Developer CIG has published interesting statistics about Star Citizen. The numbers reveal, among other things, which countries are most represented in the space MMO. Based on the most popular spaceships, it becomes clear what players’ favorite activities are.
Star Citizen and its solo campaign Squadron 42 have been in development for over 10 years and have already raised over $661 million during that time. But the number of players also increased continuously and is currently over 5 million (via robertsspaceindustries.com). Reason enough for developer CIG to publish a few numbers and statistics for the past gaming year 2023.
From these values, some conclusions can be drawn or at least guessed about the favorite activities within the Star Citizen community. The assumption is that German players have contributed greatly to this and fulfill a typical cliché in space MMOs.
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Star Citizen statistics that reveal a lot about our activities
What are these statistics? At the end of 2023, Star Citizen developer CIG shared some statistics with the community on X. For example, on a total of 4 graphics (via RobertsSpaceInd on X), the community can find out which countries most of the players come from.
Another statistic reveals the top 5 spaceships with particularly many hours of play. This indirectly confirms a typical cliché that German gamers are often known for: We play to “work.” Apparently we often find our fun playing by doing a job in the game.
Where are most of the players sitting? The USA is the strongest player region. Germany is in second place, followed by our French neighbors with the third most players. British Star Citizens secure 4th place ahead of Canada in 5th.
Unfortunately, the statistics do not provide absolute numbers. But with currently over 5 million registered players, you can see that many Star Citizen fans live in Europe and German players make up a large proportion of that.
Which activities are the most popular? In addition to the 5 largest player regions, the ranking of the most popular spaceships is also interesting. Based on the types of ships and their intended use, it is easy to see which gaming activities were pursued the most in 2023.
The Drake Vulture ranks first among spaceships with the most flight hours. This ship is suitable for solo players who want to be space junk collectors. It is used to recover unmanned spacecraft.
The gameplay loop of such salvage missions is about finding these abandoned ships and using them for profit, piece by piece. This probably explains the remarkable number of almost 700,000 missions completed, which can also be found in the statistics.
The third most played ship is the Misc Prospector, which was designed for mining. It can be used to mine raw materials and minerals in space and on planetary surfaces. Mineral resources can also be harvested using smaller ground vehicles or a tool attachment. With the Misc Prospector, this solo mining is possible on a large scale.
CIG has also recognized this and has been offering an expensive multiplayer spaceship for concept purchase for some time now, which will overshadow the two previous mining ships. This means that the mining gameplay loop becomes larger and direct further processing of the extracted materials is possible before sale. Great! More work that confirms our stereotype.
German players prefer to be workers instead of bounty hunters
Where does this cliché come from? The two spaceships mentioned and the jobs associated with them fulfill a classic cliché that particularly applies to German players. In the past, Germany’s economy has been internationally praised for its high work ethic and great hard work.
Some German gamers have long been transferring this characteristic feature to their leisure activities, more precisely when consuming video games. It is therefore hardly surprising that the world champion in the agricultural simulator is, of all people, German.
What could be nicer than logging into your favorite game after a long day at work and doing some relaxing work? The colleagues from derstandard.de also explained this in more detail.
The most popular games in Germany have always been those in which we can build, create and work. One of the oldest examples: The Settlers, where we are supposed to build a city and manage its workers.
What do these activities say about us? In essence, game mechanics such as city building in the very first Settler with all the tasks that need to be completed (e.g. mining) may not differ from spaceship recycling or mining in Star Citizen. Provided both give a player the same feeling of a relaxed activity.
This is supported, and this is also evident worldwide, in the fact that many players from the Star Citizen community are peace-loving spaceship pilots and just want to do a few jobs in a relaxed manner instead of chasing after AI villains or real opponents.
What other statistics are there? Further figures also reveal the spaceships and weapons that are responsible for the most bounties, including an impressive number of completed bounty missions. However, almost 400,000 virtual screen deaths are due to the lack of a helmet in space.
However, a large-scale test a few months ago suggests that PvP players and especially the spoilsports among them only make up a small part of the “working” population in Star Citizen: PvP drama in Star Citizen: spoilsports laugh at fair play, damage the game and oneself