Colonist.io 2022 Summary
Hey Colonist Community,
We're grateful for all the support the community has provided for Colonist.
- In 2019, Colonist was a niche game with a single game mode and only the most hardcore Catan players played.
- In 2020, Colonist had 4 expansions and was played by many casual players.
- In 2021, Colonist had 8 expansions, 12 maps, and most of North America knows someone who played Colonist.
- In 2022, Colonist created a vibrant competitive community and leaderboards in all countries.
Here is a recap of 2022 and our plans for 2023:
Game Stats:
| Category | Jan 2020 | Jan 2021 | Jan 2022 | Jan 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly Unique Players | 🤷 | 1,669,863 | 1,972,919 | 2,146,223 |
| Monthly Active Players | 53,471 | 701,851 | 714,110 | 946,430 |
| New Registered Players | 6984 | 287,733 | 182,259 | 249,351 |
| Games Played | 🤷 | 13,833,827 | 19,334,709 | 25,352,018 |
| Years of Game Time | 37 | 461 | 535 | 675 |
| Average Minutes Per Game | 🤷 | 17 | 15 | 14 |
In 2022 we released 28 versions with countless fixes & features.
Covid restrictions lifting slowed our traffic growth. This year at our peak we had 3,774 concurrent users, compared to 5,200 last year.
This year Omar, Logan, Simon, Mau, Devyesh & Gabriel joined our team, increasing the speed and quality of our work.
We hosted our 2nd ever Colonist Con! If you couldn't make it, watch on YouTube.
Big Features:
We built the 5 most requested features from our community:
- Started working on the most requested feature, a Mobile App on iOS & Android!
- Added Ranked Games & Leaderboards for 1v1, 4 Player, and Cities & Knights
- Built a Friends System
- Added new Payment Methods
- Created the ability to Pause Games
In addition to the above features, we:
- Built Membership feature which gives access to features and maps
- Started producing and adding new sound effects
- Optimized Lobby and Rooms
- Redesigned Home and Profile page
Development Stats:
| Category | Jan 2021 | Jan 2022 | Jan 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Days in development | 830 | 1,195 | 1,560 |
| Public release versions | 97 | 122.1 | 149 |
| Lines of TS code | 55,042 | 81,709 | 108,292 |
| Lines of TS tests | 20,752 | 24,442 | 33,397 |
| Total lines of TS Code | 75,794 | 106,151 | 141,689 (14 books) |
| Suggestions done | 219 | 268 | 336 |
| Team size | 4 | 7 | 12 |
This leads to different kinds of comparisons:
| Category | Jan 2021 | Jan 2022 | Jan 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lines of code per user | 0.26 | 0.14 | 0.06 |
| Years of game time per resolved suggestion | 2.1 | 10.9 | 9.9 |
| Days of game time for each line of code | 2.2 | 1.8 | 1.7 |
This shows that making changes, improving things, and fixing even small annoyances in the game is worth it. - Kovarex
Colonist Social Stats:
| Category | Jan 2020 | Jan 2021 | Jan 2022 | Jan 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discord Members | ~2,000 | 18,489 | 15,017 | 23,858 |
| r/Colonist Members | 36 | 574 | 1,034 | 1,533 |
| Twitter Followers | ~50 | 292 | 476 | 692 |
| Instagram Followers | ~50 | 325 | 2,432 | 2,440 |
| Youtube Subscribers | 16 | 72 | 941 | 987 |
| Twitch Followers | 0 | 400 | 757 | 1,300 |
We received overwhelming support from the community, including assistance with organizing tournaments, identifying bugs, and providing general support.
Colonist Community Stats:
| Category | Jan 2020 | Jan 2021 | Jan 2022 | Jan 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| r/Catan Members | 22,718 | 34,584 | 44,055 | 65,087 |
| DyLighted - Catan | 1,820 | 24,000 | 45,600 | 58,900 |
| DyLighted Plays Catan | - | - | - | 8,140 |
| ThePhantomCatan | - | - | - | 3,740 |
| Treeckosaurus Gaming | 429 | 1,800 | 2,710 | 3,290 |
| Spathy | - | - | 519 | 3,270 |
| Catan Blunders | - | - | 170 | 1,390 |
| Hakuna Matata - Catan | - | 17 | 424 | 1,120 |
| Elly Catan | - | - | - | 1,020 |
- In 2021, only 3 YouTubers had more than 1,000 subscribers and the first 2 Colonist/Catan YouTubers made it their full-time job.
- In 2022, 8 Colonist YouTubers have more than 1,000 subscribers, and more talented creators enter the space each week.
- Coolest thing that happened this year: Adam proposed to Zoe during a Colonist game! Read here: The Trade of a Lifetime
2023 Plans:
Here is our public to-do list. While we will not ignore feature requests made by current players, our primary focus this year will be on expanding our player base.
Some of the ways we plan to do this is:
- Launching on new platforms such as mobile
- Translating game into multiple languages
- UX improvements
- Trade system improvements
- Game performance improvements
Want to help us accomplish these goals? We're looking to increase the size of our team, join Colonist now!