Ranked Ladder Activity Analysis

frajen86

168 Posts

June 21 2014 19:08 GMT

Hello,

This is my analysis on ranked (ladder) player activity for SC2 HotS. Notably, this analysis includes ladder distributions for "active" players, as well as stats on how many people are playing ranked games.

The origins of this analysis are in this thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/423477-ladder-analysis-activity-metric.

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edit:
Due to all the chatter about the update, I ran a 1v1 analysis for America region today (March 8). Data is from March 7 10pm (CST) - http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=23869343
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***Previous analyses below***
Excel analysis files - look for the most recent date

December 22, 2014 - Korea region data:
Raw data dumps, with headers (.txt files but they are comma-delimited)

Summary for the past week:

18,672 unique players played at least one 1v1 ranked ladder game
2,934 unique teams played at least one 2v2 matched team game
1023 unique teams played at least one 3v3 matched team game
203 unique teams played at least one 4v4 matched team game
2,490 unique players played at least one 2v2 random team game
3,685 unique players played at least one 3v3 random team game
1,139 unique players played at least one 4v4 random team game

Other summary stats:

38,460 unique players have completed a 1v1 placement this season.
9,877 of those players have also completed a team type placement this season (26% of all 1v1 players).
15,057 unique players have only played ranked team games (they have not played any 1v1 ranked games). 74% of those players have only placed with one team type.
The most ranked teams a single player has placed with is 36.
2,003 1v1 ranked players have also completed placement matches for 3 or more team types.
The average player that has completed a team placement has done so for 1.6 teams.

Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:

18,672 played at least 1 game in the last week
33,300 played at least 1 game in the last month
From Bronze to Master, the % of players within the league that played at least 1 game in the last week: 40%, 36%, 54%, 60%, 46%, 62%
From Bronze to Master, the % of players within the league that played at least 1 game in the last month: 82%, 82%, 90%, 90%, 91%, 89%

Bonus pool-based activity - 1v1 ranked:

6,032 players (16% of all players) have 1 week or less of possible bonus pool - these are the truly "active" players. They play so much that their bonus pool stays below 104 (180 for Master league).
10,844 players (28% of all players) have 7+ weeks of possible bonus pool - these players average only 2.9 games played, over the whole season.

Actual league distributions for active players - 1v1 ranked. Numbers are compared to the Blizzard targets (8/20/32/20/18/2) and based on bonus pool (percentage range due to uncertainty of Blizzard's actual "active" metric):

Bronze is undersized (5.2% vs. 8% target)
Silver is undersized (15% vs. 20% target)
Gold is oversized (44% vs. 32% target)
Platinum is on target (20% vs. 20% target)
Diamond is undersized (14% vs. 18% target)
Master is on target (2.2% vs. 2% target)

Race distributions - 1v1 ranked:
[image loading]

6,032 players

[image loading]

10,844 players

Team Leagues and 1v1 Comparison:
[image loading]

Columns are the 1v1 leagues that a player is in, and rows are the highest team league that the player is in. So row "Gold" and column "Platinum" shows the number of players that are 1v1 Gold league and the highest league they are in for a team type (2's, 3's, 4's) is Platinum.

Team game activity:

35% of 2v2 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 84% in the last month
30% of 3v3 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 82% in the last month
24% of 4v4 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 78% in the last month
44% of 2v2 random players have played a game in the last week, 86% in the last month
49% of 3v3 random players have played a game in the last week, 87% in the last month
42% of 4v4 random players have played a game in the last week, 84% in the last month
15,057 unique players have completed a team placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

League distribution for "active" teams in team leagues don't seem to follow any obvious pattern, as far as I can tell, details in spoiler below. I'm calling "active" teams any team that has played at least 1 game in the last month.
+ Show Spoiler +

December 18, 2014 - Europe region data:
Raw data dumps, with headers (.txt files but they are comma-delimited)

Summary for the past week:

40,912 unique players played at least one 1v1 ranked ladder game
13,566 unique teams played at least one 2v2 matched team game
4,095 unique teams played at least one 3v3 matched team game
990 unique teams played at least one 4v4 matched team game
8,863 unique players played at least one 2v2 random team game
8,447 unique players played at least one 3v3 random team game
11,618 unique players played at least one 4v4 random team game

Other summary stats:

88,730 unique players have completed a 1v1 placement this season.
40,245 of those players have also completed a team type placement this season.
52,085 unique players have only played ranked team games (they have not played any 1v1 ranked games). 70% of those players have only placed with one team type.
The most ranked teams a single player has placed with is 50.
11,980 1v1 ranked players have also completed placement matches for 3 or more team types.
The average player that has completed a team placement has done so for 1.9 teams.

Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:

40,912 played at least 1 game in the last week
78,860 played at least 1 game in the last month
From Bronze to Master, the % of players within the league that played at least 1 game in the last week: 40%, 35%, 47%, 55%, 55%, 59%
From Bronze to Master, the % of players within the league that played at least 1 game in the last month: 84%, 85%, 90%, 92%, 92%, 93%

Bonus pool activity - 1v1 ranked:

13,726 players (15% of all players) have 1 week or less of possible bonus pool - these are the truly "active" players. They play so much that their bonus pool stays below 104 (180 for Master league).
36,230 players (41% of all players) have 7+ weeks of possible bonus pool - these players average only 4.2 games played, over the whole season.

Bronze is undersized (5% vs. 8% target)
Silver is very undersized (8% vs. 20% target)
Gold is oversized (42% vs. 32% target)
Platinum is slightly oversized (23% vs. 20% target)
Diamond is on target (17% vs. 18% target)
Master is on target (2.3% vs. 2% target)

Race distributions - 1v1 ranked:
[image loading]

13,726 players

[image loading]

36,230 players

Team Leagues and 1v1 Comparison:
[image loading]

36% of 2v2 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 87% in the last month
30% of 3v3 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 86% in the last month
25% of 4v4 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 85% in the last month
43% of 2v2 random players have played a game in the last week, 88% in the last month
44% of 3v3 random players have played a game in the last week, 88% in the last month
46% of 4v4 random players have played a game in the last week, 88% in the last month
52,085 unique players have completed a team placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

December 17, 2014 - America region data:
Raw data dumps, with headers (.txt files but they are comma-delimited)

Summary for the past week:

40,721 unique players played at least one 1v1 ranked ladder game
12,218 unique teams played at least one 2v2 matched team game
3,872 unique teams played at least one 3v3 matched team game
1,094 unique teams played at least one 4v4 matched team game
9,237 unique players played at least one 2v2 random team game
10,028 unique players played at least one 3v3 random team game
12,505 unique players played at least one 4v4 random team game

Other summary stats:

83,201 unique players have completed a 1v1 placement this season.
34,983 of those players have also completed a team type placement this season.
51,828 unique players have only played ranked team games (they have not played any 1v1 ranked games). 70% of those players have only placed with one team type.
The most ranked teams a single player has placed with is 46.
10,431 1v1 ranked players have also completed placement matches for 3 or more team types.
The average player that has completed a team placement has done so for 1.9 teams.

Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:

40,721 played at least 1 game in the last week
76,524 played at least 1 game in the last month
From Bronze to Master, the % of players within the league that played at least 1 game in the last week: 42%, 38%, 52%, 58%, 59%, 57%
From Bronze to Master, the % of players within the league that played at least 1 game in the last month: 89%, 88%, 94%, 94%, 94%, 93%

Bonus pool-based activity - 1v1 ranked:

13,159 players (16% of all players) have 1 week or less of possible bonus pool - these are the truly "active" players. They play so much that their bonus pool stays below 104 (180 for Master league).
30,280 players (36% of all players) have 7+ weeks of possible bonus pool - these players average only 3.6 games played, over the whole season.

Bronze is undersized (5.4% vs. 8% target)
Silver is very undersized (12% vs. 20% target)
Gold is oversized (45% vs. 32% target)
Platinum is on target (21% vs. 20% target)
Diamond is a little undersized (15% vs. 18% target)
Master is a little undersized (1.6% vs. 2% target)

Race distributions - 1v1 ranked:
[image loading]

13,159 players

[image loading]

30,280 players

Team Leagues and 1v1 Comparison:
[image loading]

38% of 2v2 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 91% in the last month
32% of 3v3 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 90% in the last month
28% of 4v4 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 88% in the last month
46% of 2v2 random players have played a game in the last week, 92% in the last month
48% of 3v3 random players have played a game in the last week, 92% in the last month
49% of 4v4 random players have played a game in the last week, 92% in the last month
51,828 unique players have completed a team placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

+ Show Spoiler [November 8, 2014 - End of 2014 Season…] +

Excel analysis files - look for the most recent date

November 8, 2014 - Korea region data:
Raw data dumps, with headers (.txt files but they are comma-delimited)

Summary for the past week:

9,520 unique players played at least one 1v1 ranked ladder game
2,660 unique teams played at least one 2v2 matched team game
963 unique teams played at least one 3v3 matched team game
214 unique teams played at least one 4v4 matched team game
2,581 unique players played at least one 2v2 random team game
3,920 unique players played at least one 3v3 random team game
1,255 unique players played at least one 4v4 random team game

Other summary stats:

62,441 unique players have completed a 1v1 placement this season.
19,848 of those players have also completed a team type placement this season (32% of all 1v1 players).
24,792 unique players have only played ranked team games (they have not played any 1v1 ranked games). 69% of those players have only placed with one team type.
The most ranked teams a single player has placed with is 74.
5,509 1v1 ranked players have also completed placement matches for 3 or more team types.
The average player that has completed a team placement has done so for 2.0 teams.

Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:

9,520 played at least 1 game in the last week
13,576 played at least 1 game in the last month
From Bronze to Master, the % of players within the league that played at least 1 game in the last week: 18%, 16%, 29%, 36%, 49%, 44%
From Bronze to Master, the % of players within the league that played at least 1 game in the last month: 54%, 52%, 61%, 66%, 73%, 74%

Bonus pool-based activity - 1v1 ranked:

4,753 players (7.6% of all players) have 1 week or less of possible bonus pool - these are the truly "active" players. They play so much that their bonus pool stays below 104 (180 for Master league).
13,799 players (22% of all players) have 18+ weeks of possible bonus pool - these players average only 3.3 games played, over the whole season.

Bronze is very undersized (3% vs. 8% target)
Silver is very undersized (11% vs. 20% target)
Gold is oversized (41% vs. 32% target)
Platinum is oversized (24% vs. 20% target)
Diamond is on target (18% vs. 18% target)
Master is a little oversized (3% vs. 2% target)

Race distributions - 1v1 ranked:
[image loading]

13,799 players

[image loading]

4,753 players

Team Leagues and 1v1 Comparison:
[image loading]

15% of 2v2 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 50% in the last month
10% of 3v3 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 47% in the last month
7.4% of 4v4 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 43% in the last month
25% of 2v2 random players have played a game in the last week, 58% in the last month
29% of 3v3 random players have played a game in the last week, 61% in the last month
22% of 4v4 random players have played a game in the last week, 55% in the last month
24,792 unique players have completed a team placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

November 7, 2014 - Europe region data:
Raw data dumps, with headers (.txt files but they are comma-delimited)

Summary for the past week:

38,070 unique players played at least one 1v1 ranked ladder game
13,309 unique teams played at least one 2v2 matched team game
4,124 unique teams played at least one 3v3 matched team game
1,070 unique teams played at least one 4v4 matched team game
8,812 unique players played at least one 2v2 random team game
8,446 unique players played at least one 3v3 random team game
12,120 unique players played at least one 4v4 random team game

Other summary stats:

146,975 unique players have completed a 1v1 placement this season.
76,966 of those players have also completed a team type placement this season.
84,516 unique players have only played ranked team games (they have not played any 1v1 ranked games). 67% of those players have only placed with one team type.
The most ranked teams a single player has placed with is 122.
28,598 1v1 ranked players have also completed placement matches for 3 or more team types.
The average player that has completed a team placement has done so for 2.2 teams.

Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:

38,070 played at least 1 game in the last week
87,312 played at least 1 game in the last month
From Bronze to Master, the % of players within the league that played at least 1 game in the last week: 18%, 17%, 25%, 32%, 47%, 48%
From Bronze to Master, the % of players within the league that played at least 1 game in the last month: 55%, 52%, 59%, 64%, 71%, 76%

Bonus pool activity - 1v1 ranked:

9,006 players (6% of all players) have 1 week or less of possible bonus pool - these are the truly "active" players. They play so much that their bonus pool stays below 104 (180 for Master league).
37,698 players (26% of all players) have 18+ weeks of possible bonus pool - these players average only 3.5 games played, over the whole season.

Bronze is very undersized (2.4% vs. 8% target)
Silver is very undersized (8% vs. 20% target)
Gold is oversized (39% vs. 32% target)
Platinum is oversized (25% vs. 20% target)
Diamond is a little oversized (22% vs. 18% target)
Master is oversized (3.5% vs. 2% target)

Race distributions - 1v1 ranked:
[image loading]

9,006 players

[image loading]

37,698 players

Team Leagues and 1v1 Comparison:
[image loading]

17% of 2v2 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 54% in the last month
13% of 3v3 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 51% in the last month
10% of 4v4 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 49% in the last month
23% of 2v2 random players have played a game in the last week, 58% in the last month
23% of 3v3 random players have played a game in the last week, 58% in the last month
26% of 4v4 random players have played a game in the last week, 60% in the last month
84,516 unique players have completed a team placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

November 5, 2014 - America region data:
Raw data dumps, with headers (.txt files but they are comma-delimited)

Summary for the past week:

33,793 unique players played at least one 1v1 ranked ladder game
10,568 unique teams played at least one 2v2 matched team game
3,356 unique teams played at least one 3v3 matched team game
912 unique teams played at least one 4v4 matched team game
8,424 unique players played at least one 2v2 random team game
9,370 unique players played at least one 3v3 random team game
11,687 unique players played at least one 4v4 random team game

Other summary stats:

134,583 unique players have completed a 1v1 placement this season.
66,241 of those players have also completed a team type placement this season.
81,931 unique players have only played ranked team games (they have not played any 1v1 ranked games). 65% of those players have only placed with one team type.
The most ranked teams a single player has placed with is 115.
24,880 1v1 ranked players have also completed placement matches for 3 or more team types.
The average player that has completed a team placement has done so for 2.3 teams.

Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:

33,793 played at least 1 game in the last week
77,996 played at least 1 game in the last month
From Bronze to Master, the % of players within the league that played at least 1 game in the last week: 18%, 16%, 26%, 32%, 43%, 32%
From Bronze to Master, the % of players within the league that played at least 1 game in the last month: 53%, 51%, 58%, 63%, 69%, 73%

Bonus pool-based activity - 1v1 ranked:

7,515 players (5.6% of all players) have 1 week or less of possible bonus pool - these are the truly "active" players. They play so much that their bonus pool stays below 104 (180 for Master league).
33,893 players (25% of all players) have 18+ weeks of possible bonus pool - these players average only 3.5 games played, over the whole season.

Bronze is undersized (3% vs. 8% target)
Silver is very undersized (9% vs. 20% target)
Gold is oversized (40% vs. 32% target)
Platinum is a little oversized (24% vs. 20% target)
Diamond is a little oversized (20% vs. 18% target)
Master is a little oversized (3% vs. 2% target)

Race distributions - 1v1 ranked:
[image loading]

7,515 players

[image loading]

33,893 players

Team Leagues and 1v1 Comparison:
[image loading]

16% of 2v2 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 52% in the last month
12% of 3v3 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 49% in the last month
8.9% of 4v4 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 46% in the last month
22% of 2v2 random players have played a game in the last week, 57% in the last month
23% of 3v3 random players have played a game in the last week, 57% in the last month
26% of 4v4 random players have played a game in the last week, 58% in the last month
81,931 unique players have completed a team placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

+ Show Spoiler [September 22, 2014 - Season 3 analysis] +

Excel analysis files

September 22, 2014 - Korea region data:
Raw data dumps, with headers (.txt files but they are comma-delimited)

Summary for the past week:

18,015 unique players played at least one 1v1 ranked ladder game
3,060 unique teams played at least one 2v2 matched team game
1,116 unique teams played at least one 3v3 matched team game
256 unique teams played at least one 4v4 matched team game
2,775 unique players played at least one 2v2 random team game
4,248 unique players played at least one 3v3 random team game
1,482 unique players played at least one 4v4 random team game

Other summary stats:

53,540 unique players have completed a 1v1 placement this season.
16,142 of those players have also completed a team type placement this season (30% of all 1v1 players).
21,678 unique players have only played ranked team games (they have not played any 1v1 ranked games). 70% of those players have only placed with one team type.
The most ranked teams a single player has placed with is 74.
3,263 1v1 ranked players have also completed placement matches for 3 or more team types.
The average player that has completed a team placement has done so for 1.9 teams.

Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:

18,015 played at least 1 game in the last week
30,838 played at least 1 game in the last month
35% of Bronze and 42% of Silver league players played at least 1 game in the last month. That number is 66-77% for Gold-Master leagues.
19% of Bronze and Silver league players played at least 1 game in the last week. That number is 39-52% in Gold-Master leagues.

Overall activity (based on bonus pool) - 1v1 ranked:

5,572 players (10% of all players) have 1 week or less of possible bonus pool - these are the truly "active" players. They play so much that their bonus pool stays below 104 (180 for Master league).
11,927 players (22% of all players) have 12+ weeks of possible bonus pool - these players average only 3.3 games played, over the whole season.

Bronze is very undersized (3% vs. 8% target)
Silver is very undersized (10% vs. 20% target)
Gold is oversized (38% vs. 32% target)
Platinum is oversized (25% vs. 20% target)
Diamond is on target (19% vs. 18% target)
Master is a little oversized (3% vs. 2% target)

Race distributions - 1v1 ranked:

Out of the 5,572 very "active" players, 26% choose Zerg, 33% choose Terran, 32% choose Protoss, and 9% choose Random.
For these "active players" - at Bronze league, 20% choose Zerg. This generally increases as players move up in leagues, to the point that in Master league, 30% of players choose Zerg.
Terran is 31-40% and the most popular race in all leagues except in Silver and Gold, where it is 31-35%. Protoss is the most popular race in Silver and Gold.
Across the all players at all activity levels, Zerg is the least favored race.

