Current Situation on Aoe4 and Aoe2

[Dusk2Dawn]

Not again

 

[felix.feroc]

I was poking around in Liquipedia and began to wonder about prize distribution across the two members of the franchise this year. I looked only at tournaments that have ended, because more can always be added in the future, which would skew the numbers.

So far in 2022, $318,681 has been paid out to Age of Empires IV tournament players, and $152,542 to Age of Empires II, which is a bit less than half.

This difference seems much starker to me when we look at the earnings of the top players. Because Liquipedia does not split out winnings from different games, I split them myself using their api. So here are the top 23 player-game combinations so far this year.

Rank	Player	Game	2022 earnings
1	Beastyqt	Age of Empires IV	$55,613.00
2	MarineLorD	Age of Empires IV	$55,123.00
3	Leenock	Age of Empires IV	$23,742.00
4	VortiX	Age of Empires IV	$22,123.00
5	TheViper	Age of Empires IV	$21,560.00
6	LucifroN	Age of Empires IV	$13,897.00
7	DeMusliM	Age of Empires IV	$13,141.00
8	TheMista	Age of Empires IV	$11,555.00
9	1puppypaw	Age of Empires IV	$10,283.00
10	Hera	Age of Empires IV	$9,023.00
---
11	TheViper	Age of Empires II	$8,781.00
12	Yo	Age of Empires II	$8,633.00
13	TaToH	Age of Empires II	$8,339.00
14	Wam01	Age of Empires IV	$8,296.00
15	DauT	Age of Empires II	$8,285.00
16	Neptune	Age of Empires IV	$7,709.00
17	Hera	Age of Empires II	$6,300.00
18	Bee	Age of Empires IV	$6,258.00
19	Vinchester	Age of Empires II	$6,217.00
20	Villese	Age of Empires II	$5,873.00
21	Nicov	Age of Empires II	$5,440.00
22	JorDan_AoE	Age of Empires II	$5,020.00
23	ACCM	Age of Empires II	$4,832.00

We can see that the top 10 earners are all from Age of Empires IV, and the top AoE II earner has made less than 1/6th of what the top AoE IV earner made this year.

For grins, I checked what percentage the top 10 AoE IV earners took of the total pie for their game this year, and it is 74%. The top 10 AoE II earners made 44% of this year's take so far, and last year's top 10 took 58% in 2021.

 

[Giuseppe551]

For grins, I checked what percentage the top 10 AoE IV earners took of the total pie for their game this year, and it is 74%. The top 10 AoE II earners made 44% of this year's take so far, and last year's top 10 took 58% in 2021

That's really interesting and confirms that the game is just not super competitive. I mean seriously a caster, a full time farmer, a bunch of retired sc2 pros (I mean like, wayyyyy retired) all in the top 10. Nothing but respect for ML though, he's still sick at starcraft but took a calculated risk and it paid off.

 

[robo]

I checked what percentage the top 10 AoE IV earners took of the total pie for their game this year, and it is 74%. The top 10 AoE II earners made 44% of this year's take so far, and last year's top 10 took 58% in 2021.

Thanks for doing this, I was thinking about it for the last week, waiting until I had some spare time 11

If you have the data available, could you compare the top 16s instead of 10? As that is the standard number in main events earning reasonable prizes?

Edit: and possibly only compare A/S Tier events?

 

[felix.feroc]

Thanks for doing this, I was thinking about it for the last week, waiting until I had some spare time 11

If you have the data available, could you compare the top 16s instead of 10? As that is the standard number in main events earning reasonable prizes?

Edit: and possibly only compare A/S Tier events?

Just to make sure what you are interested in, is this just AoE II and 1v1s with one-year time windows?

 

[robo]

Just to make sure what you are interested in, is this just AoE II and 1v1s with one-year time windows?

Whatever you have data for, so I guess ideally that is the past year for the top 16 players in each game, and then cut it down to the top x players like this but only counting A & S Tier tourneys

 

[felix.feroc]

Whatever you have data for, so I guess ideally that is the past year for the top 16 players in each game, and then cut it down to the top x players like this but only counting A & S Tier tourneys

So, using data from only S- and A-Tier 1v1 tournaments (so not counting money earned in other tournaments, or team tournaments, where it gets tricky),
since July 1, 2021, AoE IV has paid out $186,514, and the top 16 earners took $170,988.00, so 92%.
AoE II has paid out $321,279, and the top 16 earners took $267,891.40, so 83%.
Oops. Let me try again. I had some team data in there that I don't trust.

So, using data from only S- and A-Tier 1v1 tournaments (so not counting money earned in other tournaments, or team tournaments, where it gets tricky),
since July 1, 2021, AoE IV has paid out $166,400, and the top 16 earners took $159,200.00, so 95%.
AoE II has paid out $295,972, and the top 16 earners took $253,912.40, so 86%.

