Is AoE III DE slowly dying?

[ThunderClap]

For the past couple of weeks I've been wondering if this game is eventually going to die due to the small playerbase, bugs and crashes. The overall rating of the game has been slowly going down for a month now and the active players went down from almost 8k in November to less than 2k now. I really hope that the devs will fix most, if not all the bugs, add some new content and bring the players back to this amazing game.

[Eaglemut]

The overall rating has been increasing for months and has now even reached "Mostly Positive" instead of mixed. Player numbers seem stable as well https://steamdb.info/app/933110/graphs/

With a DLC almost surely getting revealed two days from now on April 10th, we can expect another influx of players and numbers going further up in the near future.

[Lone Wolf]

It's been going quite strong for 16 years. There'll always be that 2000-3000 person dedicated playerbase and you'll always be able to find a game imo. I think unless AoE4 is a masterpiece with 10+ years of replayability, AoE3 will always have a special place in people's hearts and will live on for a long, long time like AoE1 and 2 have.

Plus the upcoming news that America is a civilisation is massive news.

[Narcissistic Cannibal]

Originally posted by Mercenary:

unless AoE4 is a masterpiece with 10+ years of replayability

https://store.steampowered.com/app/285190/Warhammer_40000_Dawn_of_War_III/

[Lang Poot]

Also take into account that there are players active outside steam through the microsoft store directly

[ThunderClap]

Originally posted by Lang Poot:

Also take into account that there are players active outside steam through the microsoft store directly

Indeed + there's quite a lot of people still playing AoE III

[SWS]

Age 3 DE, since its release, has been doing better than AoE 2 HD did in the same time frame after its release in 2013. Only later sales and updates have made it big.
https://steamdb.info/graph/?compare=105450,221380,933110&release

It's not guaranteed that the same will happen to Age 3 DE of course, but there's potential. Some growth can be expected. The drop we've seen so far is pretty normal far as I can tell.

[M'igo Kazan]

The game has been dead for months now, I haven't been able to get into a single ranked match in weeks 'cause the playerbase is just so low... and even when I do, it's against someone probably double my ELO 'cause the matchmaking system is so ♥♥♥♥♥

[SWS]

Originally posted by jonoliveira12:

AoE2 HD, even last month, had almost twice the players of AoE3 DE.

That's the exact point I'm making. 2 HD got huge after a while, not immediately. And 3DE currently has twice as many players as 2 HD had after the same time since release.

My point is about whether the drop in players from the initial numbers is A: normal and B: more growth can happen afterwards, both of which I answer with yes. But the bugged release will have driven people away, who may or may not be brought back in the coming months.

Originally posted by jonoliveira12:

not when compared to both 2 HD and 2 DE.

2 DE already benefitted more from the success of 2 HD, but true, that one is much more successful. I'd claim that the 2 HD example is more relevant for this, since it's the first time AoE 2 players got a new upgraded release, hence I focussed on it. But Age3DE benefitted of more marketting and brand awareness and messed it up with a buggy release. We'll have to see whether new content drops and all the fixes make up for that.

But those, and sales and updates, made Age 2 HD big, that's the point. It wasn't huge immediately and later banked on the fans that kept joining in and even made new fans.

Originally posted by jonoliveira12:

AoE2 DE had, after 3 months since release in 2013, a lot more players than AoE3 DE had after 1 month.

Why compare 1 and 3 month numbers? Since you say 2013, you probably mean HD, not DE?? Even weirder then, since 2HD got two spikes after 3 months that imediately fell again, so this sounds like purposefully twisting the numbers to make 3DE look bad.

It's obvious which time you speak about looking at the graph I linked:
https://steamdb.info/graph/?compare=221380,813780,933110&release
(as said, these obviously don't include Gampeass either)

These two spikes (= sales/events/streamers bringing new players) for 2HD briefly outgrow 3DE, largely because the same spike for 3DE happened slightly earlier after release. 3DE constantly stays on a higher level though. These spikes are so obviously falling immediately that I wonder whether you are just trolling me. Which, fair enough, worked. Now I wrote a bunch of text :)
Edit: Don't really mean to assume ill intentions though, just a weirdly unfitting comparison.



