TA Gaming Stats - December 2012

By Chewie,
This report is for the period December 1st 2012 to 31st December 2012.

December is a time for sharing, a time for caring, a time for family, a time for friends, a time for giving, a time for receiving, a time for cold weather, a time for hot food, a time for my birthday (the most important thing), a time for gaming and a time for Stats!

Although, truth be told, these Stats for the month of December here at TA aren't exactly going set your fur on fire. A quiet release schedule means that people mostly play the games they've picked up during the blockbuster Fall months. However, gift giving gives quite a few titles a boost and of course there are the inevitable Sales that see titles shifting in decent quantities.

Games Started
90,416 TrueAchievements gamers started a total of 243,098 games between them (2,044 different games).

One retail title has shone above all others this month, pulling in some decent starter numbers - probably more than the community may have originally predicted. Far Cry 3 is a critically-lauded open-world title that people have been scrambling to get their hands on thanks to some very positive word of mouth. Released at the very end of November in some territories robs it of some of the numbers it could have achieved this month, but 16,500 starters 'aint bad.

However, it doesn't really come close to the heavy hitters of last month, Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops II, which managed between 40,000 and 60,000 starters in November. Those two titles pull in decent numbers again this month, but the drop off in starters is significant, giving them half the numbers of Far Cry 3.

The rest of the table is made up of all the other big name releases of the past months, with exactly 0 new releases apart from Far Cry, which may go some way to explaining why it pulls in significantly more numbers, but shouldn't take away from the game's quality.

Top Retail Games Started

It's a similar story on Arcade, with the only new releases being Karaoke, Kinect Party and Guardians of Middle-earth. The first two do well, but mostly because they came at the price of free. They pull in numbers of nearly 3,000, settling into third and fourth, just behind the other free title, Happy Wars (Xbox 360).

However, none of these can touch The Walking Dead (Xbox 360), which pulls in some massive numbers. The game has been consistently popular throughout its lifetime thanks to the monthly episodic release schedule, but with the first episode free and the others at half price during the Countdown to 2013 sale, it proved too tempting for almost 10,000 more TA'ers; me included.

Other titles featuring thanks to the sale are...actually, no, that'd take too long. 12 of the 20 titles on the chart are there thanks to discounts. Apart from The Walking Dead and Kinect Party, which was free for the duration of the sale, the most popular of the discounted titles were Mark of the Ninja, Fez and Deadlight, which are interestingly all 2D side-scrolling platformers. Well, Fez is kinda 2D...sorta.

Regardless, they all pull in over 1,000 starters, giving their overall amount of players a significant bump

Top Arcade Games Started

The only new release on Windows Phone Games this month was also by far its most popular. The Scrabble-style word game AlphaJax (WP) settles comfortably in first with over 3,000 starters, three times more than the next game down, the recently discounted Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (WP), and over five times more than the third place title.

Like Arcade, much of the rest of the table is made up of Sale titles, including Contre Jour (WP), Kinectimals (WP), Mush (WP), iStunt 2 (WP), Doodle Jump (WP) and geoDefense Swarm (WP), which claim spots throughout the first half of the table, pulling in between 380 and 650 starters.

Top Windows Phone Games Started

Games Completed
23,776 TrueAchievements gamers completed a total of 54,078 games between them (1,687 different games).

Despite being extraordinarily popular on Games Started last month, Halo 4 was nowhere to be found on Games Completed, despite some claiming it was 'easier' than previous instalments. Well, that was mostly because some achievements relied on episodic Spartan Ops content. Now that those particular achievement-related episodes have been released, the build-up of players waiting for those few achievements to give them the completion means the game shoots to the top of the table with nearly 2,000 completions.

For an open-world game and sequel to notoriously difficult Far Cry 2, quite a few people are wrapping up Far Cry 3 with ease quite soon after its release. 1,750 players managed it in December, and the high numbers are continuing into January.

Recent DLC give The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Borderlands 2 (Xbox 360), Battlefield 3 and Mass Effect 3 their positions in third to sixth.

Top Retail Games Completed

With the monster number of people starting The Walking Dead this month and how easy it is to finish, it's no surprise that it retains the top spot on Arcade Games Completed. However, interestingly, the numbers are actually down slightly from last month, when the final episode of the game was released, dropping by about 400 completions to 3,800. It's still way more than any other game on the arcade though, even the ridiculously easy SEGA Vintage titles that make up second to fourth places.

A fair few of the easier titles from the Sales also pull in completions, which means people were buying them, playing them and finishing them over the Christmas period. For shame. Not really, I would've too but I wasn't allowed to take my Xbox back to Kashyyyk with me.

Top Arcade Games Completed

Although AlphaJax sits pretty at the top of Windows Games Started, it fails to land a spot on Completed because, unlike most Windows Phone games, it actually presents a challenge to complete. Pac-Man instead takes the crown, with almost 600 completions.

The rest of the table again sees the same old titles, with Cut The Rope (WP), Turn N Run (WP) and Spider Jack (WP) all pulling in between 250 and 400 completions.

Top Windows Phone Games Completed

Achievements Won
129,441 TrueAchievements gamers won a total of 4,490,284 achievements online between them (60,310 different achievements).

Those three Spartan Ops achievements and one from the 'Crimson Map' DLC for Halo 4 disrupt what otherwise would have been a clean sweep for Far Cry 3, which impressively nabs 16 of the 20 spots on Retail Achievements Won.

Top Retail Achievements Won

Nothing can interrupt The Walking Dead, which does secure a clean sweep on Arcade Achievements Won. The top eight achievements are all the ones for the first episode, which makes sense, seeing as it was free and all. The rest of the achievements come from episodes two and five, showing that this is a mix of players who are working their way through from the beginning and those who have already made it to the end game.

Top Arcade Achievements Won

The popularity of AlphaJax means that it comfortably secures the top 13 places on Windows Phone Achievements Won, with Pac-Man pulling up the rear with six of the bottom seven spots.

Top Windows Phone Achievements Won

Shooter and Action-Adventure both see significant drops in numbers in Genre now that the big-budget season has passed. Shooter maintains the edge, despite losing over 15,000,000. The drop for Action-Adventure is lower at around 5,000,000, meaning the gap between the two heavy hitting genres is reduced.

Most other genres actually see a slight rise in numbers this month, but nothing significant enough to shake things up too much. After last months boost, Racing drops back down from third to fifth. Thanks to the appropriately named Kinect Party, Party gets enough of a boost to push it up from twelfth to tenth.

Total TrueAchievements won by Genre
  • Shooter46,472,584
  • Action-Adventure30,525,724
  • Role-Playing12,302,493
  • Action10,159,358
  • Racing8,025,849
  • Sports6,921,608
  • Adventure3,445,896
  • Platformer2,301,451
  • Music & Rhythm2,154,958
  • Party2,129,852
  • Puzzle2,043,353
  • Strategy1,507,806
  • Card & Board1,439,361
  • Simulation1,100,038
  • Special594,760
  • Vehicular Combat273,283
  • 40,148


So that's it for December, but not quite for 2012. Next week will see the Statisticles producing their masterpiece, the entire stats for the whole year. I for one can't wait. But, then again, I don't have to: I'm looking at the numbers now and they're beautiful.
Chewie
Written by Chewie
Chewie is a Wookiee from Kashyyyk. Since helping the Rebel Alliance defeat the Emperor, he has taken up Achievement-Hunting and Newshoundery on TA. Also, ice-skating.
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