Team games:

21% of 2v2 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 56% in the last month
16% of 3v3 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 51% in the last month
12% of 4v4 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 47% in the last month
32% of 2v2 random players have played a game in the last week, 63% in the last month
37% of 3v3 random players have played a game in the last week, 68% in the last month
31% of 4v4 random players have played a game in the last week, 62% in the last month
21,678 unique players have completed a team placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

September 21, 2014 - Europe region data:
Raw data dumps, with headers (.txt files but they are comma-delimited)

Summary for the past week:

40,414 unique players played at least one 1v1 ranked ladder game
13,956 unique teams played at least one 2v2 matched team game
4,126 unique teams played at least one 3v3 matched team game
1,020 unique teams played at least one 4v4 matched team game
9,339 unique players played at least one 2v2 random team game
8,908 unique players played at least one 3v3 random team game
12,754 unique players played at least one 4v4 random team game

Other summary stats:

120,891 unique players have completed a 1v1 placement this season.
60,538 of those players have also completed a team type placement this season.
65,043 unique players have only played ranked team games (they have not played any 1v1 ranked games). 68% of those players have only placed with one team type.
The most ranked teams a single player has placed with is 98.
21,074 1v1 ranked players have also completed placement matches for 3 or more team types.
The average player that has completed a team placement has done so for 2.1 teams.

Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:

40,414 played at least 1 game in the last week
77,291 played at least 1 game in the last month
52% of Bronze league players played at least 1 game in the last month. That number increases as leagues move up, from 54% in Silver to 81% in Master leagues.
23% of Bronze/Silver league players played at least 1 game in the last week. That number is 34-42% in Gold-Diamond leagues, and 58% in Master.

Overall activity (based on bonus pool) - 1v1 ranked:

9,792 players (8% of all players) have 1 week or less of possible bonus pool - these are the truly "active" players. They play so much that their bonus pool stays below 104 (180 for Master league).
55,022 players (46% of all players) have 12+ weeks of possible bonus pool - these players average only 4.8 games played, over the whole season.

Bronze is very undersized (3% vs. 8% target)
Silver is very undersized (8% vs. 20% target)
Gold is oversized (37% vs. 32% target)
Platinum is oversized (25% vs. 20% target)
Diamond is a little oversized (22% vs. 18% target)
Master is oversized (3.5% vs. 2% target)

Race distributions - 1v1 ranked:

Out of the 9,792 very "active" players, 32% choose Zerg, 35% choose Terran, 26% choose Protoss, and 7% choose Random.
For these "active players" - at Bronze league, 11% choose Zerg. This increases as players move up in leagues, to the point that in Master league, 38% of players choose Zerg.
Protoss is ~30% in Bronze and Silver, but around 25% in Gold-Diamond. Protoss is 34% in Master and 37% in Grandmaster.
Terran is highest at 47% in Bronze, 42% in Silver, and 36% in Gold, but is overtaken by Zerg in Platinum, Diamond, and Master.
Players that are less active tend to have a more even split across race as well. Zerg is slightly favored.

Team games:

23% of 2v2 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 56% in the last month
18% of 3v3 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 51% in the last month
14% of 4v4 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 46% in the last month
31% of 2v2 random players have played a game in the last week, 62% in the last month
31% of 3v3 random players have played a game in the last week, 61% in the last month
33% of 4v4 random players have played a game in the last week, 64% in the last month
65,043 unique players have completed a team placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

September 18, 2014 - America region data:
Raw data dumps, with headers (.txt files but they are comma-delimited)

Summary for the past week:

36,105 unique players played at least one 1v1 ranked ladder game
11,220 unique teams played at least one 2v2 matched team game
3,556 unique teams played at least one 3v3 matched team game
1,013 unique teams played at least one 4v4 matched team game
8,995 unique players played at least one 2v2 random team game
10,085 unique players played at least one 3v3 random team game
12,507 unique players played at least one 4v4 random team game

Other summary stats:

111,556 unique players have completed a 1v1 placement this season.
53,121 of those players have also completed a team type placement this season.
69,974 unique players have only played ranked team games (they have not played any 1v1 ranked games). 66% of those players have only placed with one team type.
The most ranked teams a single player has placed with is 98.
18,941 1v1 ranked players have also completed placement matches for 3 or more team types.
The average player that has completed a team placement has done so for 2.1 teams.

Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:

36,105 played at least 1 game in the last week
71,527 played at least 1 game in the last month
54% of Bronze/Silver league players played at least 1 game in the last month. That number is 67-70% in Gold/Platinum, and 75-76% for Diamond/Master.
21-24% of Bronze/Silver league players played at least 1 game in the last week. That number rises from Gold (at 34%) to Master (51%).

Overall activity (based on bonus pool) - 1v1 ranked:

8,869 players (8% of all players) have 1 week or less of possible bonus pool - these are the truly "active" players. They play so much that their bonus pool stays below 104 (180 for Master league).
46,176 players (41% of all players) have 11+ weeks of possible bonus pool - these players average only 4.2 games played, over the whole season.

Bronze is undersized (4% vs. 8% target)
Silver is very undersized (9% vs. 20% target)
Gold is oversized (38% vs. 32% target)
Platinum is a little oversized (24% vs. 20% target)
Diamond is a little oversized (20% vs. 18% target)
Master is a little oversized (2.8% vs. 2% target)

Race distributions - 1v1 ranked:

Out of the 8,869 very "active" players, 31% choose Zerg, 34% choose Terran, 27% choose Protoss, and 8% choose Random.
For these "active players" - at Bronze league, 11% choose Zerg. This increases as players move up in leagues, to the point that in Master league, 40% of players choose Zerg.
Protoss is 26%-29% in Bronze-Master, but 38% in Grandmaster.
Terran is highest at 49% in Bronze and 44% in Silver, but only 28-29% in Master/Grandmaster. Terran is around 32% for other leagues.
Players that are less active tend to have a more even split across race as well. Zerg is slightly favored.

Team games:

22% of 2v2 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 56% in the last month
17% of 3v3 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 51% in the last month
14% of 4v4 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 46% in the last month
29% of 2v2 random players have played a game in the last week, 61% in the last month
31% of 3v3 random players have played a game in the last week, 63% in the last month
32% of 4v4 random players have played a game in the last week, 65% in the last month
69,974 unique players have completed a team placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

+ Show Spoiler [August 28, 2014 - Season 3 analysis] +

August 28, 2014 - Korea region data:
Excel analysis (16MB Excel 2007 file)
Raw data dumps, with headers (.txt files but they are comma-delimited)

Summary for the past week:

20,689 unique players played at least one 1v1 ranked ladder game
3,320 unique teams played at least one 2v2 matched team game
1,293 unique teams played at least one 3v3 matched team game
343 unique teams played at least one 4v4 matched team game
2,952 unique players played at least one 2v2 random team game
4,661 unique players played at least one 3v3 random team game
1,693 unique players played at least one 4v4 random team game

Other summary stats:

45,079 unique players have completed a 1v1 placement this season.
12,869 of those players have also completed a team type placement this season (28.5% of all 1v1 players).
18,404 unique players have only played ranked team games (they have not played any 1v1 ranked games). 71% of those players have only placed with one team type.
The most ranked teams a single player has placed with is 65.
1,369 1v1 ranked players have also completed placement matches for 3 or more team types.
The average player that has completed a team placement has done so for 1.8 teams.

Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:

20,689 played at least 1 game in the last week
37,524 played at least 1 game in the last month
~77% of Bronze and Silver league players played at least 1 game in the last month. That number is 86-88% for Gold-Master leagues.
33-36% of Bronze and Silver league players played at least 1 game in the last week. That number is 46-55% in Gold-Master leagues.

Overall activity (based on bonus pool) - 1v1 ranked:

6,536 players (15% of all players) have 1 week or less of possible bonus pool - these are the truly "active" players. They play so much that their bonus pool stays below 104 (180 for Master league).
16,125 players (36% of all players) have 8+ weeks of possible bonus pool - these players average only 3.6 games played, over the whole season.

Bronze is undersized (4% vs. 8% target)
Silver is very undersized (11% vs. 20% target)
Gold is oversized (35-44% vs. 32% target)
Platinum is a little oversized (21-26% vs. 20% target)
Diamond is on target (14-24% vs. 18% target)
Master is on target (2.8% vs. 2% target)

Race distributions - 1v1 ranked:

Out of the 6,536 very "active" players, 26% choose Zerg, 32% choose Terran, 32% choose Protoss, and 9% choose Random.
For these "active players" - at Bronze league, 17% choose Zerg. This increases as players move up in leagues, to the point that in Master league, 30% of players choose Zerg.
Protoss is 38% in Bronze, and 30-34% in Silver-Grandmaster.
Terran is highest at 34-37% in all leagues except in Gold and Platinum where it is 30%.
Across the all players at all activity levels, Zerg is the least favored race.

