World of Warcraft in the 'net's traffic patterns
by Mike Schramm 
Oct 22nd 2009 at 7:00PM
More than any other gaming service (they also take a look at Steam), WoW's chart is extremely interesting -- it peaks solidly at 8pm every night, and then falls back down just as sharply around 11pm. In other words, the biggest audience for WoW (during this time period -- this is over ten days in July of this year) is raiders, who show up on time at 8 and end the raid around 3 hours later. In other words, if you want to avoid the crowd, show up after 11. Or even better, raid in the mornings. Interesting stuff -- certainly Blizzard has much more detailed information on when people log into the game (and where they go when they do), but as an overview of traffic patterns, Arbor's research all makes sense.
[via Network World]
Filed under: Realm News, Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Instances
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
hispali Oct 22nd 2009 7:14PM
i would be interested in seeing a more detailed breakdown of that graphic. If that is supposed to be nation wide use, then based off of the Eastern Standard time logo there, i would say that the typical 9-5 crowd getting back from school and work at or around 5pm on the west coast would be greatly affecting the 8pm eastern time results. We see a reversed pattern where i work for network load, showing that nationwide our traffic peaks around 8-9 am west coast, when all of the nationwide offices are in operation at the same time, and deminishing at around 2pm west coast time (when the eastern offices begin closing)
Muse Oct 22nd 2009 7:14PM
Kind of interesting that there isn't a big spike right around 15-16 when school is out and people with regular office hours go home.
t0xic Oct 22nd 2009 7:16PM
"...certainly Blizzard has much more detailed information on when people log into the game (and where they go when they do)..."
We like to talk about all of the really great statistics that Blizzard must have (since their servers are really just giant databases). Why is it that we assume Blizzard has enormous statistical tracking capability, but we never assume that Blizzard would have the same capability at auditing transactions such as:
- Buying/selling of over-priced items on the AH (gold selling/buying)
- Wholesale selling off of all gear across multiple toons on the same account (hacked accounts)
Maybe these are simple examples. I'm guessing they could get very specific in their audits and automate very basic checks to find trouble-signs. Instead of an end-user reporting that they've been hacked, an automated e-mail from Blizzard notifying users of suspicious activity on their account (sent to the original e-mail address, assuming it has recently been changed or linked to a battle.net account).
Off on a tanget, I know... It just seems like a double-standard to me.
t0xic Oct 22nd 2009 7:35PM
To carry that out a step further, what percentage of all account hacks occur after business hours on Friday night? One would think you could build a staffing model justifying more people on the weekends with that data alone.
Every account hack I've heard about from friends (including my girlfriend) happens at the beginning of the weekend, and it isn't resolved until early the following week (giving the hacker at least 2-3 days of unfettered account access). All of this info is in those databases if they want to dig it out.
They staff people to clean up the mess. They should staff people to prevent the mess from happening in the first place.
I have an authenticator on my account. I tell everyone I know to get one.
I may be a little bitter about this =)
ziggler Oct 22nd 2009 8:18PM
i remember a post in the official forums were a Gm totally owns a player who claims he had just bought the epic flying skill, but now couldnt use it, and that Gm even went as far as too show transcripts of the guild chat conversations that player had about buying the mount but not having the money for the flying skill. they do keep track of pretty much everything, the problem is, you cant process that amount of data easily.
(sorry for my poor english)
Snark Oct 22nd 2009 9:56PM
I found it.
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=285262381&sid=1
Thebum Oct 23rd 2009 9:14AM
They do check those databases regularly t0xic. I've received a 3 hours suspension because blizzard were worried that I had been hacked, and I don't think had sent a ticket about me as I didn't do anything at that time that would have annoyed anyone. So they must have been monitoring the logs or something.
What? Oct 23rd 2009 11:53AM
And the game is balanced around PVP.
/thread
ResumeMan Oct 22nd 2009 7:34PM
From a causal standpoint, I doubt that it's a matter of the traffic spiking because raiders are playing, rather it's that raids are set at the times (8-11PM) when people are most likely to want to be online (and therefore available to raid). I did most of my leveling from 8-11 too...
Liam O'Connor Oct 23rd 2009 12:24AM
Yeah, I found the "raiders" conclusion a bit asinine too. I think you'll find that it spikes in those times because that's generally when most people are able to play, not because that's when raiders choose to do their thing.
Rodrigo Oct 22nd 2009 7:47PM
Hm? I always hear the music biz crying that about 99,5% of traffic is illegal filesharing... Turns out, there are other things here, too... who knew?
Ringo Flinthammer Oct 22nd 2009 7:58PM
I really doubt it's raiding, too. What you're looking at with the 8 pm hit is everyone on the east coast is long home and the folks on the west coast are getting off work. In other words, everyone in the continental US (and those Canadians and Mexicans also on American servers) are able to be online during that window.
Zamn10210 Oct 22nd 2009 9:21PM
It's interesting how high the late night traffic is. There are more people online at 4am than 11am. I wonder what that says about WoW players.
kia Oct 23rd 2009 12:48AM
Could be us Oceanic players' peak time. 4am US EDT is 8pm Australian (sydney) Summer time.
BigBadGooz Oct 22nd 2009 11:10PM
And they did a study about something me and most people in the world already know server que yep eveyone wants to farm icecrown for titanium..... NOW
Bossy Oct 23rd 2009 2:39AM
Yes, that's the frightening part.
Blizzard knows exactly what you do, when you log, when you play your main.
How LONG you play with a alt.
Which quests you do most.
Which dungeons you play.
Which part you lie on the web about.
When activity hits a low and so new content is needed.
To sum it up: Blizzard probably knows your playing habits BETTER than yourself.
Sacajawea Oct 23rd 2009 6:31AM
I'd love to see a server dedicated to daytime players. It is really hard to get into a battleground or find a group for an instance in daylight hours. Wintergrasp is unsatisfying because it is so empty, and raiding is impossible. I am sure there are enough daytime players out there but they are scattered across all the realms. If there was a "mainly daytime" realm I'd transfer in a heartbeat.
Sacajawea - Ahn-Qiraj (EU)
Jay Oct 23rd 2009 7:03AM
"In other words, the biggest audience for WoW (during this time period -- this is over ten days in July of this year) is raiders, who show up on time at 8 and end the raid around 3 hours later."
That seems a little bit of an assumption. It could also be casual players after they have returned home from work, had dinner with the wife, watched the evening news and then gone to play at 8pm until just before midnight when they go to bed to be ready for tomorrow. It might even be school kids who having done their homework (yeah right) and taken out the trash get to their parent allowed time to play so come in and play casually, hardcore whatever?
You can see a *very* similar usage chart for Second Life too, I am going to bet pretty strongly that those people are not raiding in their sex dungeons.
Nah, not raiders clocking in and out but normal usage patterns of people with jobs, school, and the like.
Suzushiro Oct 23rd 2009 10:00AM
It has little to do with raiding, it's just because that's the biggest intersection of availability between west coast and east coast- before 8 EST people on the west coast are still at work/school, after 11 the EST people start going to bed.
Rochmoninoff Oct 23rd 2009 11:41AM
Although I think the "they're all raiders" is a but if a reach,
One thing is obvious:
All these people are playing WoW during TV prime time (instead of watching advertising that pays for TV network offerings).
And since (thank God) we're not spammed with advertising in-game we're free to live our consumer lives untainted.
As WoW's popularity continues and (hopefully) other MMOs pick up as well this will have long term consequences on how our society works.