Player base

[Arkhanor]

Taking in consideration steam low player base and official launcher, how many online aprox?

[Ben]

Guys, I'm Telling You. This IS THE Correct Way. You Are All Very Wrong And I Am Right!

[cheshirm]

nO, iT iS noT. thiS iS thE correcT waY.

[Harvain]

Originally posted by Agarthan Knight:

Also if this many people are telling u you are wrong, maybe its you? just a thought haha crazy I know

Two individuals are not that many but if these are the things that both of you are going to focus on, that's all I need to know.

[Ben]

Originally posted by Harvain:

Originally posted by Agarthan Knight:

Also if this many people are telling u you are wrong, maybe its you? just a thought haha crazy I know

Two individuals are not that many but if these are the things that both of you are going to focus on, that's all I need to know.

You Must Change Your Way

[Abe Tweakin']

During festivities especially, like the anniversary and other holiday events, the game world is so alive and popping, on the server I play on - almost every Friday night you can find dozens of people gathered in Bree Town playing music live for all to hear. It's quite a sight when you're in the area. Kinships and other players everywhere I look it seems. So the game is active enough for me.

[pantheon0918]

Originally posted by Espantajero:

Taking in consideration steam low player base and official launcher, how many online aprox?

the game is free to play before lv 95 , why not try it out yourself ?

i just got myself hooked and unlike other MMO with 10 + years this game's player base is surprisingly populated even at low level even the lv 5 starter zone
i am at everynight server EU

[Elitewrecker PT]

It's free to play as long as you want technically. Free before level 95 would mean once you reach level 95 you can no longer play unless you subbed, like WoW trial.

[Pax]

Originally posted by 𝙰𝚜𝚑𝚊:

Originally posted by SoloVan:

Taking in consideration steam low player base and official launcher, how many online aprox?

The number of yearly, unique, active accounts (not characters) is likely less than 5,000.

0fasdG

The estimated number of unique accounts as of June 2024 was 3.5 million according to online player base estimates. Not all subscribing to VIP, of course. The peak daily player number over all servers in the last 2 weeks was 18K. More often, it is 4-6K.

[Asha]

Originally posted by Pax:

Originally posted by 𝙰𝚜𝚑𝚊:

The number of yearly, unique, active accounts (not characters) is likely less than 5,000.

The estimated number of unique accounts as of June 2024 was 3.5 million according to online player base estimates.

That figure is obviously the total number and therefore meaningless when trying to determine the amount of people that still actively play this game on a regular basis.

Or are you genuinely claiming that 3.5 million people still play this game? I wish.

Originally posted by Pax:

The peak daily player number over all servers in the last 2 weeks was 18K.

Again, the real number is likely less than 5,000 as most of the people that still play this game have more than one character on their account. Rotational character log-ins for dailies, crafting, raiding - per account - will significantly boost the final figures.

Originally posted by Pax:

0fasdG

No idea what this is supposed to mean.

[undefined]

Originally posted by Astray:

Which is very very low

Compared to what?

[Asha]

Originally posted by Hadley:

Originally posted by Astray:

Which is very very low

Compared to what?

Compared to the entirety of LOTRO's history, compared to virtually any other comparable MMO - take your pick.

[Harvain]

Originally posted by Heill Óðinn:

Originally posted by Pax:

The estimated number of unique accounts as of June 2024 was 3.5 million according to online player base estimates.

That figure is obviously the total number and therefore meaningless when trying to determine the amount of people that still actively play this game on a regular basis.

Or are you genuinely claiming that 3.5 million people still play this game? I wish.

Originally posted by Pax:

The peak daily player number over all servers in the last 2 weeks was 18K.

Again, the real number is likely less than 5,000 as most of the people that still play this game have more than one character on their account. Rotational character log-ins for dailies, crafting, raiding - per account - will significantly boost the final figures.

Originally posted by Pax:

0fasdG

No idea what this is supposed to mean.