Team games:

30% of 2v2 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 75% in the last month
25% of 3v3 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 72% in the last month
21% of 4v4 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 69% in the last month
41% of 2v2 random players have played a game in the last week, 81% in the last month
47% of 3v3 random players have played a game in the last week, 84% in the last month
41% of 4v4 random players have played a game in the last week, 82% in the last month
18,404 unique players have completed a team placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

August 27, 2014 - Europe region data:
Raw data dumps, with headers (.txt files but they are comma-delimited)

Summary for the past week:

41,742 unique players played at least one 1v1 ranked ladder game
14,311 unique teams played at least one 2v2 matched team game
4,461 unique teams played at least one 3v3 matched team game
1,130 unique teams played at least one 4v4 matched team game
9,725 unique players played at least one 2v2 random team game
9,275 unique players played at least one 3v3 random team game
13,685 unique players played at least one 4v4 random team game

Other summary stats:

100,401 unique players have completed a 1v1 placement this season.
48,266 of those players have also completed a team type placement this season.
62,720 unique players have only played ranked team games (they have not played any 1v1 ranked games). 68% of those players have only placed with one team type.
The most ranked teams a single player has placed with is 80.
10,492 1v1 ranked players have also completed placement matches for 3 or more team types.
The average player that has completed a team placement has done so for 2.0 teams.

Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:

41,742 played at least 1 game in the last week
81,173 played at least 1 game in the last month
72% of Bronze league players played at least 1 game in the last month. That number is 75% in Silver, and 83-88% for Gold-Master leagues.
30-32% of Bronze league players played at least 1 game in the last week. That number is 43-49% in Gold-Diamond leagues, and 60% in Master.

Overall activity (based on bonus pool) - 1v1 ranked:

11,392 players (11% of all players) have 1 week or less of possible bonus pool - these are the truly "active" players. They play so much that their bonus pool stays below 104 (180 for Master league).
33,652 players (34% of all players) have 8+ weeks of possible bonus pool - these players average only 3.2 games played, over the whole season.

Bronze is undersized (4% vs. 8% target)
Silver is very undersized (8% vs. 20% target)
Gold is oversized (32-42% vs. 32% target)
Platinum is a little oversized (22-26% vs. 20% target)
Diamond is a little oversized (19-27% vs. 18% target)
Master is on target (3-4% vs. 2% target)

Race distributions - 1v1 ranked:

Out of the 11,392 very "active" players, 33% choose Zerg, 34% choose Terran, 27% choose Protoss, and 6% choose Random.
For these "active players" - at Bronze league, 14% choose Zerg. This increases as players move up in leagues, to the point that in Master league, 40% of players choose Zerg.
Protoss is 25%-32% in Bronze-Master, but 37% in Grandmaster.
Terran is highest at 43% in Bronze and 42% in Silver, but decreases down to 28% in Master.
Players that are less active tend to have a more even split across race as well. Zerg is slightly favored.

Team games:

31% of 2v2 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 75% in the last month
25% of 3v3 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 72% in the last month
21% of 4v4 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 69% in the last month
39% of 2v2 random players have played a game in the last week, 79% in the last month
38% of 3v3 random players have played a game in the last week, 80% in the last month
42% of 4v4 random players have played a game in the last week, 81% in the last month
62,720 unique players have completed a team placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

August 26, 2014 - America region data:
Raw data dumps, with headers (.txt files but they are comma-delimited)

Summary for the past week:

39,600 unique players played at least one 1v1 ranked ladder game
13,263 unique teams played at least one 2v2 matched team game
4,219 unique teams played at least one 3v3 matched team game
1,186 unique teams played at least one 4v4 matched team game
10,042 unique players played at least one 2v2 random team game
11,587 unique players played at least one 3v3 random team game
14,774 unique players played at least one 4v4 random team game

Other summary stats:

92,067 unique players have completed a 1v1 placement this season.
42,774 of those players have also completed a team type placement this season.
61,719 unique players have only played ranked team games (they have not played any 1v1 ranked games). 71% of those players have only placed with one team type.
The most ranked teams a single player has placed with is 75.
9,437 1v1 ranked players have also completed placement matches for 3 or more team types.
The average player that has completed a team placement has done so for 2.0 teams.

Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:

39,600 played at least 1 game in the last week
76,166 played at least 1 game in the last month
75% of Bronze league players played at least 1 game in the last month. That number is 78% in Silver, and 85-89% for Gold-Master leagues.
32-36% of Bronze league players played at least 1 game in the last week. That number is 45-55% in Gold-Master leagues.

Overall activity (based on bonus pool) - 1v1 ranked:

11,180 players (12% of all players) have 1 week or less of possible bonus pool - these are the truly "active" players. They play so much that their bonus pool stays below 104 (180 for Master league).
43,677 players (47% of all players) have 8+ weeks of possible bonus pool - these players average only 4.6 games played, over the whole season.

Bronze is undersized (4% vs. 8% target)
Silver is very undersized (7-11% vs. 20% target)
Gold is oversized (35-44% vs. 32% target)
Platinum is a little oversized (22-25% vs. 20% target)
Diamond is a little oversized (16-24% vs. 18% target)
Master is on target (2.8% vs. 2% target)

Race distributions - 1v1 ranked:

Out of the 11,180 very "active" players, 32% choose Zerg, 34% choose Terran, 26% choose Protoss, and 8% choose Random.
For these "active players" - at Bronze league, 13% choose Zerg. This increases as players move up in leagues, to the point that in Master league, 41% of players choose Zerg.
Protoss is 25%-28% in Bronze-Master, but 36% in Grandmaster.
Terran is highest at 49% in Bronze and 40% in Silver, but only 28% in Master. Terran is around 32% for other leagues.
Players that are less active tend to have a more even split across race as well. Zerg is slightly favored.

Team games:

33% of 2v2 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 78% in the last month
27% of 3v3 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 76% in the last month
22% of 4v4 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 73% in the last month
40% of 2v2 random players have played a game in the last week, 80% in the last month
42% of 3v3 random players have played a game in the last week, 82% in the last month
45% of 4v4 random players have played a game in the last week, 83% in the last month
61,719 unique players have completed a team placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

+ Show Spoiler [End of 2014 Season 2 analysis] +

June 20, 2014 - American Server data:
Summary spreadsheet (Google docs)
Raw data dumps

June 21-24, 2014 - EU Server dataRaw data dumps

June 24, 2014 - KR Server data
Raw data dumps

the .NET source code for parsing nios.kr.

I expect this to remain an ever-changing thread; I'm looking to do weekly/bi-weekly updates to capture player activity as it changes over time.

If anyone is good with charts/graphs, maybe you could help with making some visuals with the data? I'm not the best with that kind of thing, unfortunately.

In this analysis, a "team type" is any kind of team game - 2v2/3v3/4v4 random or "matched"/"formed" team (i.e. you have a SC2 party, playing as a team).

*************************************
KR servers
Summary for the past week:

19,588 unique players played at least one 1v1 ranked ladder game
3,121 unique teams played at least one 2v2 matched team game
1,162 unique teams played at least one 3v3 matched team game
266 unique teams played at least one 4v4 matched team game
2,823 unique players played at least one 2v2 random team game
4,372 unique players played at least one 3v3 random team game
1,567 unique players played at least one 4v4 random team game

Other summary stats:

48,875 unique players have completed a 1v1 placement this season.
34,832 of those players have also completed a team type placement this season.
19,306 unique players have only played ranked team games (they have not played any 1v1 ranked games). 71% of those players have only placed with one team type.
The most ranked teams a single player has placed with is 51.
3,285 1v1 ranked players have also completed placement matches for 3 or more team types.
The average player that has completed a team placement has done so for 1.8 teams.

Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:

19,588 played at least 1 game in the last week
34,926 played at least 1 game in the last month
Only 37% of Bronze league players played at least 1 game in the last month. That number is 69% at Silver league, and about 84% for Gold-Master leagues
49-59% of Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Master league players played at least 1 game in the last week

Overall activity (based on bonus pool) - 1v1 ranked:

6528 players (13.3% of all players) have 1 week or less of possible bonus pool - these are the truly "active" players. They play so much that their bonus pool stays below 104 (180 for Master league).
22,632 players (46% of all players) have 10+ weeks of possible bonus pool - these players average only 5.2 games played, over the whole season.

Bronze league is undersized (3% vs. 8% target)
Silver leagues is very undersized (6-11% vs. 20% target)
Gold league is a little oversized target (33-37% vs. 32% target)
Platinum is oversized (25-28% vs. 20% target)
Diamond is oversized (20-26% vs. 18% target)
Master is oversized (3-3.75% vs. 2% target)

Race distributions - 1v1 ranked:

Out of the 11,488 very "active" players, 27% choose Zerg, 29% choose Terran, 34% choose Protoss, and 10% choose Random.
For these "active players" - at Bronze league, 18% choose Zerg. This increases as players move up in leagues, to the point that in Master league, 34% of players choose Zerg. Protoss ranges from 39% in Silver to 26.5% in Master. Terran is highest at 37% in Bronze and 35% in Master, 28-30% for other leagues.
Players that are less active tend to have a more even split across race as well.

