Elden Ring’s player engagement is through the roof: Over 45% of its Steam players have played for 100+ hours
Elden Ring is one of the most successful premium games of all time.
First Souls game for me. I got 170H in and had to stop. Absolutely no idea where to go, no boss has given me any issues at all, I refuse to look up anything online. I hope to get back to it one day. I think the issue was there were so many pauses between me finding where to advance the story and where that actual location was.
I’ve played around 1k hours of Europa Universalis IV and I’ve never completed a campaign (gotten to the last year in the game), because I find I’ve completed my goals about halfway or two thirds of the way through the time line. The same goes for most Civ games, I just quit and restart once I know I’ve won.
I imagine Elden Ring is similar for many people, they play a character for a couple dozen hours and restart with a new character.
Why are you guys arguing? The chart means exactly what it says. People who have played the game with more than 100+ hours. It says nothing about people who’ve finished the game.
There’s probably some sort of positive relationship between the two, but we’d need mire information.
Almost 200hrs 260 hrs in (i double checked haha), level 150, and im maybe 3/4 done. I was never interested in soul like games before, or video games in general, but something about the open world experience in elden ring just pulled me in. I honestly couldnt tell you most of the story or the boss names, but god damn it was and still is a fucking blast grinding out the fights to figure out the mechanics.
But you’ll see similar rates of players finishing the game that have far shorter runtimes. 100 hours is about how long it takes to finish the game, after all, and that percentage lines up quite well with the achievements for finishing the game. Engagement is a horrible metric for a game like Elden Ring that isn’t trying to keep you hooked with anything except a game you like playing; no battle pass, no dailies, no events, etc. I’ll bet A Dance With Dragons has far better engagement metrics than The Return of the King, but it’s a stupid metric regardless, because they’re books.
That’s quite a lot for a SP game. Most games I’ll get 10-30 hours, 40-50 if I really like it. There are some outliers where I get hundreds of hours, but must games will be in that range.
This game in particular, I could see taking a lot of people (maybe not an average number of people but a big chunk) 100 hours just to complete without even doing side stuff because they get stuck on a boss for several hours at a time, every time.
It being a good game and giving the best feeling after beating something you’re stuck on for a while just pushes people to keep going until they finish the whole thing.
Perhaps. But if a boss is too hard, I also see a lot of people starting over to redo the earlier bosses with a different build. I’ve done that a fair amount on other games.
I don’t like the idea of time spent as a value proposition. One of the reasons UBI games are trash is because they measure “engagement” as satisfaction and bloat their games with repetitive and dull scavenger hunts. They waste your time.
Some of the best games are short and have little replay value. The Portal games come to mind.
When i first started playing Dark Souls i always equipped my characters with shields. I played all 3 games several times through with shields. One playthrough I decided to challenge myself and not use shields, only relying on dodging attacks. Doing so also opened up my offhand for using a staff or talisman (the equivalent of seals in Elden Ring). I have never used a shield in any Dark Souls game or Elden Ring since.
Dark Souls 2 introduced a feature called power stance. I wont go into go into great detail about it here, but tnere are many guides online that explain how it works. The short version is that it allows you to dual wield weapons from of the same category. You equip them in each hand, level up your character with the correct stats, then you open character up to unique move sets and really high damage.
Power stance wasn’t included in Dark Souls 3, but it was reintroduced in Elden Ring and is very fun to use. Some of my favorite weapons to power stance with are: daggers, twinblades, reapers, rapiers, and even heavy rapiers. I wouldn’t say power stancing is the equivalent to playing on easy mode. The movesets are unique and take some practice to use effectively. There are also some cons, like not having a shield or magic casting weapon in either hand. There is no way to do a jumping heavy attack using both weapons. Also stamina depletes much quicker. One of the greatest pros though, is that each weapon can be equipped with different status effects like bleed/poison or holy/frost.
If you look up or are suggested specific builds, be open to tweaking them to your liking. Higher numbers for damage output are obviously good, but are only so useful if the weapon you are using is right for you. Keep trying different weapon types until something sticks. Also, level up several different weapon types because different enemies have different resistances and weaknesses. Slashing weapons aren’t as effective against rock enemies as hammers are. Sometimes these resistances aren’t obvious so dont be afraid to use online wikis to look up some info.
