WoW and FFXIV: The Game has been Boosted Raptr Playtime; ArcheAge Playtime "cratered"

Another month, another Raptr report. Yesterday Raptr.com released its top PC games list for November and MMOs performed quite well. It's not surprising that World of Warcraft has risen to second place due to the Warlords Of Draenor expansion. "The game's monthly playtime was up 71.3 percent compared to October," Raptr's press release states. Although WoW "likely” drew from League of Legends numbers, it was not able to be able to take over the MOBA's number one position.

ArcheAge playtime decreased by 39.97 percent, however World of Tanks (and Final Fantasy XIV) had an increase in their playtime. Raptr states that Guild Wars 2 rose in rank, but saw less playing time in November over October. SWTOR has dropped two places in October.

Raptr roundups come with the caveat that they only represent Raptr users using desktop computers. Some MMO studios also employ in-game rewards to boost Raptr numbers. The games might not release information about their player base, so you might consider this the next best snapshot of popularity other than touring the servers.

[Source: Raptr press release, which we've included below] Most played PC Games: November 2014 -- Dragon Age and Call of Duty debut, World of Warcraft resurgent

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Dragon Age: Inquisition made their debuts on the Top Played List this month. World of Warcraft's latest expansion gave the MMO a boost after ten years. Spider Solitaire also made a surprise return to the top 20 after a long absence. The guilty parties know who they are.

Highlights

League of Legends remained in the top spot in November despite losing 15.88 percent of its playtime compared to October. The game reached its peak at the beginning of the month, following LoL's Halloween sales event. Although the game's performance was consistent for most of the month, the 4.20 update brought queues that were long and affected playtime.

World of Warcraft's Warlords of Draenor likely took time away from LoL as well as other major games. The MMO's monthly playtime was up 71.3 percent over October. As expected, the daily play time was affected by the expansion and the game's 10 year anniversary events. The game's play time nearly doubled after Draenor was launched and remained strong until November.

The other top five games weren't so fortunate. DOTA 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Smite saw a net decrease in the time. Smite beat ArcheAge for the fifth position. While DOTA 2 and CS:GO experienced double-digit drops (12.49 percent and 11.59%, respectively), Smite was down just 1.

Archeage, meanwhile, cratered by 39.97%; hence Smite's small climb up the ranks.

The downward trend continued with Minecraft (-11.70 percent), Diablo III (down almost 45 percent -- we blame WoW for this) and Hearthstone (-13.11%, though we expect a rebound to come in December due to Goblins vs Gnomes).

Chart newcomer Dragon Age, Inquisition, came in at tenth place despite a release in November.

While sliding down the ranks, World of Tanks managed to gain 7.72 percent of playtime as compared to October. Although the WGLNA Gold League Qualifying Rounds were held throughout the month, the game was the highest during Thanksgiving weekend due to XP multipliers, deals on premium items, and Thanksgiving weekend.

Final Fantasy XIV increased in playtime by 20.97 percent. The rise could be attributed to the late-October and early November hotfixes for the game, and the release of the Game of the Year edition which offered an additional 60 days of adventure (plus all the previously released content). The game's playtime was not affected by mid-month DDOS attacks which caused login problems.

Warframe and Guild Wars 2 each rose in popularity despite losing playtime in November compared to October. Warframe hosted an Movember community event, which resulted in a Guinness World Record. Guild Wars 2's Tangled Path content has been released with new areas and items, skins, as well as other features.

Call of Duty: Advance Warfare is always an Xbox juggernaut - was released in November and based upon current trends we may not see it in December’s Most Played.

Spider Solitaire was re-invented into Most Played for the first time since October 2013. It is now clear that Thanksgiving isn't just about football, turkey and arguing with family - it's also about Solitaire. The 27th of November was the most popular day for Solitaire game play.

Note that the Share number for each game is the gameplay time in percentage of the total time spent playing all PC games played by Raptr members. It is useful for comparing the relative amount of time spent playing particular games.
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