So, over the last few months I had been getting very frustrated by map rotation. I felt like I was seeing the same maps over and over, without seeing much variety. This did not help as the maps I was seeing most often were some of my least favourite maps to play on.
HOWEVER, was I actually seeing the same disliked maps as often as I thought? Or was it confirmation bias? so I decided to actually start counting every single map I played on in GRB to find out.
LIMITATIONS AND NOTES
-I have continued to play the game as normal while counting. I havent stuck to a single BR range or nation, or anything. So this list includes games played all the way from ~3.7 all the way up to top tier. However the highest number of games played were in both the ~6.0-7.0 region, and then the ~9.0-10.0 region. Other BR ranges did fill up the blanks though - I am aware that some maps I’ll only find right at top tier, so expect those maps such as Pradesh and Red Desert to have a much lower play rate than if you were only playing at top tier.
for simplicities sake, I’ve only counted the map itself. Not different game modes. If the physical map area is the same, I have counted it even if its battle instead of conquest, or if its only a single cap. Otherwise it would have been far more difficult and complicated to track, and I couldnt be bothered. Plus if a player gets the same map 3 times in a row, I don’t think they normally care if its a battle mode instead of conquest this time.
However, for version of maps where the actual map area changes dramatically, in a way that actually changes how you can play on the map I have included it as a different map - For example, Poland vs Fields of Poland I counted as different maps, as gameplay is different between them. If theres a map listed that only has one version counted, assume I only played on one version and didn’t play on the different layout.
-Snow versions of the same maps are not counted as different maps, because gameplay is otherwise identical. The colour of the ground is just different.
-I figured 200 games was a big enough sample size to see some patterns, but I may continue to gather data. Also, it took a while to do this - I started counting in early september, but haven’t been playing as often lately (mainly due to BF6 release) so It has gone through the last patch cycle into the current patch.
-I have Seversk 13 banned, so it will not appear on this list. The reason it is banned is because I found that it was so incredibly common to be placed on that map that I got sick of playing on it and wanted something else. I’ve had it banned for probably 2 years now. I probably should have unbanned it for this test to confirm whether that is actually the case, but oh well.
The Data
Here is the table below:
-Column A is the map name, Column B is the number of games played, and Column C is the Percentage of the total 200 games it accounts for.
I have colour coded it by the “Type” of map that it is in my opinion:
Red - Primarily city based, or Close quarters based. Requiring lots of playing around buildings or corner/“peek-a-boo” fights. Few or no options for long range combat or terrain based cover.
Green - Primarily longer range, terrain based maps. Less buildings, more using hills, dips, bushes/trees for cover or concealment. Primarily maps where point blank or close quarters fighting is uncommon.
Yellow - A mix between the two. Maps that have options for both styles of play, or maps that kind of don’t really fit into either category, and are more “mid range” maps.
Observations:
So, Abandoned factory was clearly the most common map I played. I would consistently get this map at least once a game session, regardless of BR. there were only a few sessions I played where I did not get this map. It accounts for 6.5% of the games I played.
Suprisingly to me, Sinai was actually #2. I did not expect this, as Sinai was one of the maps I do enjoy more often than not - Note, this is the small Sinai, not the large Sands of Sinai.
Abandoned town was #3, but this one is a bit of an interesting one. I was getting put on it CONSTANTLY for the first ~130ish games, to the point where it was #1 by far. In fact, how often I was getting put on this map is what caused me to even start counting in the first place (because its one of my least favourite maps). And then it just… stopped, completely. I didn’t get it at all in the last ~50 games i played.
4th is Tunisia. I was suprised about this as well, most of the games on this map were actually when I was playing in the ~9.0-10.0 range - I was grinding France. But again, It suddenly just stopped in the last 50ish games, and vanished from rotation.
Maginot Line was similar as well actually, got it a bunch early on and then it stopped - I should also note that the first ~150 games were played on a much shorter time scale than the last ~50, which took probably more time to play than the first 150. Which may be an explanation or a clue into some of the peculiarities I noticed.
Opinions:
The combination of Abandoned Town, Tunisia, and Maginot doing this makes me wonder if possibly there is something like a queue of maps that get selected maybe on a weekly basis or something, and they appear more often than others, maybe to help save resources on the servers or something so less maps have to be cached. No idea, I’m just spitballing.
Also I should say - I am very much a long range player. the more city focused a map is, the more likely i am to dislike it. I believed that I was getting city maps much more often than more open maps, however I played 75 games on city focused maps, 87 on field focused maps, and 41 on mixed maps, so the ratio is much more even than I believed - showing that there definitely is a bit of conformation bias going on here. When I get a map I dislike, I’m more likely to remember it than when I get a map I do like. Making it seem like I’m getting more maps I dislike than maps i like.
That said, My 10 least favourite maps on the list, I played 59 games on. and my 10 most favourite, I played only 42. In fact what i’d consider my two most favourite maps: Flanders and Fields of Normandy, I only played on four times. Meanwhile my absolute least favourite maps, being Breslau and American desert, I played 9 times.
Maps Missing entirely from this list are Seversk 13 (banned), Red Desert, Large Volo, (both top tier only maps) 38th Parallel (wait really?) Fire Arc, Karelia, Port Novo, and Arctic Polar Base. That is 7 unbanned maps that I did not