SirBruce has updated his spreadsheets again:
MMOG Chart.com
Obviously only of academic interest unless you're a shareholder or dev; you either like a game and play or you don't, but it's still quite interesting to get a bird's eye view from a fairly reputable source.
Van Hemlock's Notes: Mostly the various numbers in the last few months reflect the outstanding success of World of Warcraft, in particular, the sudden and sharp decline in both Everquest and Everquest II during the last few points. Star Wars Galaxies and Anarchy Online also seem to have taken a hit, along with pretty much all the rest of the 'Fantasy' genre, indicating a genral widespread migration to WoW. Warcraft hasn't really faced any real retention threats so far, but it will be interesting to see if they can buck the usual 'Spike and Fade' trend exhibited by most of the games on the list.
The off-the-wall titles, like EVE Online, Second Life and Puzzle Pirates, seem to be the only ones unaffected by Warcraft, which just goes to show - the best way to protect yourself from The Next Big Thing, is to be nothing like The Last Big Thing. On the whole though, World of Warcraft really does seem to be the only game in town just now.
Meanwhile, although WoW doesn't seem to be drawing from Lineage, Lineage II is, and WoW seems to be starting to reach the kinds of numbers usually only associated with Korean Web-Cafe Hysteria. Go Blizzard! ("keke!1! ^_^ ~~~~" etc)
Insterestingly, Neocron 2 doesn't show at all, presumably being too small to record. Nor does my next choice for Operation Cheapseats; Saga of Ryzom. Again it's a title I visted during 'Open Beta', but found a lot broken or lacking. I did find a lot interesting and novel though, so am quite looking forward to spending a fortnight poking about the place. More on that next time.