The February EVE Online Economic Report Brings New and Updated Graphs

I was starting to watch the calendar, wondering when we would see the February Monthly Economic report.  It can run later in the month, but when there is less than a week left you begin to think CCP might have forgotten.

EVE Online nerds harder

But they did not forget.  In fact, we got some new data with the February MER, so lets go take a look.

Bounties, Commodities, and ISK

As we have seen over the last few months, since the big NPC bounty nerf in null sec, NPC commodities have take over as the largest ISK faucet into New Eden.  February was no exception.

Feb 2021 – Faucet end of the chart

However, there was not a lot of insight as to what that commodity market meant.  There is 32.1 trillion ISK that had been, in the past, somewhat hand waved.  Like much of wormhole life, it was a bit of a mystery to many of us.  But now we get a chart dedicated to just commodities.

Feb 2021 – Top Commodity Items Over Time

That chart isn’t very easy to read unless you click on it to view it full size, but the blue line is Sleeper Components, the red line is Overseer Personal Effects, the teal line is Triglavian Data, and the brown line is ESS Bonds.

The first two of those are wormhole item, though you can see the big boost in Overseer Personal Effects because they were part of the holiday even in other areas of space.  Triglavian Data are drops from running Abyssal pockets, which has seen its peaks.  And ESS Bonds are what you get from robbing an ESS bank, which you can see was very popular for a bit when the mandatory ESS nerf hit, then fell off dramatically soon thereafter when people either defended their ESS banks or just stopped ratting.  But that was the CCP plan I am sure.

There is, of course, no regional data for these numbers, and not just because most of it is from wormhole space.  The NPC commodities are drop that you have to go turn in at an NPC station to collect the ISK, and they don’t count as an ISK faucet until they are turned in.

We also got an update to the top sinks and faucets chart, which now tracks the top ten sinks and faucets.

Feb 2021 – Top Sinks and Faucets Over Time

Commodities were added and skills were broken up into “skill market” and “skill purchase,” a division I do not quite understand.  Maybe the latter is skills purchased from your character sheet rather than via the market interface.  I am not sure.  It is also in a new format that is less easy to read unless you click on it to view it full size.

NPC bounties, diminished though they be, still tally up by regions.  There were 25 trillion ISK in NPC bounties paid out in February, down from 28 million trillion ISK in January.  The sinks and faucets data even lines up more closely than usual with the regional data this month.

The top regions for NPC bounty payouts were:

1. Vale of the Silent – 1.75 trillion (PandaFam)
2. The Kalevala Expanse – 986 billion (PandaFam)
3. Insmother – 981 billion (FI.RE Coalition)
4. Perrigen Falls – 898 billion (PandaFam)
5. Oasa – 889 billion (PandaFam)
6. Tenal – 861 billion (PandaFam)
7. Metropolis – 857 billion (Minmatar High Sec)
8. Deklein – 835 billion (PandaFam)
9. Fountain – 827 billion (Imperium)
10. Branch – 778 billion (PandaFam)

Once again, the northeast of New Eden null sec, where PandaFam (Pandemic Legion, NCDot, Pandemic Horde, and Fraternity) is where a lot of the bounties are being paid out, it being far from the war in the south of null sec.  Vale of the Silent jumping to the top may relate to the battles between some of the local, smaller groups and Fraternity, which saw the latter seize most of the ihubs in the region and then drive up their ADMs to make them defensible.

Surprising me a bit again was Metropolis showing up in the top ten.  The next highest high sec area is Lonetrek, which would sit in 15th place with 627 billion ISK in bounties.  Must be a lot of mission running going on around there.

Destruction

As mentioned, there is a war on, and the MERs for December and January showed record levels of destruction in Delve thanks to the battles around the M2-XFE Keepstar, with and 74.83 trillion and 55.34 trillion in destruction game-wide respectively.

Things settled down in February, as the hellcamp of the logged off PAPI super capital fleet carried on.  Total destruction game-wide was down to 38.43 trillion ISK, with Delve again topping the top ten list.