Lastly, dont neglect summon pools! Some people will try to convince you that summon pools are for noobs, and it only counts as a win if you solo a boss. That’s not true in the slightest. Every item/feature in the game was added with the intention that players will use them. Same goes for spirit ashes. Each spirit ash is very different from the next. Some will follow you around, some will sit in one spot, some regenerate health, some inflict status effects on enemies, etc. If you or anyone else is on PC feel free to shoot me a DM and we can set up a coop session!
In my opinion I think the most important thing is to figure out what kind of weapon you want to use. Whenever I play a Souls game I gravitate towards the biggest sword I can get (which is great for Elden Ring because you can get the best massive sword in the base game right at the start if you know where to go, without killing a single enemy). Lots of beginners tend towards dexterity weapons such as katanas. Rivers of blood and moonveil used to be the meta builds, but even after several nerfs they’re still very good. Magic can be ridiculously overpowered but I find it to be the least fun, at least for me.
Increasing HP early on is very important. Level up enough to have minimum stats for whatever gear you want, then level vigor exclusively until at least 30. Even then, continue to level it up occasionally. I think 60 is the soft cap where after that the levels have diminishing returns, so end goal should be 60 vigor.
I’ve got lots of hours in the game and got all achievements on multiple accounts so feel free to ask any more questions you have.
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First Souls game for me. I got 170H in and had to stop. Absolutely no idea where to go, no boss has given me any issues at all, I refuse to look up anything online. I hope to get back to it one day. I think the issue was there were so many pauses between me finding where to advance the story and where that actual location was.
Categorizing this as engagement rather than just the number of people who finished the game seems incredibly stupid.
Because hours of play has no direct relationship with completion. Playing for 100+ hours doesn’t mean you’ve finished the game.
NO direct relationship? maybe it’s not 1:1 but surely there is some kind of direct relationship.
Depends on your definition of “direct.”
I’ve played around 1k hours of Europa Universalis IV and I’ve never completed a campaign (gotten to the last year in the game), because I find I’ve completed my goals about halfway or two thirds of the way through the time line. The same goes for most Civ games, I just quit and restart once I know I’ve won.
I imagine Elden Ring is similar for many people, they play a character for a couple dozen hours and restart with a new character.
a direct relationship means the variables increase or decrease with each other, but not necessarily in the same proportion.
Why are you guys arguing? The chart means exactly what it says. People who have played the game with more than 100+ hours. It says nothing about people who’ve finished the game.
There’s probably some sort of positive relationship between the two, but we’d need mire information.
why are YOU arguing?
that’s literally all i was saying.
Lol ok
80 hours in and I’m nowhere near, I’m more likely to spin up a new character than to finish the thing
Almost 200hrs260 hrs in (i double checked haha), level 150, and im maybe 3/4 done. I was never interested in soul like games before, or video games in general, but something about the open world experience in elden ring just pulled me in. I honestly couldnt tell you most of the story or the boss names, but god damn it was and still is a fucking blast grinding out the fights to figure out the mechanics.But you’ll see similar rates of players finishing the game that have far shorter runtimes. 100 hours is about how long it takes to finish the game, after all, and that percentage lines up quite well with the achievements for finishing the game. Engagement is a horrible metric for a game like Elden Ring that isn’t trying to keep you hooked with anything except a game you like playing; no battle pass, no dailies, no events, etc. I’ll bet A Dance With Dragons has far better engagement metrics than The Return of the King, but it’s a stupid metric regardless, because they’re books.
Yeah but if you haven’t finished new game seven with no armor or weapons did you really finish the game?
311 hours and 100% achievements here
Ive put in a bit over 1600 😅
Hot damn!!
100 hours is nothing in video game time
That’s quite a lot for a SP game. Most games I’ll get 10-30 hours, 40-50 if I really like it. There are some outliers where I get hundreds of hours, but must games will be in that range.
This game in particular, I could see taking a lot of people (maybe not an average number of people but a big chunk) 100 hours just to complete without even doing side stuff because they get stuck on a boss for several hours at a time, every time.
