DDO third-biggest MMO in the US

By Robert Purchese Published 17 May, 2010

Ony RuneScape, WOW are bigger - survey.

Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited is the third most played MMO in North America.

That's what NPD Group found after surveying a random 19,000 people in January, according to Massively.

Of those people, 30 per cent play WOW, 10 per cent play RuneScape and now 7 per cent play Dungeons & Dragons Online.

Guild Wars had held third place for two years before this, but DDO activity doubled at the beginning of the year and dislodged the ArenaNet-developed game.

The boost in Dungeons & Dragons Online activity stems from a re-launch in autumn 2009 as a free-to-play game. That means people can download and play for absolutely nothing, only choosing to splash out to access more content past level 20 and enable the full suite of guild, auction house and support features. Micro-transactions are built in, too.

DDO is not free-to-play here in Europe, but Europeans are able to access the free US servers.

Warner Bros. Interactive splashed out and bought DDO developer Turbine in April 2010. Turbine also makes The Lord of the Rings Online.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (14) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Shikasama #1 2 years ago

    DDO is not free-to-play here in Europe, but Europeans are able to access the free US servers.

    Eh?

  • BigJonno #2 2 years ago

    DDO is run by Codemasters in Europe and is still operating on a standard subscription model. However, there is nothing stopping you from creating an account for the Turbine-run US version that is free to play and microtransaction supported. This is in contrast to something like WoW, which requires a US address and credit card to set up a US subscription.

    Make sense?

  • Bodd #3 2 years ago

    only choosing to splash out to access more content past level 20

    is pretty misleading - much of the good pre-20 content is only available by forking over cash too.

  • Dave797 #4 2 years ago

    I think Guild Wars 2 will be gate crashing this list on the basis of what we've heard to date.

  • levitate #5 2 years ago

    Is DDO any good though? I've heard it's a very mixed bag.

  • Shikasama #6 2 years ago

    BigJonno

    I wasn't even aware of that, when I downloaded it there was absolutely no signage about any different EU or US version. It was download, install, play. Even the chatter in the public channels made it seem like there was no localisation.

    How very bizarre. Codemasters should probably give up on that one.

  • iokthemonkey #7 2 years ago

    Rob - I think the article may be a little misleading. DDO is the third biggest MMO among people who used to play WOW, not the third biggest in the US, isn't it?

    Unless I'm misreading the story, in which case I apologise.
    Edited by iokthemonkey at 17/05/10 @ 16:05

  • spudsbuckley #8 2 years ago

    Typo in the headline, 'ony' instead of 'only'.

  • Gurgeh #9 2 years ago

    AFAIK the Turbine - Atari lawsuit stopped DDO from being free to play in Europe. That lawsuit was settled shortly after Turbine was bought by Warners, so maybe we'll see some news about DDO in Europe. Maybe...

    The game itself has some pretty big flaws - the user interface looks like someone's recollection of the old CDE for Unix, the auction house has no practical search option, and in order to avoid gimping your character you need to check the forums before you start playing. Where WoW continues to strip everything down to as few stats as possible, DDO barrages you with feats, skills, enhancements, vulnerabilities and stats. I guess that could be viewed as a positive or a negative, but it does mean you really have to pay attention.

    On the plus side it's free and most importantly great fun in a group. The DDO dungeons are a sad reminder of how dull and linear the WoW 5 man badge-collectors have become, and traps are a hoot, you almost look forward to someone getting splatted.

    Don't think you'll get to 20 without spending something though, unless you like frequently repeating content.

    *edit* for a trap example
    <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgpKXCbcGmI
    ">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgpKXCbcGmI
    </a>

    Edited by Gurgeh at 17/05/10 @ 17:23

  • Sharzam #10 2 years ago

    I wonder where LOTRO comes on that list, i know it doesnt have huge sub numbers but i heard there steady where some games drop and pick up in waves LOTRO is just happily constant and my current personal favorite MMO.

    As for DDO well i tried it briefly in the late beta so i cant comment regards current state but back then it felt so clunky and basically was a battle aganist the UI to get anything done. The basic premise was good if got past these problems but for me i just couldnt immerse myself in the game.

  • Vyggo #11 2 years ago

    I quite enjoyed my run through DDO, but somehow I lost interest. The dungeons are so much better than other mmo's, but at the same time it doesn't feel like an mmo, because of the excessive instancing.

  • mumblyjoe #12 2 years ago

    19,000 = all of the US? O.O

  • rosshuts #13 2 years ago

    I loved DDO and it plays like D&D in a lot of ways which was important to me as a big fan. I still go back to it here and there and find myself playing it more than WoW as a result which is quite impessive in itself.

  • Zomeguy #14 2 years ago

    like WoW, which requires a US address and credit card to set up a US subscription.

    That's no longer true. I play on US servers with EU cc and address.