Team games:

26% of 2v2 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 63% in the last month
22% of 3v3 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 58% in the last month
16% of 4v4 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 53% in the last month
37% of 2v2 random players have played a game in the last week, 70% in the last month
42% of 3v3 random players have played a game in the last week, 74% in the last month
34% of 4v4 random players have played a game in the last week, 68% in the last month
72,785 unique players have completed a team placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

June 25, 2014
EU servers
Summary for the past week:

45,272 unique players played at least one 1v1 ranked ladder game
16,044 unique teams played at least one 2v2 matched team game
4,665 unique teams played at least one 3v3 matched team game
1,132 unique teams played at least one 4v4 matched team game
10,350 unique players played at least one 2v2 random team game
9,754 unique players played at least one 3v3 random team game
14,437 unique players played at least one 4v4 random team game

Other summary stats:

119,642 unique players have completed a 1v1 placement this season.
62,182 of those players have also completed a team type placement this season.
72,785 unique players have only played ranked team games (they have not played any 1v1 ranked games). 64% of those players have only placed with one team type.
The most ranked teams a single player has placed with is 84.
12,314 1v1 ranked players have also completed placement matches for 3 or more team types.
The average player that has completed a team placement has done so for 2.4 teams.

Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:

45,272 played at least 1 game in the last week
83,025 played at least 1 game in the last month
Only 41% of Bronze league players played at least 1 game in the last month. That number is 58% at Silver league, and about 80% for Gold-Master leagues
40-60% of Platinum, Diamond, and Master league players played at least 1 game in the last week

Overall activity (based on bonus pool) - 1v1 ranked:

11,488 players (9.7% of all players) have 1 week or less of possible bonus pool - these are the truly "active" players. They play so much that their bonus pool stays below 104 (180 for Master league).
57,066 players (48% of all players) have 10+ weeks of possible bonus pool - these players average only 5.3 games played, over the whole season.

Bronze league is undersized (3% vs. 8% target)
Silver leagues is very undersized (6-8% vs. 20% target)
Gold league is on target (31-34% vs. 32% target)
Platinum is oversized (24-26% vs. 20% target)
Diamond is very oversized (24-31% vs. 18% target)
Master is oversized (4% vs. 2% target)

Race distributions - 1v1 ranked:

Out of the 11,488 very "active" players, 34% choose Zerg, 33% choose Terran, 27% choose Protoss, and 6% choose Random.
For these "active players" - at Bronze league, 44% of players choose Terran, while only 15% choose Zerg. This flips as players move up in leagues, to the point that in Master league, 42% of players choose Zerg, while only 26% choose Terran. Meanwhile, Protoss is always 25-31%, no matter the league.
The discrepancy in total percentages as players move up in leagues comes from Random being chosen 9% of the time in Bronze, but only 0.7% in Master.
Players that are less active tend to have a more even split across race as well.

Team games:

27% of 2v2 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 63% in the last month
20% of 3v3 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 58% in the last month
16% of 4v4 matched teams have played a game in the last week, 53% in the last month
34% of 2v2 random players have played a game in the last week, 67% in the last month
34% of 3v3 random players have played a game in the last week, 67% in the last month
37% of 4v4 random players have played a game in the last week, 69% in the last month
72,785 unique players have completed a team placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

June 20, 2014
American servers

Summary for the past week:

40,117 unique players played at least one 1v1 ranked ladder game
30,888 unique teams played at least one 2v2 matched team game
11,594 unique teams played at least one 3v3 matched team game
3,416 unique teams played at least one 4v4 matched team game
19,630 unique players played at least one 2v2 random team game
21,635 unique players played at least one 3v3 random team game
26,375 unique players played at least one 4v4 random team game

Other summary stats:

106,869 unique players have completed a 1v1 placement this season.
51,081 of those players have also completed a team type placement this season.
67,760 unique players have only played ranked team games (they have not played any 1v1 ranked games). 69% of those players have only placed with one team type.
The most ranked teams a single player has placed with is 80.
10,002 1v1 ranked players have also completed placement matches for 3 or more team types.
The average player that has completed a team placement has done so for 2.6 teams.

Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:

40,117 played at least 1 game in the last week
74,114 played at least 1 game in the last month
Only 39% of Bronze league players played at least 1 game in the last month. That number is 62% at Silver league, and about 80% for Gold-Master leagues
About 50% of Platinum, Diamond, and Master league players played at least 1 game in the last week

Overall activity (based on bonus pool) - 1v1 ranked:

9842 players (9% of all players) have 1 week or less of possible bonus pool - these are the truly "active" players. They play so much that their bonus pool stays below 104 (180 for Master league).
44,949 players (42% of all players) have 10+ weeks of possible bonus pool - these players average only 4.5 games played, over the whole season.

Bronze league is undersized (4% vs. 8% target)
Silver leagues is very undersized (6-9% vs. 20% target)
Gold league is on target (31-35% vs. 32% target)
Platinum is oversized (24-25% vs. 20% target)
Diamond is very oversized (24-27% vs. 18% target)
Master is oversized (4% vs. 2% target)

Race distributions - 1v1 ranked:

Out of the 9842 very "active" players, 32% choose Zerg, 33% choose Terran, 26% choose Protoss, and 8% choose Random.
For these "active players" - at Bronze league, 48% of players choose Terran, while only 14% choose Zerg. This flips as players move up in leagues, to the point that in Master league, 43% of players choose Zerg, while only 26% choose Terran. Meanwhile, Protoss is always 24-29%, no matter the league.
The discrepancy in total percentages as players move up in leagues comes from Random being chosen 12% of the time in Bronze, but only 2% in Master.
Out of the 44,949 players with 10+ weeks of possible bonus pool, 29% choose Zerg, 30% choose Terran, 29% choose Protoss, and 11% choose Random.

Matched team games:

49,070 total teams have completed 2v2 placement
67,700 unique players in the 2v2 Team ladder system
27% of 2v2 teams have played a game in the last week, 63% in the last month
19,584 total teams have completed 3v3 placement
16,446 unique players in the 3v3 Team ladder system
22% of 3v3 teams have played a game in the last week, 59% in the last month
6,409 total teams have completed 4v4 placement
14,337 unique players in the 4v4 Team ladder system
17% of 4v4 teams have played a game in the last week, 53% in the last month
32,903 unique players have completed a 2v2 placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement
8,617 unique players have completed a 3v3 placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement
7,492 unique players have completed a 4v4 placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

Random team games:

29,144 players have completed a 2v2 random placement
34% of 2v2 random players have played a game in the last week, 67% in the last month
31,385 players have completed a 3v3 random placement
36% of 3v3 random players have played a game in the last week, 69% in the last month
37,664 players have completed a 4v4 random placement
39% of 4v4 random players have played a game in the last week, 70% in the last month
10,620 unique players have completed a 2v2 random placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement
16,636 unique players have completed a 3v3 random placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement
22,364 unique players have completed a 4v4 random placement but have NOT completed a 1v1 placement

Like matched teams, the distribution for "active" players in random team leagues don't seem to follow any obvious pattern. Details in spoiler below. The closest I can approximate is something like a 9/40/33/12/5/1 split.
+ Show Spoiler +

Final notes:
There were errors while running this program. Sometimes pages don't load, or player accounts are deleted (even though nios.kr still lists the players). I'd guess that 0.5% of the players on nios.kr don't get analyzed due to errors - but personally, I think that's negligible.

Anyways thanks for everyone for their input, thanks to nios.kr for the player lists, and thanks to Blizzard for maintaining the Battle.net player pages.

Please let me know if you see any issues with the analysis, or if you have other requests.

aZealot

New Zealand5447 Posts

June 21 2014 22:15 GMT

Man, this is awesome. Kudos on the great work you do.

korona

1098 Posts

June 22 2014 13:38 GMT

Nice work. But do note that the player ID has two parts, the actual ID and the sub-server ID. There can be several players having same ID on each server, but different sub server ID (max is likely 2 at the moment: for NA original NA accounts 1 & SA 2, for EU original EU 1, Russian 2, for KR original KR 1, TW 2?) .

For example if the web profile URL is http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/profile/1234567/1/example/ then the first number is the ID and the following second number is the sub-server ID. Thus the player ID is 1-1234567 (the full form that Blizzard uses would be 1-S2-1-1234567, where first number is the US server code).

What timezone was used regarding the timestamps in the raw data?

It might also be good to include the date in the names of the excel files to make sorting more easier (files tend to become big).

Deleted User 261926

960 Posts

June 22 2014 14:43 GMT

Why is master 4% according to your stats when on nios.kr it's 2.01%?

frajen86

168 Posts

June 22 2014 18:02 GMT

On June 22 2014 23:43 Karpfen wrote:
Why is master 4% according to your stats when on nios.kr it's 2.01%?

nios.kr is showing you the distributions without considering how active a player is.

