Some interesting stats about CivBE players

[thecrazyscot]

I looked at the achievement and ownership data for Civ V, and thought it would be fun to do for CivBE (full write-up with graphs). Of course it's not a perfect analysis, but using the information we have publicly it still is quite interesting.

According to SteamSpy, about 1,100,000 people own CivBE.

Only 63.4% of players have launched an orbital unit, while only 59.4% have upgraded a unit, meaning that almost 40% of players most likely haven't (a) started a game or (b) gotten past the first few turns.

2.3% of players have won a multiplayer game.

7.9% of players have played with a mod.

Format for the below is: Percentage of Players, Number of Players, Item

Map Type achievements:

14.9% 163,900 Terran
7.9% 86,900 Protean
5.5% 60,500 Atlantean
2.2% 24,200 Archipelago
1.7% 18,700 Equatorial
1.3% 14,300 Taigan
1.1% 12,100 Skirmish

Difficulty Level achievements:

9.1% 100,100 Sputnik
13.7% 150,700 Mercury
5.0% 55,000 Vostok
3.0% 33,000 Gemini
1.3% 14,300 Soyuz
0.9% 9,900 Apollo

Maxed Affinity achievements:

11.2% 123,200 Harmony
9.8% 107,800 Supremacy
9.3% 102,300 Purity

Victory achievements:

11.9% 130,900 Transcendence
7.1% 78,100 Emancipation
7.0% 77,000 Contact
5.9% 64,900 Promised Land
5.2% 57,200 Domination
1.4% 15,400 All types

Leader achievements:

8.3% 91,300 Daoming (PAC)
6.7% 73,700 Kavitha (KP)
5.9% 64,900 Elodie (FI)
5.3% 58,300 Fielding (ARC)
4.5% 49,500 Barre (PAU)
4.2% 46,200 Bolivar (B)
4.0% 44,000 Hutama (P)
3.7% 40,700 Kozlov (SF)
0.8% 8,800 Win with each leader

 

[Gorbles]

Certainly puts the numbers comparison between BE and CiV in a bit more perspective for the people focusing on those above all else.

 

[brizey]

Interesting how far down the list Barre is given the general consensus of his superiority around these parts. And that the four female leaders are at the top.

 

[Kutuzov]

According to SteamSpy, about 1,100,000 people own CivBE.

Only 63.4% of players have launched an orbital unit, while only 59.4% have upgraded a unit, meaning that almost 40% of players most likely haven't (a) started a game or (b) gotten past the first few turns.

I would imagine that there are quite a large number of players who play this game, if not all their Steam games, offline rather than have Steam connected while playing. I know that I play offline most of the time because I don't play for achievements and the Hall of Fame already stores my 'achievements' nicely.

There are plenty of reasons, good, bad and 'tin-foil hat' for justifying playing offline for this to be a factor. Me? I just don't care enough about ensuring that Steam has reasonably accurate stats to keep my computer connected for the 2-3 or even 4 hours that I spend playing a Steam game.

 

[Pietato]

Interesting how far down the list Barre is given the general consensus of his superiority around these parts. And that the four female leaders are at the top.

Most people would have quit before he was buffed.

Daoming dominating is curious, though.

 

[stormtrooper412]

Max affinity kind of highlights one of the issues with the game, most people win way before

 

[GeoModder]

Stop accumulating data for nefarious advertising reasons.

 

[thecrazyscot]

I would imagine that there are quite a large number of players who play this game, if not all their Steam games, offline rather than have Steam connected while playing. I know that I play offline most of the time because I don't play for achievements and the Hall of Fame already stores my 'achievements' nicely.

There are plenty of reasons, good, bad and 'tin-foil hat' for justifying playing offline for this to be a factor. Me? I just don't care enough about ensuring that Steam has reasonably accurate stats to keep my computer connected for the 2-3 or even 4 hours that I spend playing a Steam game.

This data certainly doesn't take into account anyone who plays offline (it's not perfect info by any means), but I think it's probably safe to say that the vast majority of players play with Steam connected to the internet.

No one can really say for sure, though

I'm personally puzzled at the fact that the Contact victory is 3rd as it's the easiest one to get by far...

 

[ShagVT]

Why do the numbers add up to so much less than 100%?

 

[thecrazyscot]

Because each number refers to the percentage of the total number of people who own the game who have received the individual achievement.

 

[OSaft]

Afaik abaut 22% of the games sold on Steam are never played. A lot of people don't play their Games. They get them on a sale, to play them later.

 

[LetMyPeopleGo]

I have more than 2k hours logged on Civ V and no achievements cause I always play with some mods.

The goes now for BE, I believe that plenty of people use mods which prohibits them from receiving achievements.

 

[thecrazyscot]

7.9% of players use mods, to be exact.

 

[LetMyPeopleGo]

7.9% of players use mods, to be exact.

Thanks for the info.

I was so sure that the majority of players use some kind of a mod, alas, we're the minority.

