The Boardgames Chronicle in 2023 – analysis

Following the last years’ example, I am going to look back at The Boardgames Chronicle performance – this time not Blog only, as there were much more activities, including You Tube Channel as well as cooperation with Cube4Me.

Looking back at 2023, we all known these were uneasy and turbulent times, with conflicts all over the world and things we deemed as certain questioned by many. What one might expect, is that this of course had a definite impact on behavioral patterns, especially in online media. So how did it go? What trends can we observe? Let us see!

BLOG

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	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Views	26,744	74,683	393,948	487,253	446,883	450,568
Visitors	14,858	41,271	211,265	253,953	242,778	250’025
Likes	104	362	774	973	1005	980
Comments	166	195	501	509	448	547

I am glad to see that the number of views as well as visitors stays on pretty decent level, slightly higher than in 2022. Sometimes achieving your goal might be easier than maintain it! Also engagement (comments) is something which is very important for me – I am trying to respond to all of them and usually succeed!

What is evident for me, is fact that after the heavy pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 it is much harder to catch the readers attention – in the world where the data and information is produced in quantities never before achievable, span of focus is measured in seconds rather than hours or even minutes.

My prominent post series

Before we shall go to the post series analysis (below) let me make first one completely unexpected and probably unbelievable statement: the most popular post in 2023 on The Boardgames Chronicle blog was not written by me! Yes, no joking! What was it? Review for the game QuiSi, authored by my wife, which achieved 16’875 views! Who would expect I have such a hidden talent at my home!

Let me now – instead of showing the most viewed posts table – focus on the articles series created or continued in 2023 – I think such thematic-centered approach will be much more interesting, comparing “apples to apples”.

Another year in a row, the most successful was Gloomhaven & Frosthaven strategy-related set, which went over the roof as far as views are concerned. I also continued with My top 3 games… series – a ranking of titles in particular category I know and love to play.

More about those two series and links to particular posts below:

Except for those two series – which were responsible for huge part of all the visits to the site – there were couple of other prominent efforts. Firstly, The Boardgames Chronicle started to be a platform, where other content creators, designer, players and developers share their articles. I am so glad from the cooperation with Volko, Christophe, and Carlos as well as Keith & Matt. And here some of the best outcomes of this cooperation:

• Plantagenet – War of the Roses replay: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (by Christophe)
• “Libertadores del Sur” game introduction (by Keith & Matt)
• The Other Side of the Hill – Thoughts from Volko Ruhnke (of course by Volko)
• Interview with Carlos Márquez, designer of The Other Side of the Hill (by Carlos)

Last but not least, I wrote couple of long-overdue REVIEWs for my all-time favorite games, among them:

• Pacific War – I discovered that Mark Herman classic only with reprint but managed to already play it multiple times; thus review – although Strategy scenario still in front of me 🙂
• Commands & Colors Napoleonics – incredible that I have not created a review earlier for that great title.
• Great Battles of Julius Caesar: Deluxe Edition – can’t get enough of those great battles!
• Enemy Action: Kharkov – a true masterpiece from the John Butterfield, master of the card-driven solo games
• Memoir’44 – another long overdue article for one of the first Commands Colors titles

Traffic Sources:

Let us have a look at another of interesting statistic – traffic sources:

This is not surprising: as in previous years, the top group are the English-speaking readers, from US & UK & Canada. Thank you guys! Of course, quite a large group reads the posts locally, in Poland. On top of this, I have also pretty broad audience in Europe – including Germany (thanks Clio!), Spain, France, Italy & Netherlands. It is also encouraging to see so many views from Australia.

Of course, each and every entry to the site brings joy, even from such distant places like Cook Islands, Vanuatu or Marshall Islands. It is great to see your blog read all around the world!

YouTube Channel

That was definitely one of the focus areas for me last year. I love talking about games, showing them, playing them and reporting – also via video format. The growth was nice, both in views and watch time of about 20-25%%. I also hit the magic 2000 Subscribers barrier – which proves that this focus was worth the effort.

And what was the best – in terms of views and likes – content created? You would not be surprised – some of my favorite wargames! Just have a look at those interesting titles:

This year I am going to continue my YouTube experiments – with different types of videos and materials; it will always be a supportive effort to blog, but I admit – giving me a lot of satisfaction too!

Cooperation with Cube4Me

Another area I am truly proud of. Poland based blogger and 18XX fan who runs the games components shop combined their efforts to create a unique product – tailor made, verified on the real products, storage sets and solutions. It took a lot of effort and time investment but the satisfaction is great – and I truly hope you guys also benefit from those great solutions!

You can find their great sets always here:

• https://cube4me.com/product-category/wargames-sets/

Summary /  Comments:

It was a good, versatile year for me as a content creator. Running blog, YouTube channel, Storage Solutions enterprise, trip to Essen Fair where I could meet Clio, Wolfgang and Uwe, and many, many more smaller events, ideas and plans. I am really satisfied and glad. What is most important, I still have time to play boardgames 🙂

Also, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the Dear Readers, Subscribers, Players, Content Creators, Designer – to everybody who contributes to our hobby and finds The Boardgames Chronicle content worth spending time with. Thank you – without your support I would definitely not have so much energy continue with what I am doing!

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