My distributions take into account users with low bonus pool values (i.e. people that actually playing games consistently).

frajen86

168 Posts

June 22 2014 18:05 GMT

On June 22 2014 22:38 korona wrote:
Nice work. But do note that the player ID has two parts, the actual ID and the sub-server ID. There can be several players having same ID on each server, but different sub server ID (max is likely 2 at the moment: for NA original NA accounts 1 & SA 2, for EU original EU 1, Russian 2, for KR original KR 1, TW 2?) .

shit, back to the drawing board on that aspect then : )

Possibly understating the number of unique players doing team games.

On June 22 2014 22:38 korona wrote:
What timezone was used regarding the timestamps in the raw data?

It might also be good to include the date in the names of the excel files to make sorting more easier (files tend to become big).

CST (Chicago)

I will rename the files once I start getting more data in. The output from the analysis program folder actually looks like this: http://19hz.info/Starcraft/Historical Raw Data/

korona

1098 Posts

June 22 2014 19:50 GMT

On June 23 2014 03:05 frajen86 wrote:

Show nested quote +

shit, back to the drawing board on that aspect then : )

Thankfully that is easy to fix. Btw. there was some duplicate data from individual accounts in the raw CSV files. Likely caused by ranking changes in nios.kr list while reading the list & as result for some accounts the data has been fetched twice from the bnet profiles? But that is not too critical...

On June 23 2014 03:05 frajen86 wrote:Possibly understating the number of unique players doing team games.

Show nested quote +

CST (Chicago)

Good. So at the moment it is GMT-5. If possible remember to mention it in the file headers. Time conversions (including potential daylight saving switches) can sometimes be tricky

On June 23 2014 03:05 frajen86 wrote:
I will rename the files once I start getting more data in. The output from the analysis program folder actually looks like this: http://19hz.info/Starcraft/Historical Raw Data/

Those CSV files look nice. If possible keep them also available as it is faster to combine data from those than from the large excel files as others may also get inspiration to do some complementary analysis (of course remembering to thank the data provider if publishing some analysis results).

Regarding the data I wonder how accurate the 'Last Game' data from nios.kr is and is it just account specific or also game mode specific. I wonder how nios.kr solves it as to get it accurate may require lots of fetches. Bnet match history API has the game dates for 10 last games in long format. I presume nios.kr gets it from there.

frajen86

168 Posts

June 23 2014 00:38 GMT

On June 23 2014 04:50 korona wrote:
Btw. there was some duplicate data from individual accounts in the raw CSV files. Likely caused by ranking changes in nios.kr list while reading the list & as result for some accounts the data has been fetched twice from the bnet profiles? But that is not too critical...

Yes that is what I think too. Duplication is about 0.5% for 1v1 players so I think the overall conclusions are still appropriate. But it is something I can check for going forward.

On June 23 2014 04:50 korona wrote:
Regarding the data I wonder how accurate the 'Last Game' data from nios.kr is and is it just account specific or also game mode specific. I wonder how nios.kr solves it as to get it accurate may require lots of fetches. Bnet match history API has the game dates for 10 last games in long format. I presume nios.kr gets it from there.

I believe nios' "Last Game" column is mode specific - I did a little verification (checked 3-4 accounts for each game type) a few days ago.

Also. I didn't know there was Bnet API until now (this thing? http://blizzard.github.io/api-sc2-docs/#profile-api/) - do you have experience with it? Would it be a faster/better route than manually loading web page source files one at a time from nios and Bnet?

Thanks for your help

korona

1098 Posts

June 23 2014 05:22 GMT

On June 23 2014 09:38 frajen86 wrote:

Show nested quote +

Yes that is what I think too. Duplication is about 0.5% for 1v1 players so I think the overall conclusions are still appropriate. But it is something I can check for going forward.

Show nested quote +

No. Blizzard's Bnet API is missing lots of information and there are usage limitations regarding it if you are making huge amount of calls. For example remaining bonus pools cannot be found from the API. Also some API pages are malfunctioning if new user icons are used (it requires Blizzard to fix it after introducing new icons, but they have not done it for the latest D3 icons for months).

I use SC2 API for the MMR tool only for few specific things and everything else is from the normal web pages: 1) solving 1v1 ladder page URL:s as it is the only way to separate Chinese HotS & WoL ladder URLs for each user, for other servers this info can also be found from the web profiles (the secondary way will be used if API fails for other servers than China) *; 2) solving season number: If season number is not available from the web profiles I get it from API - During couple of seasons Blizzard has dropped season number from the web profiles (potentially by accident).

--
* For a long time I wondered if Blizzard disabled the WoL mode entirely for China when they launched HotS for China several months later than for the other servers. But it seems China has still both modes. Couple of weeks ago there was lots of WoL data from Chinese MMR tool users. Also the missing expansion level data on the web profiles is likely the reason why both nios.kr & sc2ranks just count all Chinese data as "WoL data". If they would use the API they would hit the daily usage limitations.

--
Edit: finally accidentally found Chines profile that has been playing both HotS & WoL 1v1 ladders at the same time:
http://www.battlenet.com.cn/sc2/zh/profile/79809/1/Womenizer/ladder/leagues

As you can by looking at the web profile it is impossible to determine which is HotS & which is WoL division (of course HotS is listed first, but most accounts play only one expansion mode). But from the API it is possible: http://www.battlenet.com.cn/api/sc2/profile/79809/1/Womenizer/ladders

Clip from the API page ( "HOTS_SOLO" queue means HotS 1v1 ladder and "SOLO" WoL 1v1 ladder):
+ Show Spoiler +

"ladder" : [ {
"ladderName" : "恶火 ·菲",
"ladderId" : 24410,
"division" : 8,
"rank" : 31,
"league" : "PLATINUM",
"matchMakingQueue" : "HOTS_SOLO",
"wins" : 51,
"losses" : 38,
"showcase" : true
}, {
"ladderName" : "拉德纳尼克斯 ·鲁",
"ladderId" : 24288,
"division" : 1,
"rank" : 2,
"league" : "DIAMOND",
"matchMakingQueue" : "SOLO",
"wins" : 249,
"losses" : 73,
"showcase" : true
} ],
"characters" : [ {
"id" : 79809,
"realm" : 1,
"displayName" : "Womenizer",
"clanName" : "",
"clanTag" : "",
"profilePath" : "/profile/79809/1/Womenizer/"
} ],
"nonRanked" : [ ]
},

Nerski

United States1095 Posts

June 23 2014 21:20 GMT

#10

Nice write up, wouldn't surprise me if the undersized and oversize is due to a lot of inactive players likely being at those lower skill levels that show a lack of active players. Be interesting to see if the numbers would actually back that assertion up.

Would bring into question if blizzards league balancing could use more tweaking based on activity of players.

frajen86

168 Posts

June 23 2014 23:27 GMT

#11

On June 24 2014 06:20 Nerski wrote:
Nice write up, wouldn't surprise me if the undersized and oversize is due to a lot of inactive players likely being at those lower skill levels that show a lack of active players. Be interesting to see if the numbers would actually back that assertion up.

Would bring into question if blizzards league balancing could use more tweaking based on activity of players.

Thanks

Yeah I don't know exactly how Blizzard calculates "active " players for its ladder distributions, and I don't know if Blizzard even actively manages the size of the ladders to begin with. Last year someone from Blizzard told Excalibur_Z that player activity is related to bonus pool, but it wasn't a complete answer.

Anyways, the ladder distributions seem off no matter what metric I'm using for activity (some combination of bonus pool and last game played). I can't say for sure.

It is kind of surprising how small Silver league is though (for relatively active players). korona and Excalibur_Z probably know a lot about the MMR boundaries for the leagues and maybe could help you out with some more info about how the boundaries are set based on their (MMR) point of view

frajen86

168 Posts

June 26 2014 16:15 GMT

#12

Updated the OP with KR and EU summaries. I'm on a work trip but I'll upload the raw data/analysis when I get back home later this week.

I'm surprised at how even some of the percentages are across all 3 (AM/EU/KR) regions. Very similar percentages of teams have played a game in the last week/last month for all 3 regions. For active players, Silver league and Diamond leagues are globally undersized and oversized respectively.

Out of the "super-active" players (~28,000 across all 3 regions with less than 1 week of bonus pool remaining), Terran is the most played race in Bronze league across all leagues by far. Zerg is the least played race in Bronze, and in general that switches as players move up leagues (Zerg is the most played race in Master). Protoss is played more on the KR servers than EU/AM - 34% of Bronze-Diamond league plays Protoss, 26-27% for EU and AM.

One thing I noted is that players on the KR server tend to be more focused on 1v1. 71% of all KR 1v1 ranked players have only placed in 1v1 whereas that number is just 54% and 52% for EU and AM. 28% of all KR ranked players only played ranked team games, while that percentage is 38% for both EU and AM servers.

Also, 4v4 Random is the most popular random team mode in EU and AM - 14% and 15% of all players played a 4v4 random game in the last month - but only 4.5% of KR did.

