Space is getting a little bit smaller

Everyone’s favourite spreadsheet simulator EVE Online might not be everyone’s favourite anymore, according to graphs made by EVE player Jestertrek.

The graphs show that the amount of people concurrently playing the game has recently hit its lowest point since 2008, with only just over 21,000 players being logged in at any one time. That’s quite a considerable drop since the highest recorded month of January 2011, where there were roughly 36,000.

There are many reasons for the slump, as reddit user Ohh_Yeah points out. Changes to the game made reliance on alternate accounts less important and recent changes which made the game less welcoming to new players, as well as the usual veteran player drop off that happens in older games may be behind it. However, part of me is interested in how EVE will fare when Star Citizen finally comes out. They’re not the same sort of game of course, but have a lot of similar elements.

Either way, 21,000 is still a decent amount of players. More than enough to lose your life savings when they blow up your ship.