(source:caas.raptr.com)
Overall gameplay was down 4.86% in March compared to February, but that didn’t slow Heroes of the Storm as its playtime increased nearly 45%.
HighlightsMarch’s top five looks slightly different than February’s with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive overtaking DOTA 2 for third place. Though the shooter lost 4.37% of gameplay in March compared to February, it was DOTA 2’s 24.64% decline that led to its slip into fourth place.
On a similar note, Diablo III was down 15.25%. If that trend continues, Smite may make its way back into the top 5 next month.
Minecraft and Hearthstone were gainers in March, nabbing 7th and 8th place respectively. Minecraft received its 1.8.2 update late in February, and Hearthstone had a mid-month patch that added a pre-purchase option for April’s Blackrock Mountain expansion.
Heroes of the Storm, while still in a closed beta, continued its climb up in the charts in March after debuting in February. Blizzard’s MOBA increased its playtime by 44.78% as it allowed current beta members to invite their friends to play. There were also XP boost and sale events throughout the month.
War Thunder rose four places in March as it received numerous updates that fixed in-game issues. Special events allowed players to earn trophies, wagers, and boosters.
With Battlefield Hardline’s mid-March release, playtime for its predecessor, Battlefield 4, declined 50.28% and seven places compared to February. Hardline barely made it into the top 50, however, coming in in 49th place. We’ll see how well it does in April, its first full month after release.
Warframe jumped up one spot as it received a mid-month update to PvP, additional Primes, and team challenges.
Surprisingly, PAYDAY 2 made a 23 spot jump into 19th place in March. It received a free weekend at the start of its Spring Break event. The game was also heavily discounted (75%) early in March which helped add to its significant playtime bump.
Closing out the top twenty was Spider Solitaire, which made us sad.
Note: The Share number by each game represents that title’s gameplay time as a percentage of the total time spent on all the PC games played by Raptr members, and is useful for comparing the relative amount of play time between particular games.
