• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 21:38
CET 03:38
KST 11:38
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT28Behind the Blue - Team Liquid History Book19Clem wins HomeStory Cup 289HomeStory Cup 28 - Info & Preview13Rongyi Cup S3 - Preview & Info8
Community News
Weekly Cups (Feb 16-22): MaxPax doubles0Weekly Cups (Feb 9-15): herO doubles up2ACS replaced by "ASL Season Open" - Starts 21/0258LiuLi Cup: 2025 Grand Finals (Feb 10-16)46Weekly Cups (Feb 2-8): Classic, Solar, MaxPax win2
StarCraft 2
General
MMOexp FC26 rounds out the forward recommendations Terran AddOns placement How do you think the 5.0.15 balance patch (Oct 2025) for StarCraft II has affected the game? Nexon's StarCraft game could be FPS, led by UMS maker ByuL: The Forgotten Master of ZvT
Tourneys
PIG STY FESTIVAL 7.0! (19 Feb - 1 Mar) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament SEL Doubles (SC Evo Bimonthly) WardiTV Team League Season 10 RSL Season 4 announced for March-April
Strategy
Custom Maps
Publishing has been re-enabled! [Feb 24th 2026] Map Editor closed ?
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 515 Together Forever Mutation # 514 Ulnar New Year Mutation # 513 Attrition Warfare
Brood War
General
Soma Explains: JD's Unrelenting Aggro vs FlaSh Recent recommended BW games TvZ is the most complete match up BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ ACS replaced by "ASL Season Open" - Starts 21/02
Tourneys
BWCL Season 64 Announcement The Casual Games of the Week Thread [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [LIVE] [S:21] ASL Season Open Day 1
Strategy
Soma's 9 hatch build from ASL Game 2 Fighting Spirit mining rates Simple Questions, Simple Answers Zealot bombing is no longer popular?
Other Games
General Games
Online Quake Live Config Editor Tool Battle Aces/David Kim RTS Megathread Diablo 2 thread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine UK Politics Mega-thread YouTube Thread Mexico's Drug War
Fan Clubs
The IdrA Fan Club The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TL MMA Pick'em Pool 2013
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Laptop capable of using Photoshop Lightroom?
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Unintentional protectionism…
Uldridge
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Inside the Communication of …
TrAiDoS
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2667 users

Explaining SC2 APM versus Real APM - Page 6

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 4 5 6 All
AimlessAmoeba
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Canada704 Posts
March 24 2011 14:16 GMT
#101
Quality, over quantity. APM is such an arbitrary number, and I'll never understand why people have ever even bothered to measure it.

There's only one measurement that matters, and that's your win count.
zvolim
Profile Joined January 2011
22 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-03-24 14:33:24
March 24 2011 14:32 GMT
#102
I believe it was Artosis who said that APM measure by SC2 is around 30% lower than in BW. Hearing that, I figured that maybe it was because SC2 doesn't require as much APM to be successful as is needed for Brood War pros, and I left it at that.


So basically, you're bored and don't know what to do, you didn't get something that everyone knows so you go on doing basic mathematics ?
I'm sorry but two sentence became four pages of my screen and all your day.
divinesage
Profile Joined April 2010
Singapore649 Posts
March 24 2011 14:36 GMT
#103
Oh, I never knew this before hand. So this is the reason why my apm seems to always be lower when I play SC2 as compared to when I play BW.
Veratule
Profile Joined May 2010
United States105 Posts
March 24 2011 20:49 GMT
#104
On March 24 2011 23:32 zvolim wrote:
Show nested quote +
I believe it was Artosis who said that APM measure by SC2 is around 30% lower than in BW. Hearing that, I figured that maybe it was because SC2 doesn't require as much APM to be successful as is needed for Brood War pros, and I left it at that.


So basically, you're bored and don't know what to do, you didn't get something that everyone knows so you go on doing basic mathematics ?
I'm sorry but two sentence became four pages of my screen and all your day.


Took me about 30 mins to test everything, another 15 to post...

Second, I had left it at that until I wanted to see just how high I could actually get my APM just for the sake of it.

I reached 1908 APM without any macros, just by spamming across 8 keys. When I went to test macros for higher speeds, I came across this problem of game-speed altering APM rate.

You don't need to change the speed of the game timer to calculate APM, just have a second (hidden) clock that measures times on a real-time basis to measure APM. It's really not that hard, and your condescension isn't appreciated by anyone interested in having an APM that gives a real APM rating (which appears to be a good number of people).
DerBos
Profile Joined January 2011
9 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-04-03 19:03:35
April 03 2011 19:02 GMT
#105
On March 24 2011 10:22 Zlasher wrote:
It's also because SC2's APM counter is different, like, it doesn't count EVERY mouseclick and keyboard stroke unlike BW's, if you right click on the ground 3 times it would count 3 times in BW, now it'll count once, unless the area you select on the ground has a different enough degree of change from the first one.


