Latest EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter shows effect of Hulkageddon

EVE Online is a game that's often lauded for its sandbox style and realistic economic structures. Every quarter, CCP Lead Economist Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson and his team of researchers wade through mountains of EVE usage logs to find some interesting economic statistics. In their Quarterly Economic Newsletters (QEN), CCP deliver graphs tracking in-game prices, trade volumes, ships in use and a whole host of other useful metrics.

Read on for an overview of this QEN's main highlights.

In addition to the usual price indices and market snapshots, the latest QEN comes with a triumphant announcement. Following the Dominion expansion last December, EVE reached an important milestone with over 330,000 active, paying accounts. There are now more EVE accounts than there are citizens of Iceland, CCP's home country. Other highlights of this quarter's report include interesting population density demographics showing the distribution of players throughout EVE, with a particular stress on their distributions in the nullsec regions. Following from this, the report contains a special segment looking back on the development of trade hubs throughout the game's history.

Of particular interest this quarter was the effect that suicide attacks had on the market for Hulk mining barges. The first player-run Hulkageddon event concluded with hundreds of mining barges being killed but this didn't cause an increase in the number bought on the market. Despite demand being the same, prices rose during and after the event from 120 million ISK to 170 million. Publicity of the Hulkageddon event's success and the news that Hulkageddon II was being planned for the following January may have caused Hulk manufacturers to ramp up their prices in anticipation of a rise in demand. Since Hulks were killed in droves but no more units were sold than expected, the number of Hulks being actively piloted has also dropped this quarter. The Hulk is now the second most popular ship in EVE, being overtaken by the universally useful Drake.