Skyrim Trumps Modern Warfare 3 as Most Played Game of 2011
Everyone seems to love The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and that's because there's very little not to like (unless you're just not into RPGs, in which case you should seek counseling immediately). Underscoring the widespread appeal of a game like Skyrim, the average gamer spent 23 hours hunting dragons and picking virtual pockets during Skyrim's first week of sales.
The average Skyrim player also clocked 2.92 hours in one sitting, according to data by gaming network Raptr. That's the highest one month average in Raptr history. Hands down, individual gamers invested the most amount of their time playing Skyrim, beating out popular titles like Modern Warfare 3, Gears 3, Battlefield 3, and Batman: Arkham City.
In terms of total playtime, Modern Warfare 3 racked up the most amount of hours, beating Skyrim by a 9 percent margin. The lone victory wasn't enough to qualify it as Raptr's Most Played Game of 2011, though it did cruise to an easy victory as the Most Played Shooter of 2011.
Raptr's data consists of gameplay activity for over 10 million users across Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC platforms combined. You can read the full report here (PDF).
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Rift2
December 12, 2011 at 2:29am
I like Dark souls better then Skyrim =) even though it's a non PC game
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axiomatic
December 11, 2011 at 9:27am
LOL even my son is snubbing MW3 for the far superior BF3. Skyrim and BF3 are king of my household as well right now. Even the campaign of MW3 was a turd this year.
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h e x e n
December 11, 2011 at 12:56am
I split my time between BF3 and Skyrim. Two of the best games of their respected genres.
Skyrim needs to be patched though. It CTD's more than any game in recent memory. Every time I sit down to play it, it crashes at least once. Fucking annoying to say the least. Needless to say, F5 gets plenty of use.
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szore
December 10, 2011 at 5:22am
I played cracked Skyrim for 20 minutes. Uninstalled it and deleted the folder. ZZZzzz...
So happy i didnt spend money on that crap.
I'll stick with Eve online and BF3. I am The Rover in Eve, if anyone cares.
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bling581
December 12, 2011 at 11:08am
That's too bad. I agree the beginning isn't very interesting, but it's not even close to letting you experience what it has to offer.
I find the whole intro most annoying. When I started my 2nd character I just went AFK for like 10 min and came back when it was all over.
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Caboose
December 12, 2011 at 9:40am
Wow, ya, 'cause you know, 20min is enough time to really get a good feeling for the game, and really see what it has to offer! Hell, 20min is just scratching the surface!
Ya, stick to Eve Online, another generic space based MMO. That's REALLY unique!
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Coldrage
December 11, 2011 at 9:13am
szore I have to use adblock on your avatar cuz your face fucking annoys me
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JohnP
December 10, 2011 at 1:24pm
Heh, just the opposite. I tried BF3 and thought of it as just another FPS so I quickly deleted it. I guess you either love or hate different genres of games. For instance sports games are completely off of my computer (I wouldn't even bother to pirate the games as I would never play them). I love exploring Skyrim, just wandering about gives me great pleasure. To each his own.
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kixofmyg0t
December 09, 2011 at 7:35pm
They must not have included me in the numbers. I've played Skyrim for maybe 3 hours max. But according to the screen I'm looking at I've put over 27 hours of play time in just the multiplayer portion of MW3 alone.
Skyrim is a great game though. I pre-ordered it for PS3 and pirated it for PC because I was never gonna buy the game anyway. Only played the PC version for maybe 20 minutes. Looks the same as the PS3 version but crashes ALOT. I just seed it so others that were never gonna buy it anyway can play it for free.
Piracy FTW?
EDIT: A fellow poster on here reminded me of Steam so I figured I would DL Steam again for the first time in 5 years.
First it gave me a error saying I wasn't connected to the internet....(that's funny, I was watching youtube in another tab....pretty sure I'm connected) took about 10 minutes to find the reason and fix(now I sit here after a reboot and had to disable Norton and my routers HW firewall entirely) and tried to reset my password(it's been 5 years....that was 34,582 passwords ago...so I don't remember it)....keyword being tried. After 20 minutes of trying to copy and paste the verification code in the email(and typing it verbatim in case the Steam client does strange things to Windows copy/paste functions...which I don't doubt one bit) and it gave me errors everytime. I had to create a support account just to email them so they can unfluck this crap. Which btw the page timed out 3 flucking times while trying to email them.
I'm trying to give Steam a chance. But honestly this is WAY MORE of a pain in the ass than it is just to pirate everything.
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Ghok
December 10, 2011 at 4:02pm
"They must not have included me in the numbers."
It's funny how the very first thing you said shows your complete lack of understanding on how statistics work.
Just because the rest of your post shows your complete lack of understanding on everything else.
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luke904
December 10, 2011 at 2:47am
steam does suck, theres no doubt about that. the whole overall feel of the program is glitchy, although I am having alot less actual crashes now that I'm using windows 7 x64 instead of xp x64. OH and before you go blaming xp64... try using it. Steam just doesnt put effort into making their program stable... across all OS's.
I cant play my games offline.. unless I go online and restart in offline mode... how retarded is that?
nearly ALL crashes that I've experienced with skyrim have happend while opening or closing the in game overlay...
---- end of steam rant ---- could go on but wont-----
- everyday steam user with decent size steam library.
but in any case... it does not justify piracy. expecially making the game piratable to others, If you bought the game for PS3, I dont think there is much wrong with pirating the PC version.
