My blog in 2020 – analysis

Again, as at the beginning of 2019, I would like to look back at my blog and analyze the previous year. That was a crazy time of pandemic and thus you would see probably in any online medium a surge in usage, views, users, etc. So how did it go? What trends do I observe? Let us see!

Stats

The wordpess.com is really great as far as statistics are concerned. It shows a lot of interesting data based on which I will try to draw some conclusions:

Area	2020	2019	2018
Views	393,948 (+ 430%)	74,683	26,744
Visitors	211,265 (+ 412%)	41,271	14,858
Likes	774 (+ 114%)	362	104
Comments	501 (+ 157%)	195	166

The trend with increase in number of views (~4 times) as well as visitors (also ~4 times) continues. In my opinion, there are couple of reasons for this. First, I started multiple post series last year, which had tremendously good reception – more on this in next section. Another, pretty obvious factor was spread of COVID and resulting lockdowns and social isolation. That forced a lot of people towards the online media.

Still, I think effort put into versatile content, served regularly and in nice graphical form – you know, I always repeat that good picture is worth thousand words – pays back. Of course, all of this would not be possible if not for the Dear Readers, whom I would like to wholeheartedly thank for reading The Boardgames Chronicle!

For sure, repeating the result will be very difficult – but normalizing the situation with the virus and being able to socialize much more face to face is more important. Would be interesting to see how the 2021 unfolds.

My prominent post series

Instead of showing the most viewed posts table, I would like to focus on articles series created in 2020. Surprisingly, the most successful was Gloomhaven strategy-related set, which went over the roof as far as views are concerned! Another successful idea was kindof the ranking presentation of my favorite titles – in My top 3 games… I was discussing favorite wargames, dividing them based on complexity; I also focused on CDGs (Card Driven Games) and had a look into special classification of No-Dice Wargames.

More about bout those both series and links to particular posts below.

Except for those two series – which were responsible for third of all visits to the site – there were couple of other prominent articles. First of all, last year show publication of Imperial Struggle, which very quickly become my favourite game of 2020 – nine articles, including review, various session reports as well as strategies were important addition to all visits.

As you know, I am big fun of picture-rich After Action Reports. I had a chance to play a lot, especially solo or via VASSAL / Tabletop Simulator and some of those articles get a lot of traction, among them, Empire of the Sun – South Pacific scenario, D-Day at Omaha Beach – The First Waves scenario, Versailles 1919 – first impressions from solo variant, Cataclysm – full campaign online, Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul – playing as Romans and many, many more.

My last initiative was to share wit Dear Readers My Passion for History – another set of articles which focus on my history hobby, which is greatly supplemented by the boardgames. I am focusing there on books, movies, video and boardgames, podcasts, YouTube channels or music – all pertaining to some interesting historical epoch or event.

Traffic Sources:

That is another kind of interesting statistic:

The top groups are English-speaking readers, from US, UK and Canada (thank you Dave!). The decision some time ago to go fully international with the blog seems to be a sound one. I have also pretty many readers in Europe – including Germany (thanks Clio!), Spain, France, Italy & Netherlands. It is also encouraging to see so many views from Australia!

However, I had also visits from such exotic places like Belize, Haiti, Palau or Fiji – each 1 entry. It is great to see your blog read all around the world!

Summary /  Comments:

In the end, I am deeply happy with my blog. What I mean by this are not the numbers itself, but the joy and opportunity to express myself and my enthusiasm for the beloved hobby. Chance to share thoughts on game strategies, present session report, create kind of the chronicle of past events.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all readers, subscribers and boardgamers for interest in this blog. Without you I would not have energy to devout so much time to writing. Thank you!

PS. Any suggestions or comments what can I do differently / additionally are welcome!