The Digital Dozen: 7 August 2012

The rankings of the top twelve MMORPGs as determined by the players of the Xfire community from play on Sunday, 5 August 2012.  For more details about the methodology, click here.  Historical data can be found here.

Rank	Prev Week	Game	Score	Hours Played
1	1	World of Warcraft	58.6	55,316
2	2	Star Wars: The Old Republic	8.5	8,025
3	3	Aion	5.3	5,034
4	4	The Secret World	4.9	4,642
5	4	Eve Online	4.1	3,873
6	6	Metin 2	3.7	3,395
7	7	Lord of the Rings Online	3.0	2,853
8	8	APB: Reloaded	2.8	2,604
9	9	Guild Wars	2.4	2,291
10	11	Star Trek Online	2.2	2,105
11	12	Maple Story	2.2	2,093
12	10	Need For Speed World	2.2	2,080

  Total MMORPG hours played Sunday: 128,046

Last Sunday showed an unusual level of constancy in the amount of hours spent playing MMORPGs by the Xfire community with only a drop of 37 hours played over the previous Sunday.  The big gainer percentage-wise was The Secret World which saw its one-month anniversary attract 9% more playtime.  Sunday was a bad day for driving games as Need For Speed World (-13%) and APB: Reloaded (-11.7%) led the way for the losers.

How To Pay:  With many in the gaming media and blogs shouting how EA/Bioware's decision to turn Star Wars: The Old Republic into a free-to-play game I thought I'd list the payment methods for each of the games in The Digital Dozen to see which finanical models are most popular.

1. World of Warcraft:  Box/Digital sales + monthly subscription.
2. Star Wars: The Old Republic:  Box/Digital sales + month subscription until November, then box/digital sale + hybrid model (subscription optional)
3. Aion:  Free-to-play + cash shop
4. The Secret World:  Box/Digital sales + monthly subscription
5. Eve Online:  Digital sales + monthly subscription (payable with in-game currency)
6. Metin 2:  Free-to-play + cash shop
7. Lord of the Rings Online:   Free-to-play + hybrid model (subscription optional + cash shop)
8. APB: Reloaded:  Free-to-play + cash shop
9. Guild Wars:  Box/Digital sales + cash shop
10. Star Trek Online:  Free-to-play + hybrid model (subscription optional + cash shop)
11. Maple Story:  Free-to-play + cash shop
12. Need For Speed World:  Free-to-play + cash shop