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B.A.Frayd
December 10, 2011 at 2:37am
Sounds like your PC is messed up. Pirated games can cause virus problems. Can you do math?
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kixofmyg0t
December 10, 2011 at 2:02pm
Yeah ur right they can.
So how do you explain that Steam is installed on a different PC than the one I use pirate stuff?
Can you do the math?
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Caboose
December 12, 2011 at 9:43am
Sounds like either a PEBKAC or one of those really bad ID10T errors that seems to be floating around a lot lately.
So a pirated game is buggy and glitchy. WHO'DA THUNKIT?! Holy crap!
HEY EVERYONE! A PIRATED GAME HAS ISSUES AND IS BUGGY AND GLITCHY! WE'D BETTER LET ALL NEWS OUTLETS KNOW! PIRATED VERSIONS OF SKYRIM ARE BUGGY AND GLITCHY! BETHESDA CAN'T MAKE A GAME TO SAVE THEMSELVES!
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US_Ranger
December 10, 2011 at 1:29am
Sounds like a personal problem to me. Millions of people use steam without an issue every day. Maybe Steam just doesn't want to be on your computer because you pirate games.
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kixofmyg0t
December 10, 2011 at 2:00pm
Nice try.
I installed Steam on the computer that I actually use.
The computer I seed all those games I was never gonna buy so it's not a lost sale anyways is a netbook that sits in a corner and seeds. That's all it does.
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Danthrax66
December 09, 2011 at 10:44pm
I have honestly never had a problem with steam maybe the pc hates you.
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kixofmyg0t
December 10, 2011 at 2:05pm
I didn't have a problem with Steam 6 years ago when all I used it for was hacking Counter-Strike:Source.
It's strange why I have a problem now with it.
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PubstarHero
December 13, 2011 at 6:01pm
I was like 99% sure that you were a troll due to the name (myg0t giving it away), and this comment is just the final nail in that coffin.
STOP FEEDING THE TROLLS PEOPLE.
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noobstix
December 09, 2011 at 4:32pm
Skyrim players averaging only about 3 hours per sitting? Yeah, that's because after 3 hours, their game crashes or bugs out horribly. I know with all the Bethesda games I've played (starting with Oblivion), I've only averaged about an hour or two at a time because of all the technical issues that have plagued their games (when stacked over time, it makes me not want to play the game anymore). With Modern Warfare 3, MP can get you hooked for at least 3 hours (despite any annoying players camping, noob-tubing, etc.). The only technical issues with CoD games are mostly connection and server-related. I don't hear things like, "too large of a save file can crash the game" or "I have to change my audio settings to get it to run" from CoD players at all.
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PubstarHero
December 13, 2011 at 6:03pm
Odd, I've never had any issues with their games.
Besides, you know, Brink. But lets not talk about games where ATi cards get a whole 3FPS in server browser.
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JohnP
December 10, 2011 at 1:27pm
Up to level 24+ and I have had perhaps 5 drops to desktop, all when entering a new area via a door. Start the game back up and I am good to go right where I left off. That is the ONLY problem I have had with the game.
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dhoge88
December 09, 2011 at 4:49pm
3 hours max? i've let my xbox run skyrim and oblivion for 12+ hours and over night on many occasions and it never crashed, even with multiple saves. are you playing it on a pc maybe? maybe your pc isn't up to par to run it?
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Danthrax66
December 09, 2011 at 10:46pm
This is maximumPC assume everyone plays on the PC it is better and skyrim doesn't crash they just have systems that do not have a stable OC most likely.
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luke904
December 10, 2011 at 2:56am
skyrim does crash and it is not related to OC's...
Instable because of OC = blue screens, not a specific program crashing to desktop
... the vast majority of the time
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Kevin Mills
December 09, 2011 at 1:23pm
The average Skyrim player doesn't have newborn children! I wish I had time to play Skyrim. I'm lucky if I can find 10 minutes to play anything these days. (Not that I would have it any other way right now!) This situation just gives me an good excuse to wait for the price to drop. :)
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JohnP
December 09, 2011 at 1:02pm
I am awestruck by Skyrim. I have let my WoW account lapse as I have no time for WoW any more. I would imagine that Skyrim will will game of the year for 2011. What is even more surprising is how good the game is before all of the tweaks and mods have started to gush out. Morrowind was improved immeasurably by some really great mods. When the Skyrim Creation kit is released next month, be prepared to be awed again.
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TommM
December 09, 2011 at 12:39pm
Skyrim is something else. I think you could present an argument for it being the best computer game ever released. EVER.
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Danthrax66
December 09, 2011 at 10:47pm
No you couldn't because a lot of people don't like it. Me included.
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Phrish
December 09, 2011 at 12:32pm
My computer builds have thus far coincided with Elder Scrolls releases. Hats off to the Skyrim team for an outstanding game!
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Supall
December 09, 2011 at 12:22pm
Skyrim is more engaging and immersive than those other major titles. Just because you beat one storyline, doesn't mean you beat the game. That's not true for any of those other titles. All you'll have left is multiplayer. So in the long term, people will log more hours on MW3 & BF3 because of the multiplayer.
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Danthrax66
December 09, 2011 at 10:49pm
Because playing against real people is always better than playing against ai.
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Caboose
December 12, 2011 at 9:48am
Hmm... Play a new game, with an engaging story, in a universe that has been around since the early 90's, or play another generic shooter that you got tricked in to paying for a $60 map pack...
Hmm... I'd rather take the game with a good story, and engaging gameplay, than another generic shooter.
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