Quote Originally Posted by Reinha View Post
I looked up the previous chart made in 2022 and it shows lower participation numbers for the last column (2022Q4) compared to the same time period (2022Q4) in the most recent chart (2023). This means the last column in the most recent chart (2023Q2) is likely underreporting the number of active players. Additionally, look at the number of green (final/quit) characters in the old chart in column 2022Q3. The number of green characters decreases by half for the same quartile (2022Q3) in the newer chart.


If the data is skewed in a similar manner as it was before, the number of green characters in column 2023Q1 is going to shrink dramatically in the next chart, and the total number of active players in column 2023Q2 will increase in the next chart.
LB did state in his blog that he hadn't been able to fully analyze the Q2 numbers at the time he updated the graph. That's why I have brought up the question of when the data pulled. If he's using data he pulled with his census data (May 20th but patch 6.4 was May 23rd), the lack of players with new achievements makes sense.

But even in the quarters prior to that, there has been a slowly increasing number of active players not earning new achievements and that has started with EW launch. I suspect the adjusted Q2 bar will continue that pattern. It's still hard to say what it means since those who display achievements are self-selected.

Quote Originally Posted by Noumenon View Post
I hope you noticed that every single bar moved upwards from ShB and early EW.
Yes. COVID lockdown and WoW content creator exodus dragging followers in their wake to inflate active player numbers. We've talked about these things already.

Now the game numbers are rebounding from the outlier situation and seem to be heading toward where the game was at Shadowbringer's release. What we really need to be looking at would be the Dawntrail release numbers but those are still about 9-11 months away.

In the meantime, chances are good that LB will be publishing a new census toward the end of next week (don't know if he will be updating the achievement graph at the same time). Have fun chewing on the new data.