My Top Five Most Viewed Posts Year by Year

Something of a follow-on to last Saturday’s post about the top five most viewed posts over the life of the blog.  Something of a Blapril thing in this last moment of the official Blapril season.

The Blapril commeth

I started looking at this as I was writing the last post, but decided to hold it as a separate entry, in part because that post was long enough already but also because I think this imparts different information.

The top five posts over the life of the blog is burdened by the inertia of past years.  As I noted, four of the top five have been in the top five for most of the life of the blog.  They were:

1. Play On: Guild Name Generator
2. Running Civilization II on Windows 7 64-bit
3. How To Find An Agent in EVE Online
4. Alamo teechs u 2 play DURID!
5. How to Catch Zorua and Zoroark

But looking at the top five post in a given year, I think that might give a better look at what was going on in a given year as opposed to what got crazy views for any given year.  So lets go back and see what was popular in past years:

2006 – The Blog Begins

1. EVEMon 1.1.4 Released
2. EVEMon 1.1.6 Released
3. Portal to the Commonlands
4. PowerColor Radeon x1950 AGP Review
5. Five Features Blizzard Should Steal From EverQuest II

This was the chaos era of the blog where I hadn’t decided really what to blog about, so was all over the map.  I was playing EVE Online and had discovered EVE Mon.  That “review” is just a link to a review at a site that no longer exits and which the Wayback Machine seems to have lost.  As for the five features, I might choose a few different ones now.

2007 – The First Full Year

1. Play On: Guild Name Generator
2. PowerColor Radeon x1950 AGP Review
3. Tabula Rasa Beta Forum Access!
4. x1950 AGP vs ATi2dvag
5. Rejected Arasai Character Model

There is the first appearance of the top all time post.  More about that video card, which I apparently bought.  Tabula Rasa beta forums?  And that last one was linked in an EverQuest II news update on the official site.  That was back when somebody thought blogs mattered I guess.

2008 – Settling In

1. Play On: Guild Name Generator
2. How To Find An Agent in EVE Online
3. EVE Online – The Tutorial
4. 2008 MMORPG Progdictionations
5. Is There Hope for a Science Fiction MMORPG?

And now the top two all time and one contender are on the list.  My first annual predictions post.  See, that post was popular at some point before I beat it to death!  And a bit of serious writing about SciFi and why putting a fantasy skin on it isn’t working.  I should go revisit that as I would argue we’re still not there yet.

2009 – Pokemon Posts Show Up

1. Play On: Guild Name Generator
2. How To Find An Agent in EVE Online
3. Shaymin Event at Toys R Us
4. Regigigas Event at Toys R Us
5. Rotom Secret Key Event

The top two abide while Pokemon event posts gain the favor of Google.  Remember those download events?  Remember Toy R Us?

2010 – Chang in the Wind

1. How To Find An Agent in EVE Online
2. Arceus Event Annouced!
3. Play On: Guild Name Generator
4. Heroic Deadmines!
5. Pokewalker Yellow Forest WiFi Event

The guild name generator is finally down the list a bit, though agents in EVE Online are still a pain to find.  More Pokemon events and the promise of a heroic version of the Deadmines for Cataclysm.  A pity it didn’t live up to the original.

2011 – MOAR Pokemons

1. First Pokemon Black and White Download Event – Victini
2. How to Catch Zorua and Zoroark
3. Download Mythical Celebi at GameStop
4. Play On: Guild Name Generator
5. Shiny Pokemon Events Coming to GameStop in January

So yeah, Pokemon was a thing.  It is years like this that I wonder if I should write more about Pokemon, not so much for page views as because apparently people want to read about it.  Did I actually have a Pokemon following here, and has it died off due to lack of posts?  Also, the agent finder showed up in EVE Online, so that post fell off.

2012 – The Peak

1. Diablo III vs. Torchlight II – A Matter of Details
2. Running Civilization II on Windows 7 64-bit
3. How to Catch Zorua and Zoroark
4. World of Warcraft Magazine – Issue 2
5. Hulkageddon V: Unholy Union – Coming Soon

The blog is as popular as it is ever going to be.  The Civ II post shows up, but it was that Diablo III vs Torchlight II post that seemed to piss people off.  Then the leading Pokemon post of all time, followed by the Official World of Warcraft Magazine.  I have all five issues still plus the apology pets for shutting it down.  And Hulkageddon.  That hasn’t been a thing for a long time.

