Yesterday we reported that Dota 2 has surpassed League of Legends as the most played PC game in the West (US and Europe), according to a report by DFC Intelligence. As it turns out the report was completely wrong.
So this morning after starting my work day way too early I opened an email from Riot Games PR manager Chris Schmidt, in which he informs us of a critical update about the mentioned article. I would imagine that it is indeed very critical as the reports world wide have gotten a great deal of attention. Considering that the report was a little bit misleading, I’m quite impressed that Riot has taken the time to make sure that accuracy prevails.
The original reports states that:
GamesIndustry reports that Valve’s Dota 2 is the most played “core” PC title according to the DFC Intelligence report; the report combines data from multiple sources through its PC game Meter service, which includes real-time stats from Xfire’s 23 million users. The top three most played games were Dota 2, league of Legends and in third place World of Warcraft, although the free-to-play MOBA’s numbers far surpassed that of Blizzard’s subscription based MMO.
GamesIndustry then went on to do some further research after various communities and media expressed some scepticism over the report, and it didn’t take too much to see the actual stats on Xfire, mentioned in the DFC report. Current standings on Xfire at 08:28, 11 April 2013 give an entirely different Top Ten list of most played PC game according to their data. League of Legends at number one stands at a staggering 83, 000 while Dota 2 at number 6, only just passes a figure of 6 600 users.
They’ve also reached out to DFC Intelligence about the report, which has been retracted. David Cole, DFC Intelligence analyst stands by the report, but has declined to share more detailed data.
“We have this service that tracks usage of PC games. League of Legends is always on top by a huge margin, an order of magnitude. The only time anything came close was the launch of Diablo III, but just for a short time. Dota 2 showed a huge bump in usage; first product to do that well in a long time,” said Cole in a statement to GamesIndustry International.
“The thing is globally [League of Legends] is still much bigger because we don’t track Asia and many of the small markets they have penetrated. Our tracking is only key Western markets. China alone counts for way more usage of [League of Legends] than the rest of the world, so that is the major footnote we have been telling everyone,” he added. “The main news to me was that Dota 2 has been a huge success.”
Riot challenged the DFC Intelligence report with some stats of their own, stating that League of Legends sees “over 500,000 peak concurrent players every day on just the EU West shard,” which is obviously a hell of a lot more than the 325, 879 players Valve’s Steamgraph has recorded as the all-time high for the Dota 2 beta.
Last Updated: April 11, 2013
Admiral Chief Erwin
April 11, 2013 at 12:03
*yawns*
matthurstrsa
April 11, 2013 at 13:41
No man, its contagious *YAWN*
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
April 11, 2013 at 14:33
Ag crud.
*YAAAAAWWWWNNN*
Lardus
April 11, 2013 at 12:20
Maybe someone got a little somethin’ somethin’ under the table to run that yesterday. And with someone I do not mean LG but DFC hehe
jGLZA
April 11, 2013 at 12:21
What is wrong with this world? Why is CoD 2 still at number 3? People need to learn to let go?
Yolanda Green
April 11, 2013 at 12:23
I honestly still prefer CoD4, been playing BLOPS 2 and just can’t get used to the overkill with all the perks and gadgets… bring back that old S&D 🙂 Maps were way better too.
Lardus
April 11, 2013 at 13:59
CoD4 was the last one I played online. Haven’t actually enjoyed any CoD after that one.
Yolanda Green
April 11, 2013 at 14:29
It was the CoD title I started out with and is what got me into eSports, it really is the best CoD title to compete in for PC. BLOPS 2 bonus games are fun, but that’s about it.
Charl Potgieter
April 11, 2013 at 12:37
Because it’s Xfire… And the only people still using Xfire are the same people who are stuck in the past.
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
April 11, 2013 at 12:26
I am going to have nightmares of that face for a long time. Not the best shot ever taken of her is it.
Kinda like a possessed kinda face.
Very creepy header Yolanda
Lardus
April 11, 2013 at 13:47
Header of the week!!
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
April 11, 2013 at 14:31
Totally!
Yolanda Green
April 11, 2013 at 14:27
BWAHAHAHAHA You’re welcome 😀
DarthofZA
April 11, 2013 at 12:58
I doubt Dota2 will ever reach League’s success. I am really impressed with the way Riot handled the situation though. No name calling. No harassing. No legal letters. A great example from the makers of the world’s most played game.
Chung Van Dao
April 12, 2013 at 15:01
A few things to consider:
1) Dota 2 was never about attracting the most players. LoL can draw in a larger player-base simply due to its wider appeal and various other reasons including its simplicity, more youthful art-style and the fact that it was the first free-to-play, standalone title in the genre. I don’t play games because they’re popular, I play them because I like them. LoL still has a lot to learn from Valve before it could be considered anywhere near as good of a product as Dota 2 is.
2) You can’t measure success purely from player numbers and skewed from one side. Just because LoL has more players doesn’t make it more successful. What makes it successful from a business standpoint is its unprecedented exponential growth from what was originally forecast by Riot. On the other hand Valve has a completely different philosophy – to make the best games that they can humanly make. Both games can co-exist without either toppling the other.
3) Of course Riot have to do this but let’s not forget the number of times they openly bash Dota’s game design on their own forums as a means of justifying their design as being better.
Slade Boender
April 11, 2013 at 13:15
sonuvabitch *eats humble pie*
Charles Rigby
April 11, 2013 at 13:27
X-fire seems unreliable… How about google trends?
http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en#q=dota%202%2C%20Leauge%20of%20legends&date=1%2F2010%2012m&cmpt=q
DarthofZA
April 11, 2013 at 13:57
People don’t google league of legends lots. They will google it once and end up on their website, where all the information is stored. The League of Legends website is a goldmine of information. But people can’t just download Dota and start playing, so they google dota download, then dota 2 download, then a million other combinations, until they eventually figure out they need to install steam. Also, when they want more help with character walkthroughs, or map info, they start googling more. League of Legends site has all that. If anything, that shows how much more professional the League of Legends site and community are, in that a game with 10 times the player base has less than a tenth of the google searches.
Chung Van Dao
April 12, 2013 at 15:11
No that proves nothing and you’re talking out of your LoL fanboy ass. Dota 2’s and PlayDota’s websites have a bunch of guides on everything from beginning the game to the most popular builds.
Hendrik Ruhe
April 11, 2013 at 14:00
Sorry but that doesn’t work at all. this includes everything connected to “dota”, including: dota starcraft which is not at all related to valves dota2. Somehow you also needed to include LoL or LCS as keywords but that covers words like “lol cats” … so all this… doesnt work ^^
Charles Rigby
April 11, 2013 at 14:58
Ok thanks you two, makes sense. Was also talking to a friend that was explaining trends isn’t really just raw searches like I thought it was.
Shaoxuan
April 11, 2013 at 22:04
And you spelled it wrong, it is “league of legends”, not leauge.
Shaoxuan
April 11, 2013 at 22:05
oh, here’s the correct link
http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en#q=dota%202%2C%20League%20of%20legends&date=1%2F2010%2012m&cmpt=q
Chung Van Dao
April 12, 2013 at 15:08
And then you remove the number 2 and you get this:http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=en#q=League%20of%20legends%2C%20DotA&date=1%2F2010%2012m&cmpt=q
Gustav Minnie
April 11, 2013 at 13:43
I’m playing both but if I have to choose it will be League (by a big margin).
Cunt
April 14, 2013 at 20:34
DOTA 2 isn’t officially out yet… /facepalm