Valve leaks Steam game player counts

[Daruwind]

Basically it was possible to cross reference some achievements numbers across some games to pinpoint precise number of players for particular games. Numbers were extremely precise up to 16 decimal places.. If you want to know details, please read article. Link is at the bottom.

Now the interested things we are getting is number of unique players per game who played the game at least once as of July 1, 2018:

Empire: Total War 3,491,439
Total War: ROME II - Emperor Edition 3,350,407
Napoleon: Total War 2,178,916
Total War: WARHAMMER 2,085,605
Total War: ATTILA 1,331,963
Total War: WARHAMMER II 955,731

EDIT: ToB was really in the file
Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia 224,856
still no Shogun 2

For comparison some other games:
Sid Meier's Civilization V 12,701,498
Age of Empires II HD 5,824,316
Sid Meier’s Civilization VI 3,680,328
Crusader Kings II 3,170,312
Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth 2,606,575
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II 2,492,053
Banished 2,147,445 (lol that´s an awful lot and I´ve never understanded why author left the game... gold mine)
Tropico 4 2,000,449
Europa Universalis IV 1,983,657
Stellaris 1,967,015

In article there is link for full file with many more games like 13,000. Article is showing only top games. Interesting thing is,there is no Shogun 2 and ToB which is probably not interesting at all, but list is going down till 240,000 unique players. Plus there are no old titles which were mostly sold in ancient times before steam like Shogun, Med 1+2, Romeas these have no achievements and they probably accumulated a few players on steam anyway. :-) And bear in mind this is not active playerbase, only total number of unique players so older games will accumulate more and more over sales and time..

Original article:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/...ands-of-games/
original reddit post getting me there via MWO
https://www.reddit.com/r/OutreachHPG...nts_estimates/
(little cross promotion as I play for top EU team )

[Clint_Eastwood]

So basically in terms of those other games listed total war titles have less players. Not surprising really as CA just jump around releasing any old crap since Rome 2 was released.

[Evan MF]

2 million played Banished at least once since 1st July? I don't believe that one bit. There is absolutely no way that is true. In fact, I don't believe any of those numbers whatsoever.

[Daruwind]

2 million played Banished at least once since 1st July? I don't believe that one bit. There is absolutely no way that is true. In fact, I don't believe any of those numbers whatsoever.

Not since July 1st. From release up to July 1st. ;-)

[herne_the _hunter]

Empire: Total War (2009) 3,491,439
Total War: ROME II - Emperor Edition (2013) 3,350,407
Napoleon: Total War (2010) 2,178,916
Total War: WARHAMMER (2016) 2,085,605
Total War: ATTILA (2015) 1,331,963
Total War: WARHAMMER II (2017) 955,731

EDIT: ToB was really in the file
Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia 224,856
still no Shogun 2

These numbers only tell only part of the story. You have to take into account when these games were released then you can apprciate the numbers more. Empire was released 9 years ago compared to Rome 2 which was released 5 years ago. but have simular numbers yet Rome 2 has currently more active players.
In the Steam list of the top 100 games Warhammer 2, Rome 2 and Warhamer are the top 3 TW titles played respectively.

Somehow I don't think the forthcoming Rome 2 dlc is going to be the last and Warhammer is really popular. Warhammer 2 numbers will get bigger over time as it's been out for less than year. The synergy brought about by owning all three ultimately when WH3 is released is only going to accelarate the numbers. Compared to which Attila is done and dusted.

Another thing that has struck me was 224,856 copies of ToB @ £29.99 each is £6,743,431.44 in just 2 months. Only time will tell for the rest of the year. Interesting to know what the costs were to make as although it might not be a popular title I'm certain it isn't a financial failure as it must have made more than what it cost to make. Though only a finacial failure for a corperation such as SEGA if they had higher expectations.

The low point from all of this for me is if it was just about the number of playes who had played the game rather than active players then Empire would warrent as much attention as Rome 2 has had.

