This question has been asked several times, and even the most educated geuss won't answer your question, because Cryptic dosen't publish thoose figures outside their company.
There is a site that claims that the exact number equals around 65 K, however several discussions on this forum, have concluded that the number must be much highter worldwide, because of several factors in the game.
But here are some interesting numbers:
The Captains database has 20 entries on each page, and there are 54635 pages with 20 each, apart from the last, wich has only 2.
(20 * 54635) - 18 = 1092682
Now... To be realistic, lets say that only 1/3 of thoose are actual live accounts
1092682 / 3 = 364227
Now lets be a little sceptical and say 1/4'th
1092682 / 4 = 273170
With a grim attitude this time (1/5 th):
1092682 / 5 = 218536
Lets be nasty and jump to 10'th
1092682 / 10 = 109268
So as you can see, even with a bad attitude we are going for at least 110k players total, so I'd say there is more than enough people going around.
The numbers above have not taken alts into aco****, but even at 1/5'th I believ that it might just be the closest you're gonna come to a reasonable figure for the player base.
the game has been busy with people lately, specially with the reruns, I expect it to be like this for a bit
as for a total? i dont know, hopfully enough to keep Cryptic and Atari happily creating more content for many years
The method was the following:
Each player reg creates a forum user, too.
When you log into your account for whatever reason last active date will update. The log into the account includes forum login AND game login! So even if you never ever post or come to the forums, the last active on your forum profile will update.
I checked ~900 accounts in an uniform spread where the reg date was not within 30 days. I counted 46 accounts where the last active date was within 30 days.
46/900=0.051
0.051*930.000 (total regs)=47.533
Add inactive lifers and ppl who sub but don't play, deduct demo users, factor is probablity error and ~50k sounds OK.
The method was the following:
Each player reg creates a forum user, too.
When you log into your account for whatever reason last active date will update. The log into the account includes forum login AND game login! So even if you never ever post or come to the forums, the last active on your forum profile will update.
I checked ~900 accounts in an uniform spread where the reg date was not within 30 days. I counted 46 accounts where the last active date was within 30 days.
46/900=0.051
0.051*930.000 (total regs)=47.533
Add inactive lifers and ppl who sub but don't play, deduct demo users, factor is probablity error and ~50k sounds OK.
I basically agree with your assessment, but: when did you last check theese numbers?
Might want to be careful then... Alot of people are currently preparing for finals and going on vacation, so the numbers might just be a representation of the people who actually still have time to play, rather than the actual count.
Fact is, most MMO developers/publishers don't put out detailed player numbers. Some did, in the past...but generally the practice has fallen out of favour. These days most companies keep quiet about it.
But what they do tell you is...how much money they're pulling in.
Atari's online revenue (which is known to be mainly STO and Champions subscription + C-store money) was 18.4 million over the first nine months of FY2010/2011. Atari financial reports are in Euros, because they're French-owned these days.
So about 2.04 million per month, as an average (or $2.946 million per month, in US dollars).
And that's about as far as I'm willing to break it down, because while Atari says most of that is from STO and Champions, we don't know exactly how much. We also don't know how much of that is new digital distribution 'box' sales, we don't know how much of that is subscription, we don't know how much is C-store.
Another caveat: these numbers include the months following STO's launch in February 2010, so that's gonna skew the average slightly. I assume that player population has declined post-launch. These numbers also include the Champions F2P launch in January 2011, which supposedly increased revenue coming in from Champs.
But all things considered, the numbers aren't bad. Admittedly, this is just revenue; we don't know how much actual profit Atari is making, or how much money gets put back into STO.
Fact is, most MMO developers/publishers don't put out detailed player numbers. Some did, in the past...but generally the practice has fallen out of favour. These days most companies keep quiet about it.
But what they do tell you is...how much money they're pulling in.
Atari's online revenue (which is known to be mainly STO and Champions subscription + C-store money) was 18.4 million over the first nine months of FY2010/2011. Atari financial reports are in Euros, because they're French-owned these days.
So about 2.04 million per month, as an average (or $2.946 million per month, in US dollars).
And that's about as far as I'm willing to break it down, because while Atari says most of that is from STO and Champions, we don't know exactly how much. We also don't know how much of that is new digital distribution 'box' sales, we don't know how much of that is subscription, we don't know how much is C-store.
Another caveat: these numbers include the months following STO's launch in February 2010, so that's gonna skew the average slightly. I assume that player population has declined post-launch. These numbers also include the Champions F2P launch in January 2011, which supposedly increased revenue coming in from Champs.
But all things considered, the numbers aren't bad. Admittedly, this is just revenue; we don't know how much actual profit Atari is making, or how much money gets put back into STO.
