2023 in Review - Website Stats and Updates
I usually look forward to writing my yearly review articles in the quiet days at the end of the year, to recap my TMQ-achievements and accomplishments. I’m going to be honest and admit that this time around, I’ve been dreading it quite a bit, due to my recent inactivity. With a few days’ delay though, let’s have a look at the numbers:
Traffic Sources: Search: 65% | Direct: 24% | Social: 8% | Referral: 2% | Email: 0.01%
The numbers for 2023 aren’t exactly impressive, but I am actually positively surprised: In the second half of the year, I’ve barely managed to publish one small news article. It’s the least activity TMQ has seen since its launch. Taking that into consideration, the yearly totals of articles published, pageviews and unique visitors aren’t actually that bad.
Search traffic makes up for about two thirds of the site’s visitors, and my Best Horse Games articles in particular are reliable in leading users to TMQ without further effort, along with the occasional little spike whenever the Very Far Away Horse meme gets posted somewhere again.
The usual statistics:
In 2023, The Mane Quest was visited by about 134’000 people, resulting in 222’000 page views
In its total lifetime since Fall 2018, the site has had about 728’000 unique visitors and 1’300’000 page views
Between 8'000 and 16’000 people visit The Mane Quest every month. April, May and October were the strongest months this year, with February, August and September being rather quiet.
The single day with the most traffic this year was May 4th, when I shared my Ghost of Tsushima review in this Reddit thread. With about 2.5k page views, that’s a much more humble spike than I got in other years, as you can see in the table above.
This past year, 41% percent of TMQ’s traffic came from the USA. The UK made up for about 9.5%, followed by Germany, Canada and Australia at 6%, 5% and 4% of all traffic respectively. My home country of Switzerland sits at rank 21, making up 0.82% of TMQ’s visits.
The TMQ Community has kept growing this year: Our Facebook group has more than doubled in users, with almost 19’000 members now. The Discord server is slower to grow and we don’t advertise it as much, so that remains at about 1400 members. The GamesWithHorses subreddit is also up to about 1400 subscribers nowadays. My eternal gratitude to Kalma, Agent, Cutty and Bee for helping me moderate these spaces.
I’d usually include some insight on the gender and age of my user base, but due to some changes in Google Analytics, I either don’t have this data or haven’t figured out how to view it. Welp.
Top 10 Articles of all time, by page views
Best Horse Games 2019 (135k)
Best Horse Games 2022 (130k)
Red Dead Dressage (55k)
Windstorm 2 Review (20k)
Wildshade Announcement (18.7k)
Alicia Online Review (18.3k)
Top 10 Articles in 2023, by page views
Best Horse Games 2022 (37k)
Red Dead Dressage (6.6k)
Ghost of Tsushima Review (5.3k)
Windstorm 2 Review (4.4k)
Rival Stars Update (4.2k)
Top 10 Search Keywords in 2023 (clicks, impressions)
horse games (4.5k Clk., 216k Imp.)
horse games pc (3.5k Clk, 26.1 k Imp.)
the mane quest (1.9k Clk, 5.1k Imp.)
very far away horse (1.8k Clk, 13.5k Imp.)
best horse games (1.6k Clk, 12.9 k Imp.)
star equestrian (0.7k Clk., 32k Imp.)
horse life simulator (0.5k Clk., 6.1k Imp.)
alicia online (0.3k Clk., 61.2k Imp.)
horse isle 3 (0.3k Clk., 21k Imp.)
horse riding games (0.2k Clk., 11.7k Imp.)
Top 10 Referral Traffic Sources
Facebook
Reddit
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
Yandex.ru
Wasted.de
Search.brave.com
Steam
PC Gamer
Reflections
The TMQ yearly review is usually an opportunity to look back onto my achievements for the year, to recap what I’m proud of and tell you about what’s in store for the near future. This time around, there’s unfortunately a lot less of that than I’d like there to be.
I started 2023 with every intention to dedicate more time to this website, and I managed that quite well for the first few months of the year. I am quite proud of several articles from early 2023, most notably my deep dive into chariot racing with Noa Leibson, my preview of The Ranch of Rivershine, the Star Equestrian launch review and dev feature and my Ghost of Tsushima review in May.
In the second half of the year though, it’s been more quiet on the site than it ever has been since its launch over five years ago. There are multiple reasons for that. To put it very briefly, there were other things that took up so much of my energy that I didn’t get around to horse game coverage in between them. My job at Aesir remains one of them - I love the opportunities this job gives me, but it also puts me under a lot of pressure that I struggle to deal with. My recent election as president of the Swiss Game Developers’ Association SGDA is another, since those efforts eat directly into what would otherwise be my “TMQ time”.
In Summer and Fall this year, it’s become increasingly clear that I cannot, in fact, simply will my way through everything I want to do and have it work out somehow. The constant stress of the past three years – part external, part self-induced – is taking its toll on me. What exactly that means for me, my career, my general wellbeing, my future and my priorities is something I am still in the middle of figuring out. The questions of how do I go forward and how do I engage with what I’m passionate about in a sustainable way are unanswered as of writing this. I will therefore not end this year with any promises for what’s to come – my passion for this subject matter remains unwavering, but my energy and capacity is finite, and I need to carefully decide what I prioritize. Thank you for your patience while I proceed to figure my out my proverbial shit. We’ll get there. If nothing else, I am filled with determination.
All I can promise is that The Mane Quest remains as dear to my heart as it has been every since it started.
As of October 23rd 2023, The Mane Quest is five years old! A little throwback, if you weren’t following the page yet at the time: The featured articles at launch were an Alicia Online review, an announcement for two new horse games by Independent Arts Software, a dev interview about horses in the 3D Platformer Clive N Wrench, and an analysis about the terms “horse games” vs “horses in games”. Looking back at old articles, I am incredibly heartened by how far this project has come and how much impact my work has had on our little niche.
Thank you all for being here. Here’s to the next five years. 🥂