[Huberto]

Thanks for this. The notion that NTW remains ahead of both Warhammers is especially delicious. Vive L'Empereur!

[Daruwind]

2 million played Banished at least once since 1st July? I don't believe that one bit. There is absolutely no way that is true. In fact, I don't believe any of those numbers whatsoever.

You are of course free to believe whatever you want. But the numbers are quite in line with steamspy predictions (down very bottom of page(s)) for example Banished:
https://steamdb.info/app/242920/graphs/

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

But there are two problems with steamspy. First, steamspy is also no longer able to obtain somewhat correct numbers. And second problem is, steamspy was extrapolating the numbers from small samples. That´s why steamspy total numbers are oscillating up and down while number of owners should be only rising up in time, right?
Anyway, you are free to check all TWs, the numbers from this leak are in good order with steamspy at least considering older numbers and looking at trends like sales...I really don´t see any problems there. And sadly unless we will get anyther kind of leak in future, this will be one time information.

Thanks for this. The notion that NTW remains ahead of both Warhammers is especially delicious. Vive L'Empereur!

I´m especially curious about Empire. And sadly no data on Shogun 2, i would love to know how it fare in comparison with Rome2/Empire.

Sadly I would like to see some deepr analysis, like how the total owner count was developing for particular games, like 6/12 months after release with DLC releases, how sales influence the numbers...for example WH2 is very close to WH1 in owners like -200k people in that time. WH2 had no major sales so far only -25%, many probably waiting for -50/75% reduction.. WH2 will probably also hit like 1,5+ millions after a few major sales and WH1 will surely in time surpass Napoleon but will it once beat Empire/Rome 2? No idea :-)

Definitely we can see how Attila and ToB are probably failing. But checking average player count, well well Attila is right behind Empire. Definitely there could be a lot analyzing... Well anyway down are graphs for WH1/2 with sales / owners counts from steamspy. I had no othter idea what to compare right now. :-)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[SturmChurro]

Wow! ToB is doing terrible!

[The Wandering Storyteller]

Am surprised that RII is being played so much after the launch.

[Basileos Leandros I]

Shogun 2 has been a very good commercial hit for SEGA / CA, so it should be slightly over Napoleon TW in terms of sales.

[AnthoniusII]

The list is about unique players the last months..I was one of them. This does not mean that I liked what i played!

[Spitfire -WONDERBOLT!]

These numbers only tell only part of the story. You have to take into account when these games were released then you can apprciate the numbers more. Empire was released 9 years ago compared to Rome 2 which was released 5 years ago. but have simular numbers yet Rome 2 has currently more active players.
In the Steam list of the top 100 games Warhammer 2, Rome 2 and Warhamer are the top 3 TW titles played respectively.

Somehow I don't think the forthcoming Rome 2 dlc is going to be the last and Warhammer is really popular. Warhammer 2 numbers will get bigger over time as it's been out for less than year. The synergy brought about by owning all three ultimately when WH3 is released is only going to accelarate the numbers. Compared to which Attila is done and dusted.

Another thing that has struck me was 224,856 copies of ToB @ £29.99 each is £6,743,431.44 in just 2 months. Only time will tell for the rest of the year. Interesting to know what the costs were to make as although it might not be a popular title I'm certain it isn't a financial failure as it must have made more than what it cost to make. Though only a finacial failure for a corperation such as SEGA if they had higher expectations.

The low point from all of this for me is if it was just about the number of playes who had played the game rather than active players then Empire would warrent as much attention as Rome 2 has had.

You're not taking into account what steam is like, most people buy it on sale, try it out, and never play it again. more times a games been on sale the bigger the numbers, they really are just numbers but hey atleast it's sales. and means CA made atelast 3 mill of some of those.

[Diocle]

In my opinion, occasional players mean nothing, TW titles are for experienced players, this is the reason why ToB is not at the top, while actually it's the best, the most interesting and innovative develpment of the serie up to now, only its price seems to me really excessive.

