In its current state, AoE4 is a good and fun game to play. I expect that many people will enjoy watching and playing both. AoE2 has not just survived, but thrived since the release of the Definitive Edition.Ĭurrently, AoE4 seems to be the strongest contender for a small but faithful community of players, casters, and viewers. Since its initial release in 1999, many other titles have been release, including additions to the Age of Empires series. But AoE2 has been around for over 22 years. Some AoE2 veterans may fear AoE4 to be the death blow for the game they love. T90Offical (the most significant caster) and TheViper (the most-watched player) moved from Twitch to Facebook Gaming.Such a steep drop in such a short period seems concerning but does not necessarily have to worry us because two main factors drove it. After that, they dropped significantly below 2,000. Since then, they remained steady at this level, with peaks around significant events, such as “Hidden Cup 4” and the various “RedBull Wololo” tournaments until September 2021. The Definitive Edition release multiplied the number of average concurrent viewers by a factor of four in November 2019. Long-term, AoE2 has been doing reasonably well for its age but barely passed the monthly average of 1,000 concurrent viewers. The Twitch viewership numbers paint a similar picture. By the end of November, Steam showed an average of 29,977 AoE4 players for the last 30 days – a decline of 16.2% compared to the previous month. We have very few data points for AoE4, so we will have to watch the next few months closely. This is most certainly due to the release of AoE4 on 28/10/21. Recently, the average number of players declined somewhat, especially in November 2021. Gain/loss of AoE2 players on Steam per month The release of multiple patches and expansions certainly helped to keep the interest high. While this does not sound like much compared to games like Dota or Starcraft 2, we need to consider the game’s age to appreciate these numbers fully. The player numbers remained steadily between 5,000 and 10,000 per month until November 2019. The long-term player base evolution shows a clear positive trend for AoE2 on Steam two years before and after the Definitive Edition’s release in November 2019. The AoE franchise is estimated to have generated revenues of one billion US Dollars, with AoE2 being the main contributor to this number.
Surely they have sold a few more since then. In February 2020, Brian Sullivan, Monsarrat Inc.’s CCO, revealed that AoE2 (HD and DE) sold another 5 million copies, bringing the total to 25 million. The last reported figure of 20 million copies is from February 2009. Unfortunately, Microsoft does not share these numbers. Ideally, we would have precise sales numbers for each of the AoE games. Age of Empires II and Age of Empires IV releases
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