Could it be that the stats are derived from the total of owners and not from the number of actual players?

 

[Kutuzov]

This data certainly doesn't take into account anyone who plays offline (it's not perfect info by any means), but I think it's probably safe to say that the vast majority of players play with Steam connected to the internet.

No one can really say for sure, though

I'm personally puzzled at the fact that the Contact victory is 3rd as it's the easiest one to get by far...

The vast majority? Really? Staying connected to the Internet while you are playing a game that you could just as easily play offline seems wasteful to me. Further, you would save quite a lot of your allotted online time if you have that sort of account or money. I would agree that the majority (appx 63.4%) have spent some time playing online but not the VAST majority because that makes folks think 80-90%. I don't think that 36.6% of the people who bought it haven't bothered to play it. That's somewhere in the region of 400,000 people.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Thanks for the info.

I was so sure that the majority of players use some kind of a mod, alas, we're the minority.

Could it be that the stats are derived from the total of owners and not from the number of actual players?

True, it is derived from owners, not players - a misspeak on my part.

The vast majority? Really? Staying connected to the Internet while you are playing a game that you could just as easily play offline seems wasteful to me. Further, you would save quite a lot of your allotted online time if you have that sort of account or money. I would agree that the majority (appx 63.4%) have spent some time playing online but not the VAST majority because that makes folks think 80-90%. I don't think that 36.6% of the people who bought it haven't bothered to play it. That's somewhere in the region of 400,000 people.

I don't deny that there people who play offline or for who playing offline makes the most sense, but I stand by my "vast majority" comment. It is fast becoming the norm in most developed areas to have a continuous broadband connection.

 

[Kutuzov]

Fair enough. I suppose it is appropriate to say vast when you"re talking about nearly two thirds, or twice as many as the other group. I just expect to see a bigger differential when I hear the word 'vast'.

I also think that it is far more likely that the vast majority (i.e. about 99+%) of the 34% who haven't 'launched a satellite' have been playing offline. While I have no doubt that some folks do buy a computer game and then never play it, I really doubt that the number who do this is as high as 34%, 400,000 people. But I can't really say, can I?

 

[Ryika]

The vast majority? Really? Staying connected to the Internet while you are playing a game that you could just as easily play offline seems wasteful to me.

And what year exactly are you living in? 1998? Simple reality in that most households use an always-on connection these days. Even if they don't want to take the advantages of that (being able to chat with friends, do some quick research mid-game, listen to music on youtube (or watch videos if you have 2 monitors (which also isn't that uncommon anymore, especially amongst gamers), etc.), why turn off the internet just to turn it back on later? Good modems don't use much energy anyway.

With that said, there have been surveys where people were asked how many % of the games they own on steam they've actually played - and the average player said something like 50-60%. As some of the main reasons players named steam sales and things like the humble bundle. I have no doubt that it's the same for Beyond Earth. People bought the game and "just haven't found time to play it yet" - which is an euphemism for "Steam got me to spend money on something that I'll probably never play."

 

[Kutuzov]

2015 the last time I checked. But I was online in 1998 and perhaps have acquired some bad habits over the decades as a result.

I don't play MP games (yet) and don't chat with friends, I have my family for that, thanks. I have all the music I need on my HD if the game's soundtrack isn't to my taste, (and boy does this one have the best of them all, IMO of course) and I tend to remain focused on whatever I am doing (as far as that is possible) instead of watching videos. I don't think other people who play SP games like these are all that much different. The MP players are different for sure though but they are in the minority of players.

Okay, up to 50-60% of Steam gamers don't play the games they buy? That sounds like it could be true since there are so many little budget games available on Steam that it would be a cinch to pick at for next to nothing on sale at a weekend. I don't think Civ BE is quite as 'bad' as these games might be and so feel it is more likely to be played than say 'Beep' which is currently on sale for $1.

Only 63.4% of players have launched an orbital unit, while only 59.4% have upgraded a unit, meaning that almost 40% of players most likely haven't (a) started a game or (b) gotten past the first few turns.

I won't claim to know any more than you guys but suggesting that nearly 400,000 people who bought this game haven't played it sounds off to me but I might very well be wrong. Not playing single player games online doesn't sound all that strange to me at all and likely accounts for a portion of those folks. That sounds like a more plausible reason to me than buying it but not playing it. But then again, there are a sizeable number of folks who believe that the Earth is hollow and lizards from outer space have been living among us for centuries so who knows?

 

[Sebulous]

True, it is derived from owners, not players - a misspeak on my part.

I don't deny that there people who play offline or for who playing offline makes the most sense, but I stand by my "vast majority" comment. It is fast becoming the norm in most developed areas to have a continuous broadband connection.

Yeah I have to agree with this, I'm not sure about other countries but in Australia it's extremely normal to have a continuous internet connection, even in welfare areas. Although I play online with my friends a lot, even when I'm not and playing a single player I'm still connected to the internet 100% of the time unless there's outages.