Having fought hard to claim Rank 2 in the February 2015 Top 20 Core PC Games Rankings Minecraft (Mojang) the title defended its ascension into March 2015, with League of Legends (Riot) and World of Tanks (Wargaming) holding Rank 1 and Rank 3 respectively. It’s looking more and more likely that League of Legends will continue to claim Rank 1 well into April 2015, which would make it officially the King of the Top 20 Core PC Games Rankings for over a year.
As we move further down the list we see DotA 2 (Valve) fall one place to Rank 8 with Arma 3(Bohemia Interactive) taking Rank 7. With the release of the “BlackRock Mountain” expansion we see Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard) move up 1 place (as predicted in February 2015) to Rank 9. After rising an impressive 7 spots to Rank 9 in February 2015, Diablo III (Blizzard) has only declined by 1 place to Rank 10, a slight decline not entirely unexpected after the hype of its new content season had begun to wear off.
Perhaps most impressive of all is indie darling Robocraft (Freejam Games), who having moved up 1 place to Rank 15, has now maintained a place in to the Top 20 Core PC Games Rankings for 5 months.
Blizzard’s MOBA makes its Rankings Debut
Heroes of the Storm (Blizzard) is a new entry on our Rankings, achieving Rank 19 in March 2015. The title entered closed beta on the 13th January 2015 and by the end of February 2015 had over 9 million players signed up to play. As a MOBA with less of an emphasis on individual skill and more “casual /team friendly” the title has received a mixed reaction from the eSports community. While many argue the title’s friendly approach to the casual crowd erodes the competitive spirit underpinning MOBA’s, others see the title as making MOBA’s more accessible to the general gaming community. Time will tell if the title has what it takes to go against the likes of DotA 2 and League of Legends in the Top 20 Rankings but the outlook is good given the fact it’s achieved this rank whilst still in the Beta stage. Joining Heroes of the Storm as a Rankings newcomer was PayDay 2 (505 Games) which came in at Rank 18 in March 2015.
Smite Instability
In December 2014 Smite rose an impressive 11 places to Rank 7 on our Core PC Rankings, dethroning DotA 2 in the process. It’s World Championship prize pool ($2.5 Million) became the second largest in eSports history. All seemed bright until the January 2015 data revealed Smite fell 5 places to Rank 12, its previous rise seemingly fueled solely by the interest generated by their World Championships. Last month Smite appeared to have stabilized, rising 1 place to Rank 11, but unfortunately our newest data reveals this wasn’t to be the case.
Eerily repeating it’s January 2015 decline Smite has again fallen 5 places to Rank 16 in our March 2015 Top 20 Core PC Games Rankings. This is a rather disappointing result for Hi Rez especially when you consider that it held it’s official one year launch anniversary {link no longer active} during March. It remains to be seen if Smite can once again shoot up the rankings in the coming months but the road ahead is difficult, especially when compared to the overall Rankings stability of the established MOBA titles like DotA 2 and League of Legends, as well as the newest contender on the block: Heroes of the Storm.
MMO Roundup
Star Wars: The Old Republic (EA) moved up 2 places to Rank 12, a healthy sign given the fact it fell 3 places just last month. World of Warcraft (Blizzard) and Guild Wars 2 (NCSoft) remained stable at Rank 5 and Rank 6 respectively, unchanged from February 2015. As we reported in detail last month ArcheAge’s (Trion Worlds) rough treatment at the hands of the community continues into March 2015 with the title falling another 3 places to land at Rank 20. While there might be some positive changes in the next month, May 2015 could mark the disappearance of ArcheAge from the Top 20 altogether.
About Overwolf
Overwolf is a customizable in-game overlay platform that has been installed in over 8 million PCs. This community of hardcore PC gamers are consistently making their own apps within the Overwolf platform and sharing them. Why Because it’s super simple and it enhances the gameplay experience of anyone’s favorite title in a personal way. From in-game chat systems to customized controls, streaming or video capture, Overwolf allows users to implement their own visions into these games and do so in a timely manner.
About Newzoo
Newzoo is the leading global market research firm focused purely on the games market. The company provides its clients with a mix of primary consumer research, transactional data and financial analysis across all continents, screens and business models. It is also known for actively sharing a variety of insights by means of free trend reports, infographics, blogposts and monthly rankings. Newzoo’s clients include Tencent, SEGA, Logitech, Wizards of the Coast, Nvidia, Microsoft, EA, Coca-Cola and Visa/PlaySpan.
