The twenty-first week of Mythic+ this season is over, and once again Nightstalker314 is taking a look at the data provided by Raider.IO. The Collector’s Bounty event was in its last week. Mists of Pandaria Classic was ramping up for the first raid release. The total run numbers dropped by about 6.5%. The pattern of decreased activity outside the title and reward rating ranges continues.
Chinese player data updates for the entire season remain irregular. The most recent numbers for the region are still too inaccurate for comparisons. Several million runs and over 100,000 additional characters from Season 2 might be added in the coming months. With the start of Season 3, we should get a clear picture of the activity on those servers. Until then, we will focus on the remaining four regions. So let’s look at the details.
Weekly Total Run Performance Compared To Other Seasons
Just like the previous week, we saw another minor drop-off, this time, by 6.49%. Weekly activity in TWW Season 2 has now dropped by 80% since the start. Less interest in the higher key range, as well as the opening of Mogu’shan Vaults in MoP Classic, might be the major factors here. The number of active characters also decreased by 7.16% from week to week. So there’s a general decline in interest in M+ overall.
Total Runs Across All Dungeons
The overall split remains almost unchanged. The Rookery is just pulling slightly ahead of the others. The next 6 dungeons saw a slight reshuffle with Priory moved from 7th place last week to 3rd. Theater of Pain remains the least popular dungeon of the season, though it hasn’t completely fallen out of favor.
The overall in time percentage went up by 0.41 points to 86.72%. This is partially due to the Pulsar affix not being as punishing. Higher key levels below the title range are also seeing less participation. Their lower success rates are having far less impact.
The focus has shifted to key levels with active affix rotations. And Theater of Pain, as well as the Rookery, once again suffer from the Tyrannical affix boosting boss encounters on the midrange keys. The Priory, on the other hand, benefits from trash not being fortified from key levels 7 to 9.
Split Across All Key Levels
63.72% of all keys were completed at level 10 or higher. In general, keys below 10 saw a slight increased in share. Key levels 2 and 9 even saw higher total run numbers from week to week against the overall negative trend. Activity between 2,500 and 3,000 rating points was also rather stable.
But once we look beyond that, the activity craters again. Only 53% of the total runs compared to last week were done at key level 18. From key level 14 to 18, the portion of the overall split has dropped by 42-76% compared to its peak 7 weeks ago.
This is already a significant problem, echoed by player sentiment. If fewer runs are being done below the title range, there is less of a chance of even getting into those that are just above. This can escalate into a self-amplifying process. At this point, the season’s end is putting a stop to the misery, but the developers have to address this in the near future.
Conclusion And Early Numbers For The Final Week 22
The most recent developer interviews haven’t mentioned this issue at all. But this effect below the title range will only increase over time, especially once a season takes a bit longer than the usual 6 months. The feeling of just missing the jump into the title range is demotivating a large portion of the player base. And we have been repeating this talking point a lot lately: Players need another cut-off point or cosmetic rewards between 3,000 rating and the 0.1% title. As for the title range, we’ve yet to see a completed +23 run in the final days of the season.
As of this writing, hourly numbers for week 22 on the EU and US servers are about 6.3% and 8.8% ahead of week 20. That’s surprising for the final week of the season. But the currently active dungeon event quest is also rewarding players for finishing 4 dungeon runs. In addition, TWW is on sale once again. Many players may be gearing up new characters to try out in Season 3.
