Top Five Most Viewed Posts by Year

If you’ve been blogging for a while, it can be informative and fun to trawl through your statistical data. A common refrain from bloggers is that the post that they consider their best work is often the least read and that it’s the throwaway posts or articles written on a whim that find an audience. Both Wilhelm Arcturus and Belghast have analysed their website data and listed their respective top five most viewed posts by year. Having been writing for a comparable amount of time to these well known community figures, I thought I’d follow suit. Because I moved hosts to Squarespace and effectively started from scratch in August 2015 this will have to be my starting point. Although I exported all my content from my former hosted WordPress site, I have little statistical data. However, the six year period covered reveals some interesting details about what posts prove popular.

2015: 

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Extended Edition (2014)

2. LOTRO Update 17 Beta

3. Have MMOs Made Me Antisocial?

4. LOTRO World Transfers

5. Re-evaluating my Relationship with Twitter

Posts on the MMORPG genre have always been a mainstay of my blogging. I’ve commented upon The Lord of the Rings Online since 2008 so it’s no surprise that such posts show in the top five for this year. I am curious about the Twitter related post although I seem to recollect this being linked to by another site. As for The Hobbit movie post, the franchise ran from 2012- 2014 with the extended editions being released a year after the theatrical versions. So as this post details what extra footage features in the longer version of the film, it makes sense being the most popular post of the year.

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2016:

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Extended Edition (2014)

2. Space: 1999 (1975-77)

3. Blessing of the Valar

4. Dawn of the Dead: The Extended Mall Hours Cut (1978)

5. LOTRO – Update 17.2 Adds New Quests in Minas Tirith

Again LOTRO features in the top five posts. This was the year that Standing Stone Games separated itself from developers Turbine. The movie review of Dawn of the Dead is actually of an obscure fan edit which tries to recreate the initial work print. It combines all the footage from George Romero’s Director’s Cut and the European version edited by Dario Argento. And it would appear the writing about vintage TV shows can also reach a wide audience. Again I think this post was linked to by a Gerry Anderson fan site, which explains how it got such traffic.

2017:

1. The Silmarillion Movie

2. Dawn of the Dead: The Extended Mall Hours Cut (1978)

3. To Grind or Not to Grind?

4. The Average LOTRO Player

5. Star Trek Online: Season 12 and the 7th Anniversary

 The post about a potential Silmarillion Movie, stemmed from speculation as to what Peter Jackson’s next project would be after The Hobbit Trilogy. By now a trend is apparent. Film reviews and movie related content has far greater longevity than gaming related posts. It also fares well with Google and my posts can turn up in the first two pages of search results. The Star Trek Online post reflects the fact that so much data regarding the game is generated in the official subreddit. There aren’t that many STO blogs that I know of, so I assume this is why this post got so much traffic. 

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2018:

1. The Silmarillion Movie

2. Alik’r Desert Dolmen Farming

3. Dawn of the Dead: The Extended Mall Hours Cut (1978)

4. LOTRO: Update 23 Preview

5. Levelling and Gear Progression in ESO

 I started playing The Elder Scrolls Online for the first time since the beta in 2018 and therefore wrote a few posts about subjects that didn’t seem to be covered elsewhere. Dolmen farming is a common practise in the game so this simple guide was obviously in the right place at the right time. The disposable nature of gear prior to reaching level cap in ESO bothered me. I guess it bothered others too. Providing a summary of content on the LOTRO test servers always generates web traffic. So many people don’t want to have to install a second version of the game. 

2019:

1. Alik’r Desert Dolmen Farming

2. World War Z Unrated Cut (2013)

3. Stout-Axe Dwarves and Race Changes Coming to LOTRO

4. Stout-Axe Dwarf Preview

5. Dawn of the Dead: The Extended Mall Hours Cut (1978)

 By last year I was fully aware of what “works” best on Contains Moderate Peril. The review of the “unrated” version of World War Z catalogues all the additional footage. It’s hardly surprising that people want to know, as the theatrical version was rated PG-13. An odd choice for a zombie movie. And once again anything that informs LOTRO players about what new content is coming up does well. Perhaps I can claim a marketing allowance from SSG? That ESO post is back again. I suspect it will stay there.

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 2020:

1. World War Z Unrated Cut (2013)

2. Alik’r Desert Dolmen Farming

3. Creating Alts and Copying Settings in ESO

4. Dawn of the Dead: The Extended Mall Hours Cut (1978)

5. Star Trek Online: The Admiralty System and Farming Dilithium

 Obviously the top five for 2020 is not a full year (neither was 2015) but it clearly shows what content gets the most traction with readers. Over 50% of all my web traffic is from Google searches. Mainly movie reviews. Gamers also like guides. Provide them with simple clear instructions that tell them what to do and ensure there’s some pictures and you may have a winning formula. I write about a range of subjects, the scope of which gets wider every year. Although those posts get read, they do not get the sort of numbers as the film reviews and simple guides. I’m certainly not going to change the focus of my writing because of the data presented here. However, I have decided to write an ongoing tips and hints post for Star Trek Online as I do feel it will connect with an audience. I’ll make no bones about it. I write primarily for myself but I do enjoy the fact that my content finds readers.