March of Empires

VS

Elite: Dangerous

March of Empires is a long-running mobile and PC strategy game from Gameloft, first released in 2017. As a free-to-play title from a major studio, it has maintained a modest but steady player base, especially among fans of persistent strategy games. However, being over 6 years old and without major recent expansions, its daily active players are likely much lower than its peak, estimated now at around 15,000. While it offers large-scale multiplayer features typical of strategy MMOs, it falls just short of classic MMO levels of persistent, shared worlds with thousands simultaneously present.

Elite: Dangerous released in 2014 and is maintained by Frontier Developments. It's a persistent online space sim with a dedicated but niche audience, typical of older, complex simulators. Player numbers have declined from launch highs, but a strong core community remains; estimated daily players are around 15,000 based on current trends for similar titles, community activity, and public platform data.