Dungeons & Dragons Online’s Success in Numbers

It was certainly a gamble for Turbine to switch Dungeons & Dragons Online’s business model from 100% subscription-based to entirely free-to-play with optional microtransaction and VIP subscriptions. But that gamble appears to have paid off substantially, as Ten Ton Hammer has posted specific user and revenue numbers that were revealed during a lecture given by executive producer Fernando Paiz at last week’s Game Developers Conference.

According to Paiz, the peak CCU (peak concurrent users, the maximum number of players online at any given time) have gone up by five times since the subscription days, monthly active players have gone up by ten times, and monthly revenues have risen by five times.

The hybridized model may signal a shift among player demographics as well. The under-25 crowd playing DDO increased from 15% of the playerbase to 25%, and those aged 35 or less now make up 57% of the playerbase, up from 50% in the subscription-only days.

Playing habits are also very different for the free-to-play and subscription player communities. Under the subscription-only model, 45% of the playerbase logged in for 20+ hours each week. That went down to 43% among subscription players after Turbine implemented the hybrid model last October, but only about 35% of subscription-free gamers top the 20-hour mark. That subscription gamers in the DDO community spend more time in-game than free-to-player gamers makes sense, since subscription gamers have more motivation to log in rather than pay for a subscription service they’re not using.

Good for them. I’ve always been a fan of DDO, so anything that keeps the game running for years to come is good news to me.