Rift had natural population hits/drops with the release of SWtor and then GW2.

Game was very slowly but steadily loosing subs until the announcement of Storm Legion.

2 months prior to SLs release the was a noticable increase, and another small increase with the launch of SL, and up untill now the population has been pretty much the same. A good solid no loss period of 5 to 6 months. Rare in todays rpgmmo world

Originally posted by Calmmo

Rift had natural population hits/drops with the release of SWtor and then GW2.

Game was very slowly but steadily loosing subs until the announcement of Storm Legion.

2 months prior to SLs release the was a noticable increase, and another small increase with the launch of SL, and up untill now the population has been pretty much the same. A good solid no loss period of 5 to 6 months. Rare in todays rpgmmo world

This is all PURE speculation, with nothing remotely factual to back it up.

 

There was *not* a noticable increase in population 2 months prior to SL, there was a server merge.  Nobody knows but Trion if the player base increased or decreased.

 

You are probably right that population has been steady since SL release, but its the norm for an MMO to do that for the first few months after an expansion.  Its whats happening when we get to April or May thats more telling.  

All I can say is I that I downloaded the client  just last night, got on a server marked "heavy" and found barely a soul in the starting area. If they're heavy then they are heavy at the later levels. 

tends to happen when everyones at max level 50+ since 2011 ><

Anyway, posting here is a pure waste of time, the dude above basically called me a troll for saying exactly what happened.

Not my fault everyone on this dam site is a burned out mmo gamer. Simple stuff, you like a game you play it, you dont you stop. If watching numbers a number turns you on and makes you like or not a game then I feel bad for you as far as mmos go. Try offline rpgs, they're actually better games., peace out

i subbed for 1 month when Storm Legion came out. My highest lvl character is 29 mage. I also got a lvl 28 warrior, and two lower lvl cleric and rogue (2 defiants and 2 guardians). I felt that i missed the game so i bought more game time. I really regret doing that. I log in probably once every 2 weeks, and when i do i log out in less than an hour. I just cant push any of those characters forward in this game (i dont have fun doing it in rift). I wish i had spend those moneys in other game.... After the game time is over ill just uninstall this game and forget about it, sadly.

Originally posted by Calmmo

tends to happen when everyones at max level 50+ since 2011 ><

Anyway, posting here is a pure waste of time, the dude above basically called me a troll for saying exactly what happened.

Not my fault everyone on this dam site is a burned out mmo gamer. Simple stuff, you like a game you play it, you dont you stop. If watching numbers a number turns you on and makes you like or not a game then I feel bad for you as far as mmos go. Try offline rpgs, they're actually better games., peace out

QFT

I played Rift  for a month or two and thought it was pretty good as far as themeparks go, so when i caught SL on sale for 12 bucks i decided to give it a try.

 

My old guild left the server due to the population...I myself noticed a huge difference in the population at the start of SL but i chalked it up to the new huge land mass and figured at 60 it would pick up again...

 

So me and a friend took a week+ to hit the max and we may have seen like 50ish people thru the entire grind to lvl 60...

 

Once i did hit 60 i noticed that it took forever to get a pug expert, unlike pre SL where ques for experts were 5-20ish minutes..Gave up on expert runs and gearing up via pve in general and did instanced pvp (world pvp was and is dead) till i eventually stoped logging in about 1-2 weeks before my sub was up.

 

A real shame since i liked this game Pre SL.

i resubbed right after storm legion came out this being after leaving the game for several months...i don't regret resubbing one bit. the game at lvl 50+ is booming...i play on greybriar and theres tons of people. the early lvls i can imagine are far less populated but you can use the "instant adventure" option to lvl very quickly to 50 and start on the new storm legion stuff. 

People making Rift out to be a ghost town is laughable.

 

Get on a trial account and check out shards like Wolfsbane.

 

The pop is healthy.  Rift is doing fine. It's really your only alternative sub based game to WoW.

Originally posted by GoodAfternoon

People making Rift out to be a ghost town is laughable.

 

Get on a trial account and check out shards like Wolfsbane.

 

The pop is healthy.  Rift is doing fine. It's really your only alternative sub based game to WoW.

I would definitely agree with this.   Rift has lots of new players, and the only ghost towns would maybe be on one of the smaller shards at non peak hours.  There are 4 shards fae/wolf/grey/deep that are never ghost towns at any hour any day of the week.  Warfronts pop instantly, even at lower levels.  After 50, warfronts pop instant 24/7 with maybe the occasional 3 minute wait after 2 in the morning pacific time.  The soul system still remains my favorite part of the game, and gives many options to how your character plays.  As far as grouping in the lower levels, I'm not quite sure because I mainly do warfronts with world events mixed in.  