Thank god! Finally someone got it right!! So let's summarize:

Not only is SC2-APM 1.39 x less than BW-APM due to the faster game speed - but ALSO in SC2 some actions are counted as only one action that were counted as separate actions in BW, e.g. if you hit a key repeatedly, in BW these key strokes were counted as separate actions whereas in SC2 they are counted as only one action. This leads to an even lower SC2-APM as compared to BW-APM! (so it's even more than 1.39x !)

I'm so tired of all this "BW is for Gosu - SC2 is for Chobo - as reflected by the lower APM needed in SC2" babble. This is pure BS! The difference is fully accounted for by the faster game speed and the aforementioned difference in APM-measurement!

And btw, the reasoning is entirely flawed as well: So SC2 needs less actions to do this and that - but WHY would anyone go and relax and play slower??? Of course, everybody plays at the same "real" speed (read "capabilities") as they did in BW only NOW they have more control over the game!

Can I get a witness?!
Falling
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Canada11431 Posts
April 03 2011 19:16 GMT
#106
Yeah, knew about this from Beta. But what I don't understand is why it hasn't been changed. I seem to recall that Browder was made aware of it, but why hasn't it changed? It's obviously not the biggest deal in the world, but it can't be that hard to correct. And why call it Action's Per Minute, when it is actually not?

Could call it APBM I guess (Action's Per Blizzard Minute).
Moderator"In Trump We Trust," says the Golden Goat of Mars Lago. Have faith and believe! Trump moves in mysterious ways. Like the wind he blows where he pleases...
WarSame
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Canada1950 Posts
April 03 2011 19:21 GMT
#107
You completely butchered the data. In the first picture it is at 0:11, the second is at 0:14. Additionally, you are using the instantaneous APM. However, this does not mean the APM is relative at all - the data proves nothing.

However, if you used the same time period for the APM then you could actually prove something.
Can it be I stayed away too long? Did you miss these rhymes while I was gone?
chenchen
Profile Joined November 2010
United States1136 Posts
April 03 2011 19:35 GMT
#108
On April 04 2011 04:21 Peterblue wrote:
You completely butchered the data. In the first picture it is at 0:11, the second is at 0:14. Additionally, you are using the instantaneous APM. However, this does not mean the APM is relative at all - the data proves nothing.

However, if you used the same time period for the APM then you could actually prove something.


Lol, you should read more carefully.

The games were played at different speeds, so the in game clocks ran at different rates.
powerade = dragoon blood
mcbrite
Profile Joined April 2010
Germany229 Posts
April 14 2011 21:40 GMT
#109
I have 50 bliz and 70 REAL apm, without any spamming at all...my goal is to get it to 120 real 85 bliz apm.

So 2 real actions per real minute without spamming is my short/medium term goal...
Prev 1 4 5 6 All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 6h 22m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RuFF_SC2 240
StarCraft: Brood War
Sea 5799
GuemChi 1763
Artosis 756
Shuttle 440
Moletrap 11
Dota 2
monkeys_forever537
NeuroSwarm80
League of Legends
JimRising 676
Counter-Strike
Fnx 2219
taco 757
Super Smash Bros
hungrybox2136
Mew2King18
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor193
Other Games
summit1g12805
C9.Mang0412
Maynarde180
JuggernautJason23
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick984
Counter-Strike
PGL122
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Hupsaiya 470
• davetesta53
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota21904
League of Legends
• Doublelift3865
• Rush436
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
6h 22m
Wardi Open
9h 22m
Monday Night Weeklies
14h 22m
Replay Cast
21h 22m
Replay Cast
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
The PondCast
3 days
KCM Race Survival
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Ultimate Battle
4 days
Light vs ZerO
[ Show More ]
Replay Cast
4 days
CranKy Ducklings
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Acropolis #4 - TS5
PiG Sty Festival 7.0
Underdog Cup #3

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 1
Jeongseon Sooper Cup
Spring Cup 2026
WardiTV Winter 2026
Nations Cup 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
eXTREMESLAND 2025

Upcoming

ASL Season 21: Qualifier #1
ASL Season 21: Qualifier #2
ASL Season 21
Acropolis #4 - TS6
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
CSLAN 4
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
RSL Revival: Season 4
NationLESS Cup
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
CCT Season 3 Global Finals
FISSURE Playground #3
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.