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Do Many People Still Play Champions Online?

tosmekoptosmekop Posts: 35 Arc User
in Champions Online Discussion
When I last played this game, there were numerous servers full of people at all times of the day. Is it still like this, or are there much fewer people playing Champions Online these days?

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    draogndraogn Posts: 1,269 Arc User
    There is likely fewer, depending on when and how long ago you played, to what extent no one knows. Cryptic has never published actual population numbers. There have been attempts in the past to get an estimate, but they often used questionable or incomplete ways of gathering their data.
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    chaosdrgnz43chaosdrgnz43 Posts: 1,674 Arc User
    In my time with CO(since 2010), there's always been around 300+ players in peak hours. I've never experienced this " numerous servers full of people at all times of the day" you've mentioned.
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    spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    tosmekop wrote: »
    When I last played this game, there were numerous servers full of people at all times of the day. Is it still like this, or are there much fewer people playing Champions Online these days?

    Here's a thought: Tell us how many years ago you last played the game.
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    stergasterga Posts: 2,353 Arc User
    CO has less than 300 concurrent players on Steam. NWO has ~1800 concurrent players on Steam. STO has ~2400 concurrent players. Terraria has over 17000 concurrent players. Compared to Terraria, all of Cryptic's games have low population.

    According to ARC's game page, CO is their 5th most popular game this week. All I can say is CO is unloved compared to all of Cryptic's other games but is more loved than most of PW's other games.​​
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    bluhmanbluhman Posts: 2,410 Arc User
    edited June 2018
    sterga wrote: »
    CO has less than 300 concurrent players on Steam. NWO has ~1800 concurrent players on Steam. STO has ~2400 concurrent players. Terraria has over 17000 concurrent players. Compared to Terraria, all of Cryptic's games have low population.

    According to ARC's game page, CO is their 5th most popular game this week. All I can say is CO is unloved compared to all of Cryptic's other games but is more loved than most of PW's other games.​​

    Because people can be playing CO and other Cryptic MMOs through another client, or just straight-up without one, the Steam numbers are slightly under-reporting. I'd still say that's an accurate representation of playerbase sizes in proportion, though.

    But that really makes Cryptic the workhorse of PWE, now doesn't it? If CO is their 5th most popular game, and then Cryptic's two other offerings are both more popular than it... Yeah, they all are pretty up there, aren't they?
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    garyg07garyg07 Posts: 19 Arc User
    I can recall times when there where 6-7 Ren-center zones (pretty sure the pop cap was higher too). Canada and the Desert having 2-3 open zones consistently without needing a rush of 40's trying to do a Cosmic to get a 2nd zone open for an hour or so. Costume contest's would constantly overfill zones, locking out players that didn't commit to them early enough. Now a days your lucky to see more than about 50 people show up for the 'bigger' weekly ones. Alerts took a lot of the wind out of CO's sails, now you typically only see some lowbies running around Westside trying to get to 15 or so before starting XP Alerts.

    However, people do still play, even if a lot of that is standing in town waiting for the next cosmic run. The better event's like the current Nightmare invasion tends to see a bit of a spike. Just today there was a Cosmic run and a 30+ event group going at the same time. Most of the player base is friendly, helpful and genuinely nice people, not saying you don't get the occasional bad egg but that's life.

    Peak times there are normally a good amount on 150-200 scattered around 3-5 Ren-centers, middle of the night it slumps down quite a bit, you do see kind of a Euro bump around 2-3 am PST. All in all I dig the little community we have.
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    flyingfinnflyingfinn Posts: 8,408 Arc User
    Yes.
    Very many.
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    silvergryphsilvergryph Posts: 63 Arc User
    sterga wrote: »
    CO has less than 300 concurrent players on Steam. NWO has ~1800 concurrent players on Steam. STO has ~2400 concurrent players. Terraria has over 17000 concurrent players. Compared to Terraria, all of Cryptic's games have low population.

    According to ARC's game page, CO is their 5th most popular game this week. All I can say is CO is unloved compared to all of Cryptic's other games but is more loved than most of PW's other games.​​

    True, but that is only the people who play on steam. This game is also played via the Arc launcher and by many just from the old Cryptic launcher directly. I have seen a lot of comments that people use steam to patch and then close it and launch directly. I also play a lot of Neverwinter and it's the same there. They won't show up in steam's player stats.

    I have a lot of games on steam, but don't launch any Cryptic games through it. I'd love to see the percentage of players that actually play CO on steam. I would wager that it is barely into the double digits, if that.

    I agree that CO doesn't get as much love as, for example, Neverwinter. But, it is far from abandoned. When games get more development, they get changes. Maybe this is just the beginning of the "love".