Plenty of games will highlight how they have a "total of Millions of Accounts created for it", that's nothing new.

Just to put it out there, logging "into a Character" doesn't count towards you "Logging into an Account". That's only when using the Launcher to "login".

We were told back in Dec 2020 that Sept 2020 had over 108,000 Accounts login during that month.

While the numbers have dropped LOTRO isn't going to have your "5,000" guess right now. LOTRO doesn't see high "Daily Numbers" but does see consistently good numbers on Weekends and whenever Major Updates occur.

We should have Update 41 happening July 31st, pending anything.

[Asha]

Originally posted by Harvain:

Just to put it out there, logging "into a Character" doesn't count towards you "Logging into an Account". That's only when using the Launcher to "login".

There's no publicly available empirical record to differentiate between the two. All we can base our estimations on are third-party websites that monitor the daily peak of characters on each server, and there is no way for us to know exactly how many unique accounts/individuals are playing LOTRO on a regular basis. My point stands.

Originally posted by Harvain:

We were told back in Dec 2020 that Sept 2020 had over 108,000 Accounts login during that month.

Told by whom? I don't trust developers to give us accurate player activity information, not when their revenue is on the line. Regardless, even if true, that was nearly four years ago and during a period of time which saw government-enforced lockdowns globally.

Originally posted by Harvain:

LOTRO isn't going to have your "5,000" guess right now. LOTRO doesn't see high "Daily Numbers" but does see consistently good numbers on Weekends and whenever Major Updates occur.

The thing about activity analysis in digital media is that we tend to exclude periods of sporadic interest generated by new 'updates' or patches. If a game's player activity spikes 20% because of a new region or cosmetic item, then falls back to the original number within a week or two, those players were never genuinely active players to begin with - which is what questions like OP's are trying to determine. Bethesda boasting Starfield's "six million players" on launch, with a Steam peak of 330,000 in its release month of September, then falling to less than 20,000 by the end of the year might be a success for the developers who have already lined their pockets, but it certainly isn't for the players.

This is precisely the reason why companies like SSG pump out as many meaningless, low-quality, asset duplicated updates as frequently as possible, rather than focus on what the existing and active community actually asks for (QOL): it perpetuates a false and inflated sense of activity they can report back to both investors and gullible pundits that are more concerned with blindly defending these practices than acknowledging hard truths about the long-term health of this once great game - present company included.

[Agarthan Knight]

Originally posted by Heill Óðinn:

This is precisely the reason why companies like SSG pump out as many meaningless, low-quality, asset duplicated updates as frequently as possible, rather than focus on what the existing and active community actually asks for (QOL): it perpetuates a false and inflated sense of activity they can report back to both investors and gullible pundits that are more concerned with blindly defending these practices than acknowledging hard truths about the long-term health of this once great game - present company included.

Hit the nail on the head.

[Harvain]

Originally posted by Heill Óðinn:

Originally posted by Harvain:

We were told back in Dec 2020 that Sept 2020 had over 108,000 Accounts login during that month.

Told by whom? I don't trust developers to give us accurate player activity information, not when their revenue is on the line. Regardless, even if true, that was nearly four years ago and during a period of time which saw government-enforced lockdowns globally.

https://www.enadglobal7.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/EG7-Investor-Presentation-Dec-2020-Acquires-Daybreak-Games.pdf

EG7 or Enad Global 7 is the overall group that makes decisions since 2020 that affects Standing Stone Games & the Lord of the Rings Online, they purchased Daybreak Games who is SSG's Owner/Publisher.

The following is what was stated by EG7 in an Official Investor Report on Page 15 of the PDF in Dec 2020 for what was reported for September 2020:

"MAU / Members2)
108K / 41K

2) As of September 2020. Members defined as customers who have purchased a monthly membership."

LOTRO had 108,000 Unique Accounts login during & 41,000 VIP Subscribers during that month.

This MMORPG doesn't have anywhere near only "5,000" players total. Maybe that amount on a good day logged in at the same time but not in total for who play.