TL;DR:
The drops are not uncommon for games. Sales and new content/events are the times when growth can be expected. Age 2 HD grew from a weaker position than where Age3DE is now. I'm not saying this is great, but that it's normal.

Here's hoping the summer sales can bring back folks who turned away from the buggy release as well.

[撿骨頭]

I consider going back to the 2007 version of aoe3, where there is better stability, graphics and balance.
Developers obviously cannot continue the artistic style of previous developers. Why would they want the United States to join?

[Lone Wolf]

Plus there's probably an untold amount of Gamepass players.

[Floki]

We are all slowly dying
\

[rodatam]

I want to play it, but the deck not working in campaign does not help

[FandangoChristmas]

AOE III will never die.

[Madtown Maverick]

Originally posted by SWS:

Originally posted by jonoliveira12:

AoE2 HD, even last month, had almost twice the players of AoE3 DE.

That's the exact point I'm making. 2 HD got huge after a while, not immediately. And 3DE currently has twice as many players as 2 HD had after the same time since release.

My point is about whether the drop in players from the initial numbers is A: normal and B: more growth can happen afterwards, both of which I answer with yes. But the bugged release will have driven people away, who may or may not be brought back in the coming months.

Originally posted by jonoliveira12:

not when compared to both 2 HD and 2 DE.

2 DE already benefitted more from the success of 2 HD, but true, that one is much more successful. I'd claim that the 2 HD example is more relevant for this, since it's the first time AoE 2 players got a new upgraded release, hence I focussed on it. But Age3DE benefitted of more marketting and brand awareness and messed it up with a buggy release. We'll have to see whether new content drops and all the fixes make up for that.

But those, and sales and updates, made Age 2 HD big, that's the point. It wasn't huge immediately and later banked on the fans that kept joining in and even made new fans.

Originally posted by jonoliveira12:

AoE2 DE had, after 3 months since release in 2013, a lot more players than AoE3 DE had after 1 month.

Why compare 1 and 3 month numbers? Since you say 2013, you probably mean HD, not DE?? Even weirder then, since 2HD got two spikes after 3 months that imediately fell again, so this sounds like purposefully twisting the numbers to make 3DE look bad.

It's obvious which time you speak about looking at the graph I linked:
https://steamdb.info/graph/?compare=221380,813780,933110&release
(as said, these obviously don't include Gampeass either)

These two spikes (= sales/events/streamers bringing new players) for 2HD briefly outgrow 3DE, largely because the same spike for 3DE happened slightly earlier after release. 3DE constantly stays on a higher level though. These spikes are so obviously falling immediately that I wonder whether you are just trolling me. Which, fair enough, worked. Now I wrote a bunch of text :)
Edit: Don't really mean to assume ill intentions though, just a weirdly unfitting comparison.



TL;DR:
The drops are not uncommon for games. Sales and new content/events are the times when growth can be expected. Age 2 HD grew from a weaker position than where Age3DE is now. I'm not saying this is great, but that it's normal.

Here's hoping the summer sales can bring back folks who turned away from the buggy release as well.

You arent even comparing Age of Empires 2 DE though in that Steam chart comparison LMAO.

AoE 3 DE barely compares to AoE 2 HD (2013). AoE 2 DE is immensely more popular than AoE 3 DE. The only time it was close was when it originally launched.

https://steamdb.info/graph/?compare=105450,221380,813780,933110

Only reason AoE2 HD got more popularity was excitement for AoE 2 DE release. And its been falling ever since.

New content can definitely bring more players back to AoE 3 DE, but AoE 2 is just on a completely different level of popularity. Always has been.

[#ТРАП#УБЛЮДОК]

Originally posted by Mercenary:

It's been going quite strong for 16 years. There'll always be that 2000-3000 person dedicated playerbase and you'll always be able to find a game imo. I think unless AoE4 is a masterpiece with 10+ years of replayability, AoE3 will always have a special place in people's hearts and will live on for a long, long time like AoE1 and 2 have.

Plus the upcoming news that America is a civilisation is massive news.

Yea it never really dipped from 500 online at all times reaching peak at 1-2k for the past 15 years. Itll never die unless age 4 does well.