The time interval is April 1st to December 31st, 2010. So the launch box sales and the lifer subs and the CO F2P numbers are not included. 55m Euro revenue decrease in 9 months? Wow!
MMOs only tend to reveal their numbers when they are actually happy/proud of them, rarely do they give out an exact number but usually you get a 'over X amount of active accounts'
id dread to think of how low the pop really is here, 3/4 the people i know ingame are the sort who only appear every week or two when something new is out
also a huge chunk of lifers dont bother playing at all between 'seasons'
Comments
Enough to keep Crytic fat and happy
Recently started playing STO again.
So little scifi in my life... Nearly starving.
This question has been asked several times, and even the most educated geuss won't answer your question, because Cryptic dosen't publish thoose figures outside their company.
There is a site that claims that the exact number equals around 65 K, however several discussions on this forum, have concluded that the number must be much highter worldwide, because of several factors in the game.
But here are some interesting numbers:
The Captains database has 20 entries on each page, and there are 54635 pages with 20 each, apart from the last, wich has only 2.
(20 * 54635) - 18 = 1092682
Now... To be realistic, lets say that only 1/3 of thoose are actual live accounts
1092682 / 3 = 364227
Now lets be a little sceptical and say 1/4'th
1092682 / 4 = 273170
With a grim attitude this time (1/5 th):
1092682 / 5 = 218536
Lets be nasty and jump to 10'th
1092682 / 10 = 109268
So as you can see, even with a bad attitude we are going for at least 110k players total, so I'd say there is more than enough people going around.
The numbers above have not taken alts into aco****, but even at 1/5'th I believ that it might just be the closest you're gonna come to a reasonable figure for the player base.
the game has been busy with people lately, specially with the reruns, I expect it to be like this for a bit
as for a total? i dont know, hopfully enough to keep Cryptic and Atari happily creating more content for many years
Did your crystal ball tell you that ?
You know witchcraft is forbidden.
Since when is "acounts" (while obviously missspelled now that I look at it) qualify as a bad word, since it needs to be partially cencored?
The method was the following:
Each player reg creates a forum user, too.
When you log into your account for whatever reason last active date will update. The log into the account includes forum login AND game login! So even if you never ever post or come to the forums, the last active on your forum profile will update.
I checked ~900 accounts in an uniform spread where the reg date was not within 30 days. I counted 46 accounts where the last active date was within 30 days.
46/900=0.051
0.051*930.000 (total regs)=47.533
Add inactive lifers and ppl who sub but don't play, deduct demo users, factor is probablity error and ~50k sounds OK.
I basically agree with your assessment, but: when did you last check theese numbers?
double check your original spelling. if that o was a c (which can look very similar on a computer screen) then you spelt a very rude word.
I don't look at my keyboard while typing... And C and O are too far away to be a key-stroke-error... Hmm... odd.
Might want to be careful then... Alot of people are currently preparing for finals and going on vacation, so the numbers might just be a representation of the people who actually still have time to play, rather than the actual count.
But what they do tell you is...how much money they're pulling in.
In the case of Atari, the most recent financial data available is up to Feb 2011.
Atari's online revenue (which is known to be mainly STO and Champions subscription + C-store money) was 18.4 million over the first nine months of FY2010/2011. Atari financial reports are in Euros, because they're French-owned these days.
So about 2.04 million per month, as an average (or $2.946 million per month, in US dollars).
And that's about as far as I'm willing to break it down, because while Atari says most of that is from STO and Champions, we don't know exactly how much. We also don't know how much of that is new digital distribution 'box' sales, we don't know how much of that is subscription, we don't know how much is C-store.
Another caveat: these numbers include the months following STO's launch in February 2010, so that's gonna skew the average slightly. I assume that player population has declined post-launch. These numbers also include the Champions F2P launch in January 2011, which supposedly increased revenue coming in from Champs.
But all things considered, the numbers aren't bad. Admittedly, this is just revenue; we don't know how much actual profit Atari is making, or how much money gets put back into STO.
The time interval is April 1st to December 31st, 2010. So the launch box sales and the lifer subs and the CO F2P numbers are not included. 55m Euro revenue decrease in 9 months? Wow!
id dread to think of how low the pop really is here, 3/4 the people i know ingame are the sort who only appear every week or two when something new is out
also a huge chunk of lifers dont bother playing at all between 'seasons'
STO has enough active accounts...to stay afloat. Also micro transactions these days, make up for a LOT of income.
Does it really matter the exact number?
There's generally enough people online to keep me entertained when I log in...Granted...I ONLY talk to Ten Forward....Zone chat just scares me.
But I gave that loch ness monster tree fiddy LAST week!