We know Riot Games' League of Legends is some sort of phenomenal behemoth that has captured the hearts, minds, and most importantly dollar signs of gamers the world around. But what you probably didn't know is that it's the most played game according to DFC Intelligence and Xfire, who report more than 1,292,502,456 hours played over the past year.
The 5-on-5 multiplayer battle arena game has really kicked off a popularity storm given its unique approach to PvP and MORPG progression. Quite naturally, there are clones for League of Legends popping up faster than piss-poor dating shows that followed suit behind low-brow entertainment like Joe Millionaire and The Bachelor.
David Cole, CEO, DFC Intelligence dropped some smart info about the news, saying...
“The fact that online games such League of Legends eclipsed more than a billion hours of online game time in a year is simply incredible, and a testament to the fundamental shift currently sweeping through the games industry. By comparison, Bungie recently announced that the Halo franchise surpassed two billion hours of online play, but that’s over a period of seven years.”
Between July, 2011 to June, 2012, DFC GamesPulse Matrix data sampling and Xfire statistical tracking -- the same tracking methods used by industry analysts and investors -- has reported that more than 1.2 billion hours of League of Legends has been played, making it one mammoth contender in the world of interactive entertainment.
The stats come courtesy of data extrapolated actual game usage from more than 21 million Xfire users between June 1st, 2011 to June 30th, 2012. Malcolm CasSelle, CEO, Xfire shared his thoughts about the rankings, saying...
“The Xfire application lets us examine the real-time data of users as they play any of our more than 2,000 supported games,”... “The resulting information lets us model all sorts of variables and situations that could impact publishers, investors and consumers.”
I think it's quite telling that three out of the ten slots on the list are dominated by Blizzard's games, and if you include Activision-Blizzard as a whole, four out of the ten slots are dominated by Activision-Blizzard. That's quite a stranglehold on the PC gaming industry they have there, eh?
EA sits pretty with Battlefield 3 rounding out more than 171 million hours of gameplay, yet it pales in comparison to indie company Mojang whose little-train-that-could sits in third place with a highly respectable 371 million hours of gameplay logged over the past year. That is insane, and quite a testament that you don't need $50 million in marketing to get people to play, enjoy and spread the word about your title.
It's also interesting to note that despite the waning player base, Diablo III already has more than 172 million hours logged since its debut in May. Whether you like the game or not, you have to admit that those are some mean numbers for a game that's only been on the market for barely two months.
You can check out more information and industry stats over at the Official DFC Intelligence Website, as well as the Official Xfire Website.
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