e


i will say im losing interest. i think its mostly because this league seemed easy to obtain basically anything i wanted. though i also played the beginning of the league a ton more than usual.
getting everything you want really makes the game stale, unless you can find enjoyment in constantly rerolling and trying new builds out - but that gets real old real quick for me.

i think next league i'll give SSF a shot, since the goals will be drawn out far longer than normal trade opportunities, it should greatly lengthen my replayability