Riot rings in the new year as the most popular online PC game.
The four most popular games are always the same according to gaming social site Raptr: League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. And Riot’s hit multiplayer online battle arena always takes top marks these days, coming in at about 20 percent of the share of total playtime of Raptr’s 23 million users. It’s no different this month, with League of Legends holding at 19.97 percent, just about doubling World of Warcraft’s second place share of 10.68 percent.
If you’ve grown bored of tracking the top four, I’d say one to watch is Smite. Hi-Rez Studios’ free-to-play MOBA continues to gain steam as a game and as an e-sports destination. While its share of about 3 percent seems much smaller than League of Legends or World of Warcraft, and despite a slight dip from December 2014, it still tops other popular online hits such as Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and Diablo III.
Despite some notable expansion releases and updates — World of Warcraft opened up its Draenor Expansion and Smite released a new god — Raptr says that the same top 20 games ranked for December 2014. Final Fantasy XIV Online climbed two places, and Guild Wars 2 gained three. For drops, Dragon Age: Inquisition fell three places — not nearly as bad as sci-fi shooter Warframe’s drop of six places, showing a loss of almost 18 percent over December.