There are plenty more conclusions to be found in the data, and next week all the sets should be unified (all data run using the same, updated analysis program) but skewed (it takes about 5 days to run the analysis for all 3 regions and the data comes in sequentially, which means I'm getting data for AM on Monday but EU on Wednesday).

Still, I think this is very interesting stuff even if there is some delay between the analysis.

tadL

Croatia679 Posts

June 26 2014 16:28 GMT

#13

looks like the stats in warcraft 3 to be honest. the thing is, back than battlenet was more active because there was no standalone tower defences, dotas, hero arenas and and and. now we have great stand alone options. so less people play the funmaps and with that less people ofc press the ladder button to give it a try.

but overall solid numbers. lets hope the last DLC makes the game worth playing for me as an example. But to be serious. I dont think blizzard gives a fuck how many keep playing it. They care about sales numbers in SC2 and D3. Its not like they need active players like in WoW or Hearthstone to make money. They already made their money. Well I am ofc negative on this because Blizzard fucked it up way to much and for me they are like any game labeld with EA. Just cancer....lucky for them I hate to have incomplete games so legacy of the void DLC will be purchased.

frajen86

168 Posts

June 26 2014 16:41 GMT

#14

To be fair. You mentioned "funmaps" but we have no way to figure out how many people play:
* campaigns
* arcade
* unranked
* vs. AI
* other custom single player games

Agree that Blizzard probably doesn't care TOO much about how many people are playing ranked games, since they have other project priorities right now, but who knows what they track internally. They are probably very interested in how many people just did the campaigns since I assume that will be a big part of the target audience for LotV, but that's also just speculation.

frajen86

168 Posts

June 28 2014 02:47 GMT

#15

Crossposted on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/29akfb/ranked_ladder_analysis_player_activity_league/

ImDrizzt

Norway427 Posts

June 30 2014 13:50 GMT

#16

Nice, awesome.

frajen86

168 Posts

August 26 2014 06:55 GMT

#17

Been a while since an update. Since my program incorporates "games within the last month" I decided to hold off on running it immediately. Now that we are a bit into the season, I think it's OK to start looking at some data. See the OP for update details - American server analysis is done.

Some early thoughts:

League distributions remain kind of skewed using bonus pool metrics. For "actives," bronze/silver are still undersized. Platinum/diamond seem to be stabilizing, but gold league has now become oversized.

A surprisingly large number of players (~61k) have only done placement matches for team games. Compare this to the total number of players that have placed for 1v1 (~92k).

I'm running analysis for EU and KR - more to come!

LoneYoShi

France1348 Posts

August 26 2014 08:28 GMT

#18

Interesting read, I'm eager to see EU and KR !

Btw, I think you have a mistake:
"Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:
39,600 played at least 1 game in the last week
36,566 played at least 1 game in the last month"

How can the number of games played in the last month be below the number of games played in the last week ?

Svizcy

Slovenia300 Posts

August 26 2014 08:33 GMT

#19

Nice analysis.

frajen86

168 Posts

August 26 2014 08:34 GMT

#20

On August 26 2014 17:28 LoneYoShi wrote:
Interesting read, I'm eager to see EU and KR !

Btw, I think you have a mistake:
"Recent activity - 1v1 ranked:
39,600 played at least 1 game in the last week
36,566 played at least 1 game in the last month"

How can the number of games played in the last month be below the number of games played in the last week ?

Oops, copy/paste error. Thanks for the catch : )

WGT-Baal

France3351 Posts

August 26 2014 11:43 GMT

#21

very interesting read, thank you!

frajen86

168 Posts

August 29 2014 02:29 GMT

#22

On August 26 2014 17:28 LoneYoShi wrote:
Interesting read, I'm eager to see EU and KR !

EU is up in the OP - very similar percentages to the America servers.

It's really surprising how small Bronze and Silver leagues are for active players.

Running KR analysis now.

frajen86

168 Posts

August 29 2014 19:15 GMT

#23

KR is up in the OP.

Not surprising, some key percentages are different, just like last season.

Some thoughts

* In general, the more you play 1v1 ranked, the more likely you are going to be promoted above bronze and silver league : )
* The KR 1v1 playerbase is ~5% more "active" than AM/EU
* Blizzard-stated league distributions are still skewed for active players across all regions (bronze/silver undersized, gold-diamond oversized)
* Protoss/Terran more popular in KR than AM/EU
* Zerg less popular in KR than AM/EU
* 1v1 ranked more popular in KR than ranked team games (compared to AM/EU)
* 4v4 isn't as popular in KR compared to AM/EU
* Ranked team ladder distributions still make no sense to me

More conclusions to come later, I will try to run this again next week or two. At least one more time in the next month.

Cheers

purakushi

United States3300 Posts

August 29 2014 19:40 GMT

#24

Quite surprised to see 20k+ for unique players in a week in Korea. Thought it would be considerably lower. Interesting.

nkr

Sweden5451 Posts

August 29 2014 19:52 GMT

#25

team games are dead

Irri

Sweden41 Posts

August 30 2014 09:10 GMT

#26

Very nice analysis!

Tyrhanius

France947 Posts

August 30 2014 11:10 GMT

#27

I really think the matchmaking for teamgame should be rework and take count of the 1vs1 MMR (at the placement at least).
You can be placed in bronze league even if you master/diamand 1vs1. It's really long to get promoted, even if you crush your opponent, sometimes you can 1vs2 players because you're diamand and they're silver. And for this low league players, who don't want to hard try in 1vs1, it's not really funny to get matched vs way too strong player for them.

frajen86

168 Posts

August 30 2014 20:34 GMT

#28

On August 30 2014 20:10 Tyrhanius wrote:
I really think the matchmaking for teamgame should be rework and take count of the 1vs1 MMR (at the placement at least).
You can be placed in bronze league even if you master/diamand 1vs1. It's really long to get promoted, even if you crush your opponent, sometimes you can 1vs2 players because you're diamand and they're silver. And for this low league players, who don't want to hard try in 1vs1, it's not really funny to get matched vs way too strong player for them.

One thing I can try to do for the next analysis round is look at the players who are in both 1v1 ranked and team types and compare what leagues they are in.

frajen86

168 Posts

September 30 2014 07:20 GMT

#29

Updated with new analysis (data is from September 18 to 21).

In general, Terran is becoming more popular, Zerg is becoming less popular, and fewer people are playing the game compared to late August. Compare the # of people that played games last month in the previous analysis to the current one - it's about a 20% drop across all regions.

Ladder is still skewed based on "active" players - bronze/silver greatly undersized, gold+ oversized. I am wondering if Blizzard is no longer using bonus pool remaining to develop MMR boundaries for 1v1 ladder. AM still plays the most team games, and KR still remains the most active server.

Also, the % of players that have 1 week or less of bonus pool has shrunk across all regions as well, currently less than 10% for AM and EU servers.

I am running the "league" comparison asked for in the above replies, but it is kind of slow ATM. I need to optimize the code more.

frajen86

168 Posts

November 19 2014 03:55 GMT

#30

Updated with data from November 4-November 8 (essentially the last week of season 3).

I added a new section, a cross-reference table between a player's 1v1 league and that same player's highest league for a team type. Not surprisingly, a healthy percentage of any team league will include players that are in a higher 1v1 league.

Compared to the last reporting period (mid/late September):
* In general, activity across all team games dropped, although for some team game types in EU and AM, the decrease is small (~10% or less, in some cases 1%)
* In EU, the number of players that only play team games (but not 1v1) went up by 30%, compared to the number of 1v1 placed players, which went up by 22%
* For AM and KR, the number of 1v1 and team-only players increased at roughly the same rate (~15% in KR, ~18% in AM)
* In KR, the number of 1v1 games played in the last week/month dropped by about 50% (suggesting a relatively major drop in player activity for 1v1 games for the last month)
* In AM/KR, the drop in number of 1v1 games played in the last week dropped about 6%, but the number of 1v1 games played in the last month increased by 13% in EU and 9% in AM (suggesting an overall uptick in player activity for the last month)

Ladder distribution for active players (based on bonus pool) still appears to be skewed: Bronze and Silver very undersized, Gold/Platinum oversized, Diamond ~correct, Master a little oversized.

When not considering player activity, the Blizzard targets appear to be closer for Bronze-Gold (oversizing Bronze and Silver league a bit), while Platinum-Master appear to be too small. However, taking into account player activity showed a much more accurate match to Blizzard targets at the end of season 3 last year.

* In all regions, in Bronze league, Terran is the most popular race by far.
* In AM and EU, as players advance in leagues, Zerg becomes more popular while Terran becomes less popular. Protoss stays about the same, with one exception. In Master league, for the least active players, Protoss actually jumps about 5% (and Random drops 5%).
* In KR, as players advance in leagues, Zerg becomes more popular while Terran becomes less popular. That being said, Zerg remains the least popular race in KR for active players at all leagues.
* In KR, for active players, around Diamond league, Terran begins to grow more popular, and it's interesting to note that in Master league, Terran is by far the most popular race in KR (whereas Zerg is the most popular race in AM/EU).
* In KR, for inactive players, Zerg actually remains the most popular race in Diamond and Master.

edit: correction on activity for team games

frajen86

168 Posts

December 24 2014 02:21 GMT

#31

Updated with data from December 17-22 (season 4, 1v1 ladder map pool "switch"). For the KR region it includes 2/3 days of the reverted season 3 1v1 ladder maps.

