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Mihnea

Recruit
Feb 19, 2017
3
0
Hi,

I was quite surprised looking at the Steam Charts comparison between the most popular Paradox games in the past month, and seeing EU4, Stellaris and HoI4 neck-in-neck, but CK2 consistently at about one third of the popularity of the other three contenders.

http://steamcharts.com/cmp/203770,236850,394360,281990#1m

Considering that DLC and patch development seems balanced across the spectrum of products, how is it that CK2 is lagging so much? I've always believed that CK2 is the most beloved Paradox game.

What's your take on this?

Cheers!
 
Could it be that CK2 wasn't originally a Steam only game unlike the others you mention, & only went on there years later. There are probably many more people playing it but not listed on Steam
 
Could it be that CK2 wasn't originally a Steam only game unlike the others you mention, & only went on there years later. There are probably many more people playing it but not listed on Steam
The number of non-Steam users of CK2 was minimal, under 5% of sales. That's one reason why it was discontinued.

And almost all of those will have migrated to Steam by now anyway.
 
CK2 is a little older, it's true, and there's also a paradigm-shift when playing it compared to the other PDS GSGs in that you play an individual dynasty, not a country.

As a personal observation, it's my least favourite of the main PDS titles, and in fact at the moment isn't installed on my home PC. I'll play it again at some point soon, but it's just not my *thing* so much as the others.
 
Victoria 2 still having a monthly peak of 1,200 players surprised me. Its last expansion is older than vanilla EU4.

Paradox GS games tend to never die given all mods and stuff you can do in them. Giving away old games almost for free on steam sales probably helps a bit too.
 
You might want to try it again, then, Minke - I stopped playing it after India was added, because the it was so slow to run, but starting with the patch for Reaper's Due, it is playable again, I find.
 
Eu4 has also usurped ck2 in forum threads. It's fast approaching and higher comment count as well. A couple years ago ck2 was in the lead of both by a significant margin. Perhaps EU4 is more popular? Is it that hard to imagine?
 
Lets look at the CK2 chart:
- Sword of Islam, Legacy of Rome, Sunset Invasion and The Republic barely had any effect at all on the popularity of the game, looks like the biggest bump in winter 2012-2013 is Christmas shopping.
- The Old Gods was the major expansion that brought in the new players.
- The low just before Sons of Abraham is released seems to be the last time the game dipped below 5000, so while that expansion didn't really bring in new players it helped keeping them playing.
- Rajas of India peak does beat out The Old Gods with just under 1000 more.
- Charlemagne gives 10000 players for the first time.
- Way of Life two months later doesn't beat that.
- There is a peak in February 2015 that doesn't match any expansion release. Why? Free weekend + sale? This peak is the highest before Monks and Mystics comes out.
- Horse Lords and Conclave are disappointing for the growth, neither seems to bring in more interest.
- Reaper's Due seems to have revitalize the game, and the game breach 10000 again.
- Monks & Mystics helped keep the game alive and barely sets a new record in concurrent players.

It seems to me that it issue that a lot of the expansions have failed to grow interest in the game, like the early ones, Horse Lords and Conclave.
 
Honestly CK2 wasn't quite my thing to begin with, and ever since reapers due my dynasty dies out within 2-4 generations from some kind of mass cancer. i keep buying the dlc, and playing a few games each DLC, but the mass cancer outbreaks don't really make me want to play the game.
 
Lets look at the CK2 chart:
- Sword of Islam, Legacy of Rome, Sunset Invasion and The Republic barely had any effect at all on the popularity of the game, looks like the biggest bump in winter 2012-2013 is Christmas shopping.
- The Old Gods was the major expansion that brought in the new players.
- The low just before Sons of Abraham is released seems to be the last time the game dipped below 5000, so while that expansion didn't really bring in new players it helped keeping them playing.
- Rajas of India peak does beat out The Old Gods with just under 1000 more.
- Charlemagne gives 10000 players for the first time.
- Way of Life two months later doesn't beat that.
- There is a peak in February 2015 that doesn't match any expansion release. Why? Free weekend + sale? This peak is the highest before Monks and Mystics comes out.
- Horse Lords and Conclave are disappointing for the growth, neither seems to bring in more interest.
- Reaper's Due seems to have revitalize the game, and the game breach 10000 again.
- Monks & Mystics helped keep the game alive and barely sets a new record in concurrent players.

It seems to me that it issue that a lot of the expansions have failed to grow interest in the game, like the early ones, Horse Lords and Conclave.

The Old Gods & Charlemagne were also the two DLC'S that extended the timeframe of the game, which is what people like, & confirmed with the popularity of mods that do this. If you dare to suggest this on the EU4 forums you are ticked of as if you are talking nonsense, despite numerous DLC'S. I just cannot understand it, & my main annoyance with EU4. Was one of the reasons for the popularity of In Nominee expansion for EU4.
 
The Old Gods & Charlemagne were also the two DLC'S that extended the timeframe of the game, which is what people like, & confirmed with the popularity of mods that do this. If you dare to suggest this on the EU4 forums you are ticked of as if you are talking nonsense, despite numerous DLC'S. I just cannot understand it, & my main annoyance with EU4. Was one of the reasons for the popularity of In Nominee expansion for EU4.
a lot of ck2 players dont like the semi historical stuff of the charly start, not to mention there are balance issues, like 9/10 times having the fledgling hre collapse allowing the ummayyeds to take southern france. old gods is praised not jusr for the start but for the content, tribal and pagans are fantastic with the start date being really fun for west europe. The reason eu players dont want an earlier start date is its basically as far back as it can go without adding pointless stuff to the tech line. and abunch of other things across the board
 
Honestly CK2 wasn't quite my thing to begin with, and ever since reapers due my dynasty dies out within 2-4 generations from some kind of mass cancer. i keep buying the dlc, and playing a few games each DLC, but the mass cancer outbreaks don't really make me want to play the game.
You can define what kills characters naturally before you start a game, there's a drop down menu for just about every expansion feature so people can pick and choose what they like. Failing that you can even just disable Reapers Due in the launcher but you'll miss a lot of the cool disease epidemic related mechanics, buildings and events.