It being a good game and giving the best feeling after beating something you’re stuck on for a while just pushes people to keep going until they finish the whole thing.
Perhaps. But if a boss is too hard, I also see a lot of people starting over to redo the earlier bosses with a different build. I’ve done that a fair amount on other games.
You’re in the circlejerk, don’t bring reality into this.
All praise ER!
Hands-down the best AAA title (in both content and value) in years.
I don’t like the idea of time spent as a value proposition. One of the reasons UBI games are trash is because they measure “engagement” as satisfaction and bloat their games with repetitive and dull scavenger hunts. They waste your time.
Some of the best games are short and have little replay value. The Portal games come to mind.
Hands-down one of the best AAA titles ever made, full stop. I don’t think anything will come close to it in the near future.
What are Dota 2 players with over 10k hours?
And it’s beeen the ruin of many a poor boy And God I know I’m one
I personally ruined that statistic. 15 minutes and noped out for the rest of eternity
That’s a lot of value per dollar, even if you bought it at full price
Bought it 1 month ago and I have 102hr played.
This game is in my backlog. I’ll play it as soon as I beat game A, B, C, and D. They’re mostly done…
I’ve played 4 hours and it just feels okay to me.
Are there any suggestions to help me find better engagement? Class suggestions for new players or anything like that?
When i first started playing Dark Souls i always equipped my characters with shields. I played all 3 games several times through with shields. One playthrough I decided to challenge myself and not use shields, only relying on dodging attacks. Doing so also opened up my offhand for using a staff or talisman (the equivalent of seals in Elden Ring). I have never used a shield in any Dark Souls game or Elden Ring since.
Dark Souls 2 introduced a feature called power stance. I wont go into go into great detail about it here, but tnere are many guides online that explain how it works. The short version is that it allows you to dual wield weapons from of the same category. You equip them in each hand, level up your character with the correct stats, then you open character up to unique move sets and really high damage.
Power stance wasn’t included in Dark Souls 3, but it was reintroduced in Elden Ring and is very fun to use. Some of my favorite weapons to power stance with are: daggers, twinblades, reapers, rapiers, and even heavy rapiers. I wouldn’t say power stancing is the equivalent to playing on easy mode. The movesets are unique and take some practice to use effectively. There are also some cons, like not having a shield or magic casting weapon in either hand. There is no way to do a jumping heavy attack using both weapons. Also stamina depletes much quicker. One of the greatest pros though, is that each weapon can be equipped with different status effects like bleed/poison or holy/frost.
If you look up or are suggested specific builds, be open to tweaking them to your liking. Higher numbers for damage output are obviously good, but are only so useful if the weapon you are using is right for you. Keep trying different weapon types until something sticks. Also, level up several different weapon types because different enemies have different resistances and weaknesses. Slashing weapons aren’t as effective against rock enemies as hammers are. Sometimes these resistances aren’t obvious so dont be afraid to use online wikis to look up some info.
Lastly, dont neglect summon pools! Some people will try to convince you that summon pools are for noobs, and it only counts as a win if you solo a boss. That’s not true in the slightest. Every item/feature in the game was added with the intention that players will use them. Same goes for spirit ashes. Each spirit ash is very different from the next. Some will follow you around, some will sit in one spot, some regenerate health, some inflict status effects on enemies, etc. If you or anyone else is on PC feel free to shoot me a DM and we can set up a coop session!
In my opinion I think the most important thing is to figure out what kind of weapon you want to use. Whenever I play a Souls game I gravitate towards the biggest sword I can get (which is great for Elden Ring because you can get the best massive sword in the base game right at the start if you know where to go, without killing a single enemy). Lots of beginners tend towards dexterity weapons such as katanas. Rivers of blood and moonveil used to be the meta builds, but even after several nerfs they’re still very good. Magic can be ridiculously overpowered but I find it to be the least fun, at least for me.
Increasing HP early on is very important. Level up enough to have minimum stats for whatever gear you want, then level vigor exclusively until at least 30. Even then, continue to level it up occasionally. I think 60 is the soft cap where after that the levels have diminishing returns, so end goal should be 60 vigor.
I’ve got lots of hours in the game and got all achievements on multiple accounts so feel free to ask any more questions you have.