Compared to the last reporting period (beginning of November/week before Blizzcon):
* As this season is relatively young (only ~6 weeks have passed), the number of inactive players is not high compared to last report. One can conclude that the longer a season goes, the more likely players will have more bonus pool accumulated. Conversely the % of players with less than 1 week of bonus pool is relatively high (~15%)
* In general, activity across team games stayed the same
* For all regions, the number of 1v1 games played in the last week increased. In KR the increase was huge, by 196% percent (almost double). Again this includes 2 days of season 3 ladder.
* In EU there was a 7% increase and in AM there was a 21% increase. This was the last week prior to the "dreampool" being reversed.
* In KR, there was a 245% increase in number of 1v1 games played in the last month. In EU there was a 10% decrease and in AM there was a 2% decrease (negligible). The "last month" timeframe is essentially all of season 4 with the dreampool.
* Overall I believe player activity greatly increased in KR this season, while it stayed roughly the same in AM and EU. It's hard to say whether the dreampool being reverted greatly impacted the huge KR rise in activity, because at the time of the analysis there was only 2/3 days of season 3 ladder maps.

1v1 ladder distribution for active players (based on bonus pool) still appears to be skewed: Bronze and Silver undersized, Gold very oversized, Platinum/Diamond/Master close to target. In AM and KR regions, Diamond is a undersized.

Ignoring bonus pool as activity and using the total playerbase, Bronze appears to be on target while Silver and Gold are oversized. Meanwhile, Platinum/Diamond/Master are all undersized.

* In all regions, in Bronze league, Terran is the most popular race by far. Terran also appears to be more popular in higher leagues for the AM region.
* In AM and EU, as players advance in leagues, in general Zerg becomes more popular while Terran becomes less popular.
* On AM, Terran actually jumps up in percentage from Platinum to Diamond league for active players, and jumps up in percentage from Platinum to Master for the least active players.
* In EU, the transition from Zerg being less popular than Terran happens from Gold to Platinum league.
* In AM and EU, Protoss stays about the same across all leagues/activity levels, with one exception. In EU region Master league, for the least active players, Protoss actually jumps about 5% (and Random drops 5%).
* In KR, Terran is the most popular race for active players in all leagues, except for Gold league where it is slightly edged out by Protoss. Zerg grows more popular as active players reach higher leagues. Protoss drops after Gold league from about 32% to 27% and stays around there into Master.
* In KR, for inactive players, Terran is by far the most popular race in Bronze, Diamond, and Master league.

If you're interested in the race distribution and player activity please see the original post with the updated charts.

RedHoodlum

United States9 Posts

February 15 2015 01:57 GMT

#32

With the Ladder Distribution adjustments coming soon, I think it would be cool to have a comparison of what it is before the adjustment vs what the distribution is after the adjustment. I keep wondering if Blizzard just adjusts it to make the 3rd party sites like nios.kr and sc2ranks look correct, so people would stop complaining, rather than use their activity metric. The whole bronze and silver being undersized makes me suspect, but whatever. I very much like your analysis on this stuff, Thanks for doing it.

frajen86

168 Posts

February 15 2015 20:39 GMT

#33

I'm out of the country again til March 1 but I saved a data set from this past week (2/10-2/13) so hopefully can do just that

frajen86

168 Posts

March 08 2015 20:59 GMT

#34

After this last update was announced, I decided to just get more data and hold off on the February analysis.

Since there's a lot of discussion I wanted to put in my 2 cents. This is just for AM (America) region.

Bonus pool remaining shows roughly the same story. Bronze is undersized, Silver is very undersized, Gold is very oversized, Platinum is a little oversized, Diamond is a little oversized, Master is undersized.

[image loading]

About 11% of players have 1 or less bonus pool week remaining. ~20% with 3 or less. Majority of 1v1 placed players (~60%) have 7+ weeks remaining.

As mentioned elsewhere, adjusting the boundaries doesn't fix the problem long-term because of MMR decay. This was mentioned in Psione's post so that's good.

Anyways, even if 50-100 players were promoted from Diamond to Master (to match the 2% target), Diamond would still need to "lose" about 300-350 more players to hit its 18% target.

That means in-season demotions (from Diamond to Plat). But Platinum is already correctly sized, so the resultant cascading effect would mean a lot of in-season demotions across all leagues (except Bronze), something that Blizzard is probably not too interested in having happen.

edit: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=23870327

korona says:
"One interesting possibility regarding the offset/threshold changes is what if they actually increased the offset/threshold values for many leagues (not decreased like everyone expected). And as there are no mid-season demotions the changes are not visible in nios.kr data."

which essentially means at the start of next season a lot of people are going to get demoted

ZackAttack

United States884 Posts

March 08 2015 23:01 GMT

#35

On March 09 2015 05:59 frajen86 wrote:
After this last update was announced, I decided to just get more data and hold off on the February analysis.

Since there's a lot of discussion I wanted to put in my 2 cents. This is just for AM (America) region.

Bonus pool remaining shows roughly the same story. Bronze is undersized, Silver is very undersized, Gold is very oversized, Platinum is a little oversized, Diamond is a little oversized, Master is undersized.

[image loading]

This would suggest that maybe the patch did work and maybe people aren't going to get all their promotions like they thought.

My question would be how is this different from the league changes last year. Apparently there was a huge amount of promotion the last time they did this and things on nois.kr changed quickly. Is this year's problem because of inactivity?

frajen86

168 Posts

March 08 2015 23:37 GMT

#36

On March 09 2015 08:01 ZackAttack wrote:
This would suggest that maybe the patch did work and maybe people aren't going to get all their promotions like they thought.

My question would be how is this different from the league changes last year. Apparently there was a huge amount of promotion the last time they did this and things on nois.kr changed quickly. Is this year's problem because of inactivity?

Well... notice that these distributions look similar to how they looked towards the end of last year. I don't see much change from last December to now.

Also, I don't know exactly how this "patch" was implemented. Personally I don't have any idea how they planned on fixing things; it seemed impossible to me w/out forced demotions. As far as I can tell nothing really changed. IMO massive promotions wouldn't fix anything; I think that's the wrong kind of perspective to have given this data. Of course I am assuming the activity metric for players is still closely tied to bonus pool (I see no reason why it would have changed over the last 2 years though).

When I get done with this batch I'll run the February data (a month ago) and do that comparison; maybe there was a change from last month to now.

About "the problem" - promoting people in Gold+ doesn't actually fix the distribution.

1) There's a small pool of Diamond league players that might belong in Master (do-able but seems like it hasn't happened yet).
2) Other than that, people need to get demoted to fix Bronze/Silver (do-able, but hundreds/thousands of people would need to be demoted, however even if they changed the MMR boundaries the player base wouldn't really notice until next season's initial placements)
3) Or there needs to be an influx of new players with MMR skill levels in Bronze/Silver (unlikely to happen at this point)
4) MMR decay is being adjusted next season. korona/Excalibur_Z can explain the effects of that way better than me

more thoughts:
*******
As far as the changes from January 2014. Unfortunately the first time I did this kind of analysis was in June last year, so I don't know what happened between those months. But essentially, distributions used to be relatively accurate in August 2013, with Master being a bit large. Shifting the MMR boundaries for leagues might have "fixed" things in the short-term.

However nowadays, I would guess that new players are ending up in Gold league "incorrectly" - due to the MMR range for Bronze/Silver being too low. Also, I bet MMR decay has caused some higher league players to drop into Gold as well. So over time, you end up with Gold league being grossly inflated while Bronze/Silver stays small. In theory, I think this would have been avoided if a lot of new players kept coming in - to fill out the lower leagues - but maybe there haven't been enough new players to do this.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/423477-ladder-analysis-activity-metric
August 2013 (Season 4 lock): Leagues seem to be closer to target distributions for active players. Master is actually a bit large, Diamond is a bit undersized, Gold is a bit small, Bronze a bit large.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=22415099
June 2014, ~5 months after the patch: Bronze and Silver leagues are both undersized, while Gold and above are all oversized. The effect of the promotions is clear.

August to November 2014: pretty much the same thing. However, Master league starts to "shrink" while Plat/Diamond begin to stabilize.

December 2014: Master league (arguably) drops below its target. First time it's undersized (barely). Meanwhile, Bronze/Silver leagues remain undersized.
*******

HewTheTitan

Canada331 Posts

March 09 2015 01:06 GMT

#37

I don't know if it's just me, but I like the Tetrisfriends league system: 20 levels, each equally sized, yielding a percentile figure to go with your account. Progress was steady and measurable. Felt good to get to level 20. (I'm meaning one of the ffa modes where you clear blocks/drop blocks on others)

The leagues in sc2 are far too small... it would be like having the Tetris levels be 3x the size, which rewards improvement a lot less frequently...

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