1. Delve – 4.37 trillion
2. The Forge – 2.31 trillion
3. Lonetrek – 2.30 trillion
4. The Citadel – 1.90 trillion
5. Sinq Laison – 1.77 trillion
6. Metropolis – 1.40 trillion
7. Catch – 1.37 trillion
8. Vale of the Silent – 1.32 trillion
9. Domain – 1.02 trillion
10. Querious – 996 billion

However, Delve was less than a quarter of what is was in January, and not even a fifth of what it was in December as the attackers lost their momentum after the big fights.  High sec regions dominate the list, though Catch, where Brave space was under attack, Vale of the Silent, which Fraternity grabbed, and Querious, with Siberian Squads moving in, all made the top ten.

Production

On the flip side of destruction is production, and February saw 104.6 trillion ISK equivalent produced in New Eden, down about 5 trillion ISK from January.  The top ten regions were:

1. The Forge – 22 trillion (High Sec)
2. Delve – 10 trillion (Imperium/PAPI)
3. Lonetrek – 6.23 trillion (High Sec)
4. Sinq Laison – 6.09 trillion (High Sec)
5. The Citadel – 5.20 trillion (High Sec)
6. Domain – 4 trillion (High Sec)
7. Heimatar – 3.52 trillion (High Sec)
8. Fade – 3 trillion (We Form Volta)
9. Oasa – 2.74 trillion (PandaFam)
10. The Kalevala Expanse – 2.73 trillion (PandaFam)

Delve carried on in second place, but was down a bit, having produced 11.7 trillion ISK in January.  Vale of the Silent, purged by Fraternity, dropped from the top ten (it was 11th), while Fade, primarily home to We Form Volta, showed up in 8th position.

Trade

The regional stats sum up to 583 trillion ISK in value for February, down from 675 trillion ISK in January, which might reflect a reduction in the need to replace ships after the huge losses around M2-XFE.  The top regions for trade were:

The Forge – 407 trillion (Jita)
Domain – 53.5 trillion (Amarr)
Sinq Laison – 20 trillion (Dodixie)
Delve – 16.03 trillion (Imperium/PAPI)
Lonetrek – 14.06 trillion (Caldari High Sec)
Metropolis – 11.11 trillion (Hek)
Heimatar – 9.81 trillion (Rens)
Essence – 5.17 trillion (Gallente High Sec)
The Citadel – 4.81 trillion (Caldari High Sec)
Tash-Murkon – 4.10 trillion (Amarr High Sec)

The Forge, home of Jita, tops the list as usual, though it was down 60 trillion ISK compared to its January total.  But all regions in the top ten were down noticeably and, while the list of regions remains the same, Delve fell below Sinq Laison, its trade numbers having dropped almost in half compared to January.  Again, the slow down in the war and the reduction in the need to replace losses no doubt factors into that.

Mining

The price of minerals continued to rise to yet another all time high in February, though the slope of the rise has tapered of relative to the spike of the last few months.

Feb 2021 – Economic Indices

I remain a bit dubious of that chart still, if only because when I am in Jita I don’t see anything like that sort of slope for any of the minerals I check.  But I am not sure how that number is calculated.

Meanwhile, in the regional stats, the actual value of ore mined fell again, dropping from 20.4 trillion ISK in value to 18.94 trillion ISK.  That may be related to Fraternity being busy with Vale of the Silent, as their core region, Oasa, fell out of the top ten.

1. The Forge – 1.15 trillion
2. Metropolis – 1.14 trillion
3. Sinq Laison – 943 billion
4. Domain – 926 billion
5. Lonetrek – 754 billion
6. Heimatar – 642 billion
7. Everyshore – 619 billion
8. Tash-Murkon – 601 billion
9. The Citadel – 592 billion
10. Derelik – 473 billion

I do not even have to mark the regional affiliation as they are all primarily high sec regions.  The age of the AFK Orca has conquered the list.

So it goes for another month in space economics.  As always, you can find more charts and download the raw data over at the dev blog.

In the mean time, CCP has just promised a “significant update to industry” set to launch in April.  That means we won’t see any changes to the MER until it comes out in May.  We shall see how significant they really are.