If you do get past 50, make sure to get in on the Collosus event in Ashora.  Is pretty amazing, as are the great hunt rifts. . . . I could imagine if I just pved at lower levels going to quest hubs how boring that might be.  I'd get into other aspects of the game as soon as possible if I were new, and would definitely not be afraid to experiement with soul builds.  Interacting with other players is the most fun though.  Once I started reaching out and making friends, the game really became fun.  Suppose that is true in all these games though :)

planning on re-subbing after a break tonight so theres one more added to the population :)

Wolfsbane has always been bustling. If you're still in sub 50 zones though I could see how you'd think it was a ghost town, They basically made 0 reasons for a 50+ character to go there.

Originally posted by strangiato2112

Originally posted by Aeonblades
 You aren't going to see many people low level in an mmo over a year old.

This is so false.  EQ had active low level population for 5 years or so.  WoW was active for 3 or 4.  FFXI had a decent run too I think.  Games that grow over several years dont have that problem, as well as games where leveling isnt treated as an inconvenience.  

 

Server population overall is fine though, Trion wisely closed servers to ensure active servers.  Every other game in existence could learn from this.

You can't use EQ and WOW as examples.

EQ had a leveling curve that would make most modern "MMO players" shit a 10 lb brick.  Level 54 took me almost as long to get through as it took me to max level a character in GW2.

WOW was only like that for the first few years because it was building up in popularity so new players were constantly finding about this next big new thing and coming to try it out.

Any other MMO, especially after the first expansion, almost never has a reasonable low level player population

Plenty busy on my server, though most of the population is now 50-60. Chats are almost always busy as well.

Originally posted by ktanner3
All I can say is I that I downloaded the client  just last night, got on a server marked "heavy" and found barely a soul in the starting area. If they're heavy then they are heavy at the later levels. 

I had the experience. I resubbed and leveled my mage from 19 to  35 and barely saw people on my server greybriar while doing it. I played rift at launch and quit because events made npc quest givers go away at the time and stalled my levling.  Now I came back , having played wow ug of course  i left my 5 90's and now have nothing and it is a daunting road ahead.  This needs to be addressed in some way.  I don't want a hand out of to go from everything to nothing and teh economy is already way up there for a 1 toon player to get anywhere. Not good , i cancelled for now but I will be back --maybe-- it's just too big a task to rebuild all my support network in  the game. Guilds I have seen recruiting want elitist rift players so umm lol that isn't very inviting

I am soooooo clost to resubbing. I am not sure why people are saying noone is on because I have leveled to 10 on greybriar, Deepwood, Faeblight and they all had tons of people in the low level zones and in chat. And people were actually kind.

It really makes me want to take a break from my 10 level 90's in wow...no joke, thats for real.

I am glad i hold off on this game. Most of the players are in their 50's level and the Newbie zones are dead according to these post i read..This game is not worth buying. That would also mean that grouping would sux at lower level..This is where i wish they make a game soloable or a choice... I will wait till it goes some sort of free to play mode..

Originally posted by Popple
I am glad i hold off on this game. Most of the players are in their 50's level and the Newbie zones are dead according to these post i read..This game is not worth buying. That would also mean that grouping would sux at lower level..This is where i wish they make a game soloable or a choice... I will wait till it goes some sort of free to play mode..

It is soloable all the way to 50.

I just started playing a free trial again a few days ago (tried it like 6 months ago or so but got bored cuz i didnt sub) but i picked up the game on steam, subbed, and am playing with an old WoW buddy.. were having such a blast!

The character customization is epic, the races are awesome.. and you can actually make a dwarf female look sexy...

 

Also the multi class / talent tree  system is so amazing, being able to grab so many buffs, passive skills, and combo moves from different sub classes is just amazing.

 

*as for the population* idk about anything past freemarch and silverwood (the 2 begining areas) but in these areas there are lots of people participating in Instant Adventures (makes lvling so quick so you can get to end game). There is also constant chatter (mostly like WoW chat) but still there is lots of chat.

 

Definitely worth the Sub

 

- if you start playing and decide on the RP-PVE server (west coast but most populated.. also there are free server xfers so no big deal) add my toons Sargana or Khurwyn and we can do some dungeons / group up

I got a level 58 cleric.

I play on Blightweald EU and end game zones there are

nicelly populated.

Whilst leveling in the older zones,it was far less populated but that

didn't concern me at all,since I prefer leveling on my own,exploring and

taking my time.