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    silvergryphsilvergryph Posts: 63 Arc User
    tosmekop wrote: »
    When I last played this game, there were numerous servers full of people at all times of the day. Is it still like this, or are there much fewer people playing Champions Online these days?

    CO never had multiple servers. One of the technical triumphs of the Cryptic Engine back in the day was it's infrastructure. It was sort of an early cloud implementation. A Cryptic Engine server has the capacity of many traditional servers. When compared to WoW back then it was not like a server, it was more like what Blizzard called a "battlegroup" which was a cluster of many servers.

    I doubt that comparison still holds up to all other games today, but it still has much more capacity than a traditional server infrastructure. That is not to imply that player population has not gotten smaller, just clearing up the whole "multiple servers" thing.

    Perhaps what you remember was many instances to switch to. I do remember there used to be more most of the time, but that could be due to technical changes as much as population changes. Fitting more per instance, for example.
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    stergasterga Posts: 2,353 Arc User
    "But ARC! *gasp*!"

    Terraria is still kicking Cryptic's **** on everything and is also available from far more places than any of Cryptic's games. Pretty much every MMO can make a similar claim. Those numbers and ARC's relative popularity are as good as it gets and it only took me a whole two minutes to look all that up.

    CO has a low population and that is what Steam reflects. While we don't know the exact numbers because companies don't like to admit things that aren't super amazing news, they are still a pretty good reflection on how relatively popular a game is.​​
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    spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    I wonder if OP will ever post again, or if this is one of those threads 180px-Emoji_u1f914.svg.png
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    jonsillsjonsills Posts: 6,317 Arc User
    In response to the question: What do you mean by "a lot"?

    I mean, our total population would be trivial by the standards of, say, WoW or EvE, but on the other hand even the 2am server-time population of MCZone would be more people than I would be comfortable cramming into my living room. "A lot" is such a hopelessly subjective thing...
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    avianosavianos Posts: 6,028 Arc User
    edited June 2018
    I always play via Steam to boost the game's online statues (I GUESS)
    spinnytop wrote: »
    I wonder if OP will ever post again, or if this is one of those threads 180px-Emoji_u1f914.svg.png
    Careful now, don't go Off-Topic. It may cause a Forum explosion again :wink:​​
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    spinnytopspinnytop Posts: 16,450 Arc User
    edited June 2018
    OP was just trying to get people to argue about it cause they know that mentioning player count is an easy way to start arguments around here \o/
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    markhawkmanmarkhawkman Posts: 4,915 Arc User
    bluhman wrote: »
    sterga wrote: »
    CO has less than 300 concurrent players on Steam. NWO has ~1800 concurrent players on Steam. STO has ~2400 concurrent players. Terraria has over 17000 concurrent players. Compared to Terraria, all of Cryptic's games have low population.

    According to ARC's game page, CO is their 5th most popular game this week. All I can say is CO is unloved compared to all of Cryptic's other games but is more loved than most of PW's other games.​​

    Because people can be playing CO and other Cryptic MMOs through another client, or just straight-up without one, the Steam numbers are slightly under-reporting. I'd still say that's an accurate representation of playerbase sizes in proportion, though.

    But that really makes Cryptic the workhorse of PWE, now doesn't it? If CO is their 5th most popular game, and then Cryptic's two other offerings are both more popular than it... Yeah, they all are pretty up there, aren't they?
    Yeah Steam stats are only people playing while Steam is running. If you compare Steam stats to the STO anniversary infographics, it's reasonable to conclude that very few people play Cryptic games on Steam. Steam simply doesn't make it better in any way.
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    markhawkmanmarkhawkman Posts: 4,915 Arc User
    silvergryph wrote: »
    I have a lot of games on steam, but don't launch any Cryptic games through it. I'd love to see the percentage of players that actually play CO on steam. I would wager that it is barely into the double digits, if that.
    For people who use Steam and play CO? Almost certainly double digits.

    But Steam doesn't track that. Steam tracks how many play CO WHILE Steam is running in the background. I'd guess that's low single digits. Mainly because Steam is bloatware. I don't play CO though ARC usually either, for that very reason.
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    avianosavianos Posts: 6,028 Arc User
    spinnytop wrote: »
    OP was just trying to get people to argue about it cause they know that mentioning player count is an easy way to start arguments around here \o/
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    GREAT, Now he is going to post again in 2-3 years :warning:​​
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    flyingfinnflyingfinn Posts: 8,408 Arc User
    edited June 2018
    spinnytop wrote: »
    OP was just trying to get people to argue about it cause they know that mentioning player count is an easy way to start arguments around here \o/
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    We don't argue in CO Forum. We have very opinion rich conversations.
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    And, did OP get the satisfactory answer range?
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    markhawkmanmarkhawkman Posts: 4,915 Arc User
    yeah, because people have no reason to do that. CO runs better without Steam, and Steam is useless in general.
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