Splinterlands just saw the purchase of its 100,000th Spellbook, halfway through August.
Reaching Benchmarks at Unprecedented Speeds
It took us over four years to sell the first 50,000 Splinterlands Spellbooks.
Now, in just fifteen days, that number has doubled.
Referencing a graph of daily Spellbook purchases hardly makes sense anymore. The recent numbers so effectively dwarf the earlier stats that any daily sales numbers before July of this year barely register at all. Average daily sales in August are 100x what they were at the beginning of the year, and 200x what they were a year ago.
Graphing the Spellbooks purchased over time tells the tale of Splinterlands' slow and steady growth since its creation right up until last month, when the influx of new players skyrocketed these numbers and literally put the game out of commission for a few stressful days.
As cool as it is to see these total numbers, it's even more interesting to look at the Spellbook Purchase rates in context.
Free-to-Play Games
In free-to-play games, it's customary for only a small fraction of the players to choose to purchase into the game. Usually around 1% - 2% of all players end up buying into any free-to-play game, while the other 98% - 99% of players stick with the free version, or else leave the game entirely.
Splinterlands has always enjoyed a significantly higher buy-in rate than average, traditionally hovering between 20-25%. The fact that one out of every 4 or 5 new players sees enough value in our game to buy a $10.00 upgrade has always been a point of pride for us, especially considering that most games must sign up 50-100 players, on average, before they see one purchase.
More are Staying
However, lately even these note-worthy figures have been outdone. We saw the sale of the 100,000th Spellbook just two days after the creation of our 300,000th new account. As things stand now, over 32% of all accounts that have ever been created have continued on to Purchase a Spellbook and explore their full Splinterlands potential. A one-third buy-in rate is amazing, but it isn't even the end of the story.
The August Spellbook purchase rate is now over 40%, meaning that this month more than 2 out of every 5 new player accounts decided that Splinterlands is too good to pass up. The past five days have seen an average buy-in rate of nearly 50%, which is just astounding.
New players usually try out the game in free mode for a bit before deciding if it's worth actually paying into, so Spellbook numbers tend to lag behind sign-up numbers by a few days, at least.
Why Players Stay
Sure, Splinterlands has a lot to offer, even if you don't already have an impressive Alpha pack. The continued release of new cards and the structure of the tournaments system ensures that new players will always have access to relatively inexpensive cards that can hold their own in battles. The new rental market gives card owners and card seekers even more options. SPS offers players the chance to have a real say in the future of the game, and the fact that it's all built on the block chain means that players genuinely own their Splinterlands assets and that every purchase buys you more than just a once-and-done half hour of playing fun.
But Splinterlands has something much harder to replicate than thoughtful design, interesting graphics or addictive game play. Because Splinterlands isn't merely a game: it's a whole community. In Guilds and on Splintertalk blogs; on Reddit, Twitter and especially in Discord, Splinterlands community members continue to make this an inviting environment for new players, and this effort continues to pay off.
The Splinterlands team is small. Even with all we can do, we still depend heavily on the community to answer questions, explain game features and in general help direct all the new players who are pouring in. And let me tell you: the Splinterlands community has shown itself to be more than up to this challenge. So many of you are extremely knowledgeable and experienced, and freely share your gems of game wisdom with newer players, directing them to the resources that will help them and explaining the finer points of the game. Your passion for the game is by far the best advertisement Splinterlands could ever have.
Guilds offer enormous opportunities for players to connect with each other, form friendships and grow roots into the community. You can find other games to play. You can find other assets to purchase. But the the friends in your Guild aren't available anywhere else, and it makes a difference.
If new players were pouring into the game only to discover cold shoulders, unanswered questions and condescension, it's a good bet that many of them wouldn't stick around for long. The fact that 30-50% of those that swing by decide to buy into Splinterlands and put down roots here is a testament to how awesome our community is, as much as anything else we have to offer.
We are so grateful. And humbled. And amazed.
Thanks for being phenomenal.
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