I think it’s unfair to judge player activity based solely on Steam. There are also players on Game Pass and the Microsoft Store, which aren’t reflected in those numbers.
Anyway, the thing that’s going to determine the future of AoM Retold is how many will buy this DLC and the next planned DLC yet to be announced. If these two DLC’s are sold well, we might see more content in the future. 
The numbers Liberator posted are all players on Steam which accounts for both SP and MP.
I just hope they count instances of the “delux” version of the base game that included these two DLCs as copies of the DLC sold. Because the raw, drop day sale numbers could look a bit bad because a bunch of us already bought it months ago in the combined package.
Both I and some of my friends haven’t been able to even enter the game due to bugs. One couldn’t even launch it and hasn’t still, now I have missing UI for the menus and can’t enter anything.
Unfortunately, the game’s support team is nonexistent and they don’t read bug reports or issues to fix them. But the community can help you, try posting your question with your computer specifications in the bug section here on the forum to see if they can assist you.
Also, have you considered verifying the integrity of the files on Steam? It might fix the issue.
SC-2’s co-op mode has a progression system and “help from an outside source” like AOE-3’s metropolis, which provides a lot of customization and replayability. Will AOM players be willing to accept something similar considering the disrepute that such mechanics have in the series?
Not at all
Would be pretty easy for players on Arena of the Gods game mode
The blueprint is already there!
Trading in AOE-3 is also meant to represent the exchange of ideas. That’s why it gives experience. Although it’s true that it loses relevance at the end of the game. Personally, I would like to see it have an additional upgrade (besides the train) called the telegraph.
I don’t know what you mean, but in AOE-3 you can obtain wood indefinitely.
I once heard that stone was replaced by other resources, such as favor or experience, because it was an annoying resource for many players.
That depends. Wood in AOE-3 is the hardest resource to obtain, and buildings cannot be repaired while under attack or recently damaged.
Train already gives barely any improvement over Stagecoach.
1.2 XP/Second → 2.0 resources/Second → 2.4 resources/Second
Just buffing trains would already be a good idea.
True. But it’s very limited and you can’t really scale it up.
Home City shipments require XP.
Factories and Trade Routes have a limited trickle rate.
It’s a lot easier to get Coin and Food.
But a house uses the same resource as a Tower. So defensive buildings aren’t more expensive then other ones ones.
And as you said, wood is infinite in AoE3.
Towers in AoE2 also cost wood too but on top of Stone.
It’s baffling to me that only 35% of player base tried multiplayer. It’s super easy to get this achievement btw. If you host a game by accident it will give it to you.
The surprising thing is that an RTS has players in multiplayer mode. Even AOE-1 DE has more players online than the vast majority of RTS.
People only tend to compare with StarCraft, and AOE-2, but the average is far from that. And it is well known that even in these games the multiplayer mode represents a small percentage of the total players.
What is clear is that those who have an established multiplayer tend to retain more players.
Some will say that 20-25% play competitive multiplayer, I will say that those 20-25% play, consume a lot more of the game and are more active than an average casual, something that is not mentioned much (or don’t want to be mentioned).
It’s more like 15-20% rather than 20-25%.
Other than that, point taken.
Those 15-20% tend to be a very loud minority, to the point it becomes very hard, for community members and for studios, to notice that they’re not actually the extreme vast majority of players. Be it either total players or ongoing players.
Also, people who play for competition don’t play for fun, they play to be the best. For the prestige of being higher up on the leaderboard. They don’t care about fun. To many of them, the game has turned into a mathematical formula, where the variables change each patch.
Meaning they don’t “play” either.
Your idea that competitive players (say 15-20%) don’t play for fun but for “being the best” is an undue generalization since, for many, being the winner or enjoying the adrenaline rush of the game is their fun.
You underestimate the real impact of this “vocal minority”: Not only do they seem to be the majority, but they can influence patches and balance, improving the game for everyone, having a greater knowledge of how it works by spending much more time playing.
Finally, you assume that the silent majority is overshadowed, but their silence could reflect satisfaction or less involvement, not necessarily an ignored need.
I know full well that the popularity of an RTS depends on the backbone of varied casual content, decent graphics/readability, and a favorable competitive environment (readability is just another component).
If anything, I know that some of you who don’t know the competitive multiplayer scene don’t understand that it’s not about focusing on one thing or another, it’s about providing a varied experience.
Game studios have play data and data science teams; they can see how many players engage in what modes.
Well, with the DLC released, it looks like a lot of people came back to the game, it tripled the number of players! … and then they are finishing the campaign/experimenting with the new civs in Skirmish and are going away again.
This looks like (another) clear message that the base of players for this game are casual single players.
What is funny is that these kind of achievements are “win multiplayer match”, but this one is just play ANY kind of multiplayer, even a co op game with a friend counts! And its STILL only 34% despite this!
@JordanEver It’s not too much of a problem if people stay for a short period of time, as long as the DLC sales are successful. It shows that a large proportion of people like the game but are only interested in new content. Once the campaign is over, they’ll come back in droves for the next DLC, and bis repetita.
| Month | Avg. Players | Gain | % Gain | Peak Players |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Last 30 Days | 2,547.1 | +182.7 | +7.73% | 9,702 |
| February 2025 | 2,364.4 | -415.4 | -14.94% | 4,809 |
| January 2025 | 2,779.8 | -311.5 | -10.08% | 6,023 |
Before DLC players: 4,809 + 4,809 = 9,618 | Peak players after the DLC: 9,702
Saying that the DLC launch ‘TRIPLED’ the number of players is already a lie, proven by simply observing the peak of players after the launch; it only doubled.
If the developers want the game not to lose so many players, they just need to fix the issues that make them stop playing. Age of Mythology is a game similar to CS:GO in terms of player types; We will keep playing because the possibilities in multiplayer are endless, because our friends play, they invite us to play and we invite them, we meet new people to play with. People will keep playing for years, just like they played AoM: Classic for over 20 years without any updates.
So no, the new update didn’t triple the number of players and single player is not what keeps the game alive. And most likely, single player is played more on consoles because it’s very difficult and unbalanced to play joystick vs. mouse.
Oh I know, I am a defender that the number of daily/monthly/whatever players does not matter, the only thing that matter is how many people buy the game/DLC.
If 1000 people buy the DLC and 80% keep playing multiplayer forever and 1000 people buy the DLC but only 20% keep playing the multiplayer, the result for the Studio is exactly the same.
The difference between AoE2 and AoE3 is that many people buy the AoE2 DLC, even the exclusive single-player only, while AoE3 floped in sales. (huge mistake focusing on multiplayer content)
You are just using a different metric.
I just picked the peak players of last week on 3 Mar (3405) and compared with the peak players of the DLC release (9853) which is 2.9x the number of players.
AoM Retold is plagued with bugs, I agree. And mechanics like how the Attack Move units behave make players frustated.
I don’t know dude, all the evidence show that the playerbase of this game is overwhelming single player. They really should focus their efforts in single player experience than “endless possibilities in multiplayer”.
Dude, we have more people with the campaign achievement than the achievement to play ANY KIND OF MULTIPLAYER MATCH (Even with a friend against AI!), how you explain that?
