18xx Big Data Statistics for 2021

Which 18xx games were the most played last year? Which was the least popular title? We’ve checked hundreds of pages for you and we collected some interesting results. I love such information and I couldn’t wait for the result.

I only considered games released in a large volume. I took a closer look at a lot of data from BGG. How many people have a given game in their collection and games played last year. I know these are not perfect statistics. Based on the amount of volume I know and the number of titles listed by players, I estimate that 35-50% of games sold are registered on BGG. This only applies to 18xx, because games available in stationery stores have a much worse result. A certain part of BGG users register there each game played, and thanks to this, we were able to develop the following list.

A lot of the games are available on 18xx.games and while preparing this list I noticed that some of my friends played a really large number of games this way. Therefore, games that can be played online definitely increase their score. In this way, 18Mag, which has only recently reached its supporters, wins the statistics in terms of the number of games played vs. the number of copies that BGG users have.

Let’s get down to details, on the first place there is undisputedly 1846: The Race for the Midwest. The game was released in large volume in 2016, it is in the collection of over 3,700 people. Last year this game was played 2,992 times!

Other top 10 games:

  • 1846: The Race for the Midwest – 2992 plays
  • 18Chesapeake – 1841 plays
  • 1830: Railways & Robber Barons – 1749 plays
  • 1849: The Game of Sicilian Railways – 1492 plays
  • 1882: Assiniboia – 1154 plays
  • 1861/1867 Railways of Russia / Canada – 1104 plays
  • 1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties – 1025 plays
  • 1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight – 976 plays
  • Shikoku 1889 – 950 plays
  • 1817 – 783 plays

You can see that the titles published a long time ago (20 years and more) are not doing so well anymore (the exception is 1830). Despite the fact that each of the following games is in the collection of 1000 users, the number of games played is very small:

  • 1870: Railroading across the Trans Mississippi from 1870 – 243 plays
  • 1856: Railroading in Upper Canada from 1856 – 160 plays
  • 1835 – 20 plays

In our ranking, the worst result was achieved by 1883: Building Railroads in Northern Italy. This title was only on the list of 2 players in 2021! The recently published 1844/1854, but also 18West, 1824: Austrian-Hungarian Railway and 18NewEngland also had poor results. You can see that some titles are not so popular compared to others.

  • 18NewEngland – 96 plays
  • 1824: Austrian-Hungarian Railway – 89 plays
  • 18West – 54 plays
  • 1844/1854 – 33 plays
  • 1835 – 20 plays
  • 1883: Building Railroads in Northern Italy – 2 plays
 

We will get interesting results when we compare the number of games played last year in relation to the number of games among players. First place is 1882: Assiniboia with a score of 1.8 This index means that each copy was played almost twice last year. Of course, some of them were online, but we can’t say exactly how many. The result of more than 0.5 can still boast of:

  • 1882: Assiniboia – 1.8
  • 1849: The Game of Sicilian Railways – 1.36
  • 18MS: The Railroads Come to Mississippi – 1.08
  • 1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight – 0.98
  • 18Chesapeake – 0.92
  • Shikoku, 1889 – 0.86
  • 1861/1867 Railways of Russia / Canada – 0.85
  • 1817 – 0.84
  • 18MEX – 0.84
  • 1846: The Race for the Midwest – 0.81
  • 1840: Vienna Tramways – 0.7 
  • 1822: The Railways of Great Britain – 0.69
  • 18Ireland – 0.66

18MS is a big surprise for me, it had relatively many games (248) compared to the number of people owning this game (229). At the end of this list, there are 1883 (again) and 1835. I removed 18Mag: Hungarian Railway History from this list because it was not added to the games collection by most players yet.

We will get the most interesting result when we display the statistics on the chart. Then you can see that the game results greatly improve the presence on 18xx.games!

 
 
 

Summary: you can see that on the top there are relatively short-lasting titles that can be played during one evening. I am happy with the result of 1817, despite the long playing time, it was in the top 10. I feel sorry for some good titles, such as 1883, but I understand the players because we do not come back to it ourselves. The reason is quite prosaic here, the rulebook was read by Elemele only, with whom we have rarely met recently.

Full data:
1846: The Race for the Midwest – 2992 plays [3700 owners]
18Chesapeake – 1841 plays [2000 owners]
1830: Railways & Robber Barons – 1749 plays [7600 owners]
1849: The Game of Sicilian Railways – 1492 plays [1100 owners]
1882: Assiniboia – 1154 plays [640 owners]
1861/1867 Railways of Russia/Canada – 1104 plays [1300 owners]
1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties – 1025 plays [2200 owners]
1860: Railways on the Isle of Wight – 976 plays [1000 owners]
Shikoku 1889 – 950 plays [1100 owners]
1817 – 783 plays [931 owners]
1822: The Railways of Great Britain – 687 plays [1000 owners]
18MEX – 654 plays [779 owners]
18CZ – 316 plays [1300 owners]
18Ireland – 310 plays [472 owners]
18Mag: Hungarian Railway History – 300 plays [149 owners]
1840: Vienna Tramways – 280 plays [400 owners]
1828 – 263 plays [115 owners]
18MS: The Railroads Come to Mississippi – 248 plays [229 owners]
1870: Railroading across the Trans Mississippi from 1870 – 243 plays [1500 owners]
1856: Railroading in Upper Canada from 1856 – 160 plays [1700 owners]
1822MX – 141 plays [401 owners]
1848: Australia – 107 plays [529 owners]
18NewEngland – 96 plays [292 owners]
1841: Railways in Northern Italy – 95 plays [333 owners]
18AL – 90 plays [740 owners]
1880: China – 89 plays [372 owners]
1824: Austrian-Hungarian Railway (Second Edition) – 89 plays [804 owners]
18DO: Dortmund – 88 plays [445 owners]
18West – 54 plays [253 owners]
18Scan – 50 plays [252 owners]
18GA – 41 plays [271 owners]
18EU – 39 plays [429 owners]
18OE: On the Rails of the Orient Express – 36 plays [594 owners]
1844/1854 – 33 plays [1300 owners]
1825 Unit 2 – 24 plays [354 owners]
1825 Unit 1 – 21 plays [486 owners]
1835 – 20 plays [1300 owners]
1829 – 18 plays [423 owners]
2038: Tycoons of the Asteroid Belt – 17 plays [824 owners]
1825 Unit 3 – 16 plays [326 owners]
Ur: 1830 BC – 14 plays [679 owners]
1865: Sardinia – 12 plays [299 owners]
1829 Mainline – 5 plays [230 owners]
1883: Building Railroads in Northern Italy – 2 plays [190 owners]

10 thoughts on “18xx Big Data Statistics for 2021”

  1. Great article! If I knew that this article was coming, I would have given 1883 a couple more games. Really like the game.

  2. The pandemic has probably affected the number of games played online – or at least reduced the number of games played face-to-face. It certainly has for me.

    1. Yes, definitely, which is why the titles available on 18xx.games have these results.

  3. Great statistic !
    2022 would be better with face to face plays but… we don’t know what will be.

  4. Would it be interesting to take into account the game duration? (Nbr of game/mean playing time) It is way more time consuming to play 1817 or 1822 than 1846 or 18chesapeack for example (by a ratio at least 2).

  5. Note that 18Dixie includes 18MS (an older version I believe); that may also contribute to your plays/owners ratio anomaly.

    1. I looks that I missed it, I will update the stats. But I will remove the ones that are in alpha.

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