2013 – Google Turns Its Back

1. April Fools at Blizzard – 2013
2. Running Civilization II on Windows 7 64-bit
3. 6VDT-H – The Biggest Battle in EVE History Ends the War in Fountain
4. Considering Star Wars Galaxies Emulation? Better Grab a Disk!
5. Type 59 Being Pulled from the World of Tanks Store

That April Fools post is still the single largest day for page views on the blog.  The Fountain War ended with a huge battle while the two competing SWG emulators were being cautious about letting you just download the client.  And then there was World of Tanks and the Type 59.  I get a link to that post from the WoT forums every once in a while to this day.

2014 – Insta Levels Become a Thing

1. The Mighty Insta-90 Question – Which Class to Boost?
2. Running Civilization II on Windows 7 64-bit
3. Blizzard Isn’t Giving You a Free Copy of Warlords of Draenor
4. Level 85 in EverQuest… Now What?
5. Considering Star Wars Galaxies Emulation? Better Grab a Disk!

Warlords of Draenor hype and insta levels were being discussed.  That EverQuest post still gets a bit of traction now and then because it still isn’t obvious what you should do or where you should go when you do boost up.

2015 – Decline Sets In

1. Considering Star Wars Galaxies Emulation? Better Grab a Disk!
2. The Mighty Insta-90 Question – Which Class to Boost?
3. LOTRO and the Great Server Merge
4. Running Civilization II on Windows 7 64-bit
5. Level 85 in EverQuest… Now What?

When four of the top five posts for one year are from past years, that is a sign that things are headed down hill for your traffic.

2016 – Even WoW is in Decline Now

1. WoW and the Case for Subscription Numbers
2. Alamo teechs u 2 play DURID!
3. Running Civilization II on Windows 7 64-bit
4. Executive Outcomes Leaves The Imperium
5. Pre-Ordering WoW Legion at a Discount

That was the summer of Blizzard’s discontent, when Warlords of Draenor popularity collapsed and they decided they would never speak of subscription numbers again.  There was some hope in Legion and you can see some nostalgia influence as Alamo, a post from 2009, makes its first appearance in the top five.

2017 – Pokemon Revival

1. April Fools at Blizzard 2017 – Not Much to Talk About
2. From Alola Pokedex to National Pokedex in Pokemon Sun
3. Alamo teechs u 2 play DURID!
4. Where the Hell is that EverQuest Successor Already?
5. Pokemon Lycanroc event at GameStop

Write about Pokemon, get page views.  This seems to be a thing.  Also the eternal question about another EverQuest was alive.

2018 – April Fools Remains an Anchor

1. April Fools at Blizzard 2018 is Mostly Just World of Warcraft
2. From Alola Pokedex to National Pokedex in Pokemon Sun
3. Alamo teechs u 2 play DURID!
4. Burn Jita Back for 2018
5. Rumors of Future Daybreak Projects and the End of EverQuest

April Fools tops the list again, but how long will it remain popular?  Not much longer if Blizz continues to waver on the idea.  Burn Jita was a thing, as was that Daybreak rumors post on Reddit that said they were going to stop development on EQ and EQII.  While that didn’t come to pass, there is some truth in the idea that the team would have to stop working on them to even come close to having the resources to make a new MMORPG.

2019 – Nostalgia Rules

1. Alamo teechs u 2 play DURID!
2. How Many People Play EVE Online?
3. Minecraft and the Search for a Warm Ocean
4. April Fools at Blizzard 2019 is Pretty Much No Fools
5. What Should EverQuest 3 Even Look Like?

A ten year old post about a silly item from the old WoW forums tops the list.  Nostalgia is a thing.  People were also interested in how many people played EVE Online, finding a warm ocean in Minecraft, and some meager April Fools.  Once again though, going on about the future of the EverQuest franchise made the list.  There might be something in that… I mean, besides the obvious nostalgia factor.

Lessons?

I suppose you can say that I should write more about Pokemon, April Fools, and the future of the EverQuest franchise.

You might also wonder how the top all time post only made the cut for five out of thirteen years.  But the years it did make it, those were big years for page views and it was way out in front for a lot of those years.

Also, as page views decline older posts that Google likes tend to dominate the top five.  I thought about doing the top ten for each year because that tends to bring in a few more posts from the given year, but that would just make the post much longer and would break from the whole “Top 5” idea that was going on.

As for 2020, Alamo is out in front already, followed by the search for a warm ocean in Minecraft.  The only thing new there is April Fools of course, and it is in fifth position as April Fools really fell down this year.  I suppose a world wide pandemic will do that.