[Anna_Gein]

Warhammer II worse than Attila

[Diocle]

Warhammer II worse than Attila

Cm'on! It's just a Fantasy game!

[Spitfire -WONDERBOLT!]

Cm'on! It's just a Fantasy game!

It's a fantasy game with half the players so pissed off with it's creator for killing it, they couldn't give less of a , where as 10 years ago when they made their own TW knock off that wasn't even that good, I was creaming in my pre-pubescent pants.

[herne_the _hunter]

You're not taking into account what steam is like, most people buy it on sale, try it out, and never play it again. more times a games been on sale the bigger the numbers, they really are just numbers but hey atleast it's sales. and means CA made atelast 3 mill of some of those.

All the numbers tell us is the number of owners of those titles and nothing else.

[Daruwind]

Warhammer II worse than Attila

Well you are not taking into account that Attila had multiple major sales while WH2 is just starting to get them... look at
https://steamdb.info/app/594570/
at the bottom there is graph with price over time, there are just some -10% and twice -25% sales. That´s nothing comparing with other TWs, look now at attila
https://steamdb.info/app/325610/
multiple -75% sales....

WH2 getting one million without major sales is quite good, probably little less than WH1 but still great, with sales it will probably catch 2 millions as well next year.

EDIT: just finished nice campaign in ToB, really sad how many people are skipping this one. If you just want good game not a bombastic ads, this is trully good one. :-) But people are probably looking at other titles and comparing. It has no Dragons, it has no feeling of greatness like Rome or Med. That illusion of grandeur...

[Huberto]

EDIT: just finished nice campaign in ToB, really sad how many people are skipping this one. If you just want good game not a bombastic ads, this is trully good one. :-) But people are probably looking at other titles and comparing.

"a bombastic ads"? What do you mean?

Suprised you are praising ToB so much. I haven't played it since May but found it easy, skimpy on features and ultimately dull. Played through Wessex and Gwined campaign. Beautiful setting though.

[Daruwind]

It is simple. Look at all other TWs, comparison with other TWs is the main problem of ToB:

Rome - everybody will imagine Roman Legions, conquering whole world. Rome is symbol or greatness. Imperial Splendour, Ceasar, Hannibal, Augustus, Cleopatra. Big map from Frozen England almost to the India.
Medieval - Another beloved settings, similar maps, crusades, Pope. Western Audience loves knights and castles, Attila is probably the most similar to this from recent titles with Campaign map size and faction diversity and with fall of Rome. Attila is also great historical character.
Warhammer - ing Dragons fighting ing Dinosaurs...Elves, BDSM Elves, Stunties, Greenskins, Tomb Kings...You cannot pack more awesomeness into any other TW title.

You see what all these TWs have similar? WH, Attila, Rome? Big campaign map, lot factions, lot additional content from DLCs..Looks like ToB from very beginning was intented to have almost no additional DLCs. That´s the problem while all other TWs are adding tons of additional content as FLCs or DLCs (you don´t have to buy DLC, AI will have all additions so the game gets better even for you!). But these games can start with some factions not fully fledged out and just add them later via DLCs.

Attila is as well 40EU game but with knowledge about future DLCs they could aim higher with content and finish properly it later. But ToB had to do all factions from very beginning and that means some resources. At the same time the time frame, geographical setting is limited and that is limiting even faction diversity, units...there are simply no camels, elephants, horse archers/cavalry factions like steppe factions in Attila.

So with all of this, what TW would you buy? If you put them all side by side. Rome 2, Attila, Whs, ToB is simply feels like smaller game. That´s my reason why not many people are trying it, with sales you can easily get a older bigger games. Yet, I played it without prejudice and it is quite good. Overall good TW. I´m missing awesome feeling of other TWs but enjoying it like more quiet smaller time period, like playing just some bigger DLC. Finished 4 campaigns and overall I had fun yet I was lacking any memorable moment.