 

[LowEloNobody]

I'm a bit confused here, you said this:

So far in 2022, $318,681 has been paid out to Age of Empires IV tournament players, and $152,542 to Age of Empires II, which is a bit less than half.

and then:

So, using data from only S- and A-Tier 1v1 tournaments (so not counting money earned in other tournaments, or team tournaments, where it gets tricky),
since July 1, 2021, AoE IV has paid out $166,400, and the top 16 earners took $159,200.00, so 95%.

Did AoE4 really have $150k+ of tournament money across B-tier tourneys and below? I had the impression that it was basically all S-tier tourneys. Wouldn't the prize pool for Golden League + N4C alone be more than $166k?

 

[ninja14]

I'm a bit confused here, you said this:

and then:



Did AoE4 really have $150k+ of tournament money across B-tier tourneys and below? I had the impression that it was basically all S-tier tourneys. Wouldn't the prize pool for Golden League + N4C alone be more than $166k?

In addition these tier definitions are not same across the games so it's not right to compare tiers. Overall comparison is the actual picture.

 

[LowEloNobody]

In addition these tier definitions are not same across the games so it's not right to compare tiers. Overall comparison is the actual picture.

ok sure, but how can these two things be true:

So far in 2022, $318,681 has been paid out to Age of Empires IV tournament players, and $152,542 to Age of Empires II, which is a bit less than half.

since July 1, 2021, AoE IV has paid out $166,400, and the top 16 earners took $159,200.00, so 95%.
AoE II has paid out $295,972, and the top 16 earners took $253,912.40, so 86%.

 

[felix.feroc]

ok sure, but how can these two things be true:

Easy, when Golden League wasn't flagged as S-Tier in my database! Argh!

With the new data, for AoE IV we get
$289,401 paid out, with $263,766 going to top 16, which is 91%.

Thanks for the catch.
I did make sure everything is there for AoE II...

 

[Dusk2Dawn]

I think the starting date for comparison should be the GENESIS tournament starting day; was is october or november?

 

[LowEloNobody]

So both games have had similar total prizepools, and both games pay almost all of those prizepools to the top 16. Cool. Sucks to be consistent #17 tho

 

[nimanoe]

This screenshot was totally not taken during server maintenance, AoE4 is just objectively better than AoE2.

 

[felix.feroc]

So both games have had similar total prizepools, and both games pay almost all of those prizepools to the top 16. Cool. Sucks to be consistent #17 tho

For more grins, I looked at B and C tournaments, and I found that the top 16 from S- and A-Tier tournaments only take 44% of the prizes from B- and C-Tiers in Age of Empires II ($15,580 out of $35,580), and only 38% in Age of Empires IV ($28,647 out of $46,446).

FWIW, the remaining funds are for team games, showmatches, qualifiers, and weekly events.

 

[Dusk2Dawn]

This screenshot was totally not taken during server maintenance, AoE4 is just objectively better than AoE2.
View attachment 201676

this was the case yesterday evening(for europe); 3 (variety?) streamers with about 2k viewers each were playing aoe4; the highest dedicated aoe4 streamer at the time had 3 digit viewers

 

[LowEloNobody]

This screenshot was totally not taken during server maintenance, AoE4 is just objectively better than AoE2.
View attachment 201676

Idk, seems like pretty clear evidence that AoE2 = DeD game

 

[Potkeny]

Idk, seems like pretty clear evidence that AoE2 = DeD game

AoE2 was DoD, but then got downgraded to DoI.

 

[Rorarimbo]

AoE3 has a higher weekly top than AoE4 now? The first time I noticed AoE3 having more players was after a DLC and in the hours with few players in general. Are we in another stage now when AoE4 is indeed going below AoE3 or there is something else going on here?

 

[SuperskinnyBLS]

AoE3 has a higher weekly top than AoE4 now? The first time I noticed AoE3 having more players was after a DLC and in the hours with few players in general. Are we in another stage now when AoE4 is indeed going below AoE3 or there is something else going on here?

Does it include gamepass?

 

[Rorarimbo]

Does it include gamepass?

No but doesn't include Age of Empires III (2007) either

 

[TriRem]

AoE3 has a higher weekly top than AoE4 now? The first time I noticed AoE3 having more players was after a DLC and in the hours with few players in general. Are we in another stage now when AoE4 is indeed going below AoE3 or there is something else going on here?

AoE3 is having a free weekend on Steam.

 

[Rorarimbo]

AoE3 is having a free weekend on Steam.

I see

 

[akku]

AoE3 is having a free weekend on Steam.

So, people can play aoe3 for free only on this weekend?

Or can anyone just get the game free for good in this weekend?

 

[Son of Dad]

So, people can play aoe3 for free only on this weekend?

Or can anyone just get the game free for good in this weekend?

you can play for free only this weekend, but it's also 70% off to buy so you can get it for ~5 usd