Total number of people globally who've played Doom, ever?

[Ruritanian]

There's an estimate of 10 million who've purchased at least one Doom game.  Is there any estimate on the total number of people who've played any Doom game on any Doom engine, ever (including the shareware version)?

[MFG38]

Getting an accurate figure is a difficult task, but it's at least safe to assume it's in the millions.

[Doomkid]

If the bar is "anyone who played any Doom game for at least 10 minutes or more and thus knows what it is", considering how long Doom games have been around, I'd be stunned if it wasn't in excess of 100 million by now. Many who played the game or were even big fans during the 90's would have passed away since sadly, but I assume we're counting both living and dead Doom players.

[Doom-X-Machina]

Considering how easy it was to pass around and copy floppy disks back in the 90's (and even after everything went to CD), the amount of people who played Doom or had a copy illegally would be astronomical, potentially rivalling the amount of actual legit copies or even exceeding it. Even today it still happens, so trying to even estimate an accurate figure is impossible...

[TenenteZashu]

Probably in the scale of millions but as @Doom-X-Machina said the percentage of players who played/play pirated version is probably even bigger than the ''official'' ones, but if we want to count them as well then it might not be a stretch saying that at least over 100 million people played it

[Biodegradable]

50 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

Many who played the game or were even big fans during the 90's would have passed away since sadly, but I assume we're counting both living and dead Doom players.

 

Looks like Ruritanian's going to have to consult his local Satanic cult to learn some dark magic so he can start resurrecting everyone whoever died in the last 26 years and try not to bore them to death... again, while conducting a survey. Good luck!

[TenenteZashu]

44 minutes ago, Biodegradable said:

 

Looks like Ruritanian's going to have to consult his local Satanic cult to learn some dark magic so he can start resurrecting everyone whoever died in the last 26 years and try not to bore them to death... again, while conducting a survey. Good luck!

in that case i got some friends at the UAC that might be helpful

[spineapple tea]

It's gotta be at least eight.

[Smoothandz]

This is an interesting topic. Considering that DOOM has been ported, re-ported, re-made and everything else in between, the number are hard to imagine. The number of devices that had some form of DOOM is pretty large. (Please add or correct me if I'm wrong)

Computer (of course)

SNES

Sega 32x

Playstation (did it ever get release on the 2 or 3?)

GBA

Jaguar

Xbox (and 360... and the one)

 

I'm sure the list goes on and on. Given that DOOM was available in so many different forms, is it unrealistic to think that over 1 billion people have played it? There was already an estimated 10 million computers with DOOM installed on them... in 1995!!! That was 25 years ago and DOOM is still being discovered by new people. 

[Chip]

I'd say like 50,000,000, at most. 

[NoXion]

I think a billion is definitely too high. Doom is very popular, but not that popular.

[Smoothandz]

@LiT_gam3r @NoXion

Well... now that I think about it... you guys are right. Maybe 1 billion is a little over zealous.

[Thermal Lance]

A lot. And it will only keep increasing with Doom being back on the mainstream radar.

[Smoothandz]

Not to divert from the main topic, but this topic has tickled my curiosity. Follow me here...

 

As I stated before, DOOM has been ported to many different platforms. 

 

So that brings me to a question. Is DOOM in 1st place for a video game on the most number of devices? Or is there a game that has beaten it? Maybe Tetris? Or even Solitaire? 

[HombreSal]

Christian people are essentially playing Doom without firing a single shot every day.

 

Take that, Zero Master!

[NoXion]

I think Tetris has been "officially" ported to more platforms, but I think more refrigerators and printers have had Doom installed on them than they've had Tetris installed on them.

[Chip]

Somehow a game I've never heard of called CrossFire is the most played game of all time, and Wikipedia estimates DOOM having been played by 15 million.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-played_video_games_by_player_count

[Ruritanian]

27 minutes ago, LiT_gam3r said:

Somehow a game I've never heard of called CrossFire is the most played game of all time, and Wikipedia estimates DOOM having been played by 15 million.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-played_video_games_by_player_count

 

15M seems like a serious underestimate.

[Endless]

Pretty sure we'll never know exactly, but it is def on the millions. Doom was extremely popular during the 90s, during a time that the gamimg market was still mostly focused on Consoles (I actually believe Doom helped increase PC popularity). Now, after almost 3 decades, I'm pretty sure Doom has been played by at least 50 million people, probably even more, counting pirate copies.

[Smoothandz]

20 minutes ago, Ruritanian said:

 

15M seems like a serious underestimate.

 

 I'd have to agree. 15M seems way to low. Just like we said, DOOM was estimated to be installed on 10M computer in 1995. Seriously lowball it that half of those computers are shared with at least one other person. (And assuming all of those computers at least one person is playing the installed DOOM game) That's 15M people at least playing DOOM once... and that's in 1995. 

 

51 minutes ago, LiT_gam3r said:

Somehow a game I've never heard of called CrossFire is the most played game of all time, and Wikipedia estimates DOOM having been played by 15 million.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-played_video_games_by_player_count

 

Ummmmm..... I have not heard of Crossfire either, but for some reason that games has 1B plays?!?! How large is the rock I live under? XD

[The_MártonJános]

When I clicked on this topic, the last reply was by @Endless which I consider slightly ironic, yet accurate.

[Worm318]

1 hour ago, LiT_gam3r said:

Somehow a game I've never heard of called CrossFire is the most played game of all time, and Wikipedia estimates DOOM having been played by 15 million.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-played_video_games_by_player_count

The 15 million figure in that Wikipedia article comes from a 2006 book that cites Masters of Doom, and it's an estimation of the number of downloads for the shareware version. So that number doesn't count those that bought any of the official games, that got the shareware version by other means and that pirated any of the commercial versions.

Btw, CrossFire is one of those games that apparently are really popular on the other side of the globe. From Wikipedia:
 

Quote

 

CrossFire is an online tactical first-person shooter for Microsoft Windows developed by Smilegate Entertainment.

Due to its popularity in Asia, especially China and South Korea, it has become the world's most-played video game by player count, with a lifetime total of 1 billion users in 80 countries worldwide. It was the world's top-grossing online game as of 2014, and went on to become one of the highest-grossing video games of all time, having grossed over $10 billion in lifetime revenue, as of 2018.

 

 

[Smoothandz]

4 hours ago, NoXion said:

I think Tetris has been "officially" ported to more platforms, but I think more refrigerators and printers have had Doom installed on them than they've had Tetris installed on them.

 

I would be interested in seeing a "master" list of all devices that DOOM has been played on. Though I would like to see the list make two distinctions. 

1: Bear minimum, one level of DOOM. Incomplete map set.

2: Full Game. To qualify it must be a full version of DOOM or DOOM 2.   

[Chip]

Wait, are we including calculator DOOM?!

[Smoothandz]

7 minutes ago, LiT_gam3r said:

Wait, are we including calculator DOOM?!

 

Hell yeah! Calculators, cameras, refrigerators, hell I bet there is a smart toilet with a screen that could run DOOM.  

[D4NUK1]

The more ports of Doom we do, the strongers th numbers of fans will be.

[Dr. Toboggan]

15, 16, maybe more

[spineapple tea]

How about we just do it the simple way. If you've played Doom, raise your hand.

[Smoothandz]

[kalaeth]

2 hours ago, N1ck said:

How about we just do it the simple way. If you've played Doom, raise your hand.

by a statistic I just did, about 99.9% of the world population as played doom.

 

the statistical universe of this poll was the doomworld forums and my girlfriend.