Google Trends for RimWorld and Dwarf Fortress

[JuliaEllie]

So I have seen this on Tynans Twitter and played a bit with Google Trends:



These are the web searches over the last year and we see a correlation. I would assume that those games have the same target audience (surprise ) and that the fanbases of those two games overlap. Dwarf Fortress is in the lead by about double the search queries. This could result from a higher popularity of Dwarf Fortress but we will look at the details a bit later.




These are the YouTube searches over the last year. We see a completely different thing. On YouTube queries Dwarf Fortress and RimWorld are on par and since August-September RimWorld is in the lead. People rather want to watch RimWorld than Dwarf Fortress. I assume RimWorld is more fun to watch than Dwarf Fortress.




Detailed queries for RimWorld. The top queries are "gaining general information" and "getting the game". While "wiki - how to play" and "I want more fun - mods" are a little bit behind. The relative high amount of mod queries makes me assume that there is a high "searching -> playing -> modding" conversion rate which might show a high consumer binding to the game. People want to keep playing after the base content is done. Also the high amount of "torrent - pirating" queries could lead to the assumtion that people want this game no matter how. "Its worth to be pirated" - which could be taken as a compliment.



Detailed queries for Dwarf Fortress. The absolute top query is wiki! You absolutely need the wiki to play this game. Far behind are mod queries and also the "Lazy Newbs Pack" which eases the handling and tweaking of the game a lot. The lack of "torrent" queries is because Dwarf Fortress is free and the lack of evidence isnt an evidence for its non existance so no assumptions about the quality/demand can be made because of this. Not much else to see here.



Detailed YouTube queries for RimWorld. Virtually all queries are on "general information" or "general gameplay". This makes me assume that people want to see the game because they want to judge its quality before they purchase or because they want to see other people playing it. This is simmilar to the overall web searches.




Detailed YouTube queries for Dwarf Fortress. The two top queries are "tutorials" and "gameplay". Similar to the web searches - people generally dont understant the game and NEED tutorials.


RimWorld queries - general information and modding. Dwarf Fortress - how the f do I play this??

Lets have a look at the nature of those queries. Wiki queries are made because there is a problem or a lack of knowledge during gameplay. This can happen more than once or twice or even more than 100 times so every other problem people engage during the gameplay results in a query. General information queries are made because people want to know the game in general and I would say after one or a few queries this problem is solved. Mod queries act in a similar way because once people downloaded what they were looking for or found a good source for mods the mod problem is solved as well and will unlikely result in more queries.

Wiki searchers produce a significantly higher amount of queries per user than general information or mod searchers.

CONCLUSION: The fact that Dwarf Fortress has double the web search queries than RimWorld but on a topic (wiki) which produces a lot more queries per user and taking the assumption that the fanbases overlap I would assume that RimWorld despite of the smaller amount of total queries has a larger fanbase and consumer attention/popularity (in Google and Youtube searches) than Dwarf Fortress. Looking at the total amount of YouTube queries especially since August-September supports this. RimWorld is gaining popularity faster than Dwarf Fortress.


TL;DR - RimWorld is more popular than Dwarf Fortress in Google and YouTube searches.

 

[Tynan]

Very interesting analysis! Though I'm not certain I could agree with your final conclusion there; I do think RW is approaching DF's level of popularity but likely isn't there yet. There are other ways to measure this. For example, I sometimes note that DF's forums have several times more people online at any given time than these forums. Of course, this also reflects the fact that DF has been out forever so it has had a long time to build up a large hard core of fans who stick to the community for years.

Nice potato btw! But I'm sorry RW won't come to console any time soon.

[JuliaEllie]

Very interesting analysis! Though I'm not certain I could agree with your final conclusion there; I do think RW is approaching DF's level of popularity but likely isn't there yet. There are other ways to measure this. For example, I sometimes note that DF's forums have several times more people online at any given time than these forums. Of course, this also reflects the fact that DF has been out forever so it has had a long time to build up a large hard core of fans who stick to the community for years.

Nice potato btw! But I'm sorry RW won't come to console any time soon.

1. Yeah they are only assumptions based on the Google Trends and they might be completely wrong but I think the RimWorld hype is real.
2. uuuuh shots fired

[Jaxxa]

Nice work on the statistics.
I have to agree with Tynan.
I think it would be more fair to say that (this indicates) Rimworld is now gaining popularity faster that DF, while DF may still have the lead because of it's earlier start.

People looking up information for a game are more likely to be newer players / newly interested players. While these statistics will miss out on the number of more experienced players who have all the sites bookmarked and so have no reason to Google the game.

[StorymasterQ]

Very nice, indeed. Even though my eye ticks every time I see 'query' with two r's. Otherwise, very nice.

[JuliaEllie]

Very nice, indeed. Even though my eye ticks every time I see 'query' with two r's. Otherwise, very nice.

Sorry no hablo inglese

Yeah you guys might be right about this. The bookmark thing is a good point.

[skullywag]

Potato console joke took me a while jeez i need a coffee...

[ShadowTani]

That DF and RW having overlapping fanbases is true for me at least. x3 I haven't gotten around to play the 0.40.x version yet though as I'm waiting for the patching period to end.

And yeah, I rarely google DF anymore, I got all the sources I need in my bookmarks - which also is true for Rimworld now. Regardless, these statistics and analysis are obviously still very relevant, so absolutely, great job. :3

[milon]

Nice potato btw! But I'm sorry RW won't come to console any time soon.

Unity games can run on consoles.  At least the constraints aren't technical.  Just need to be a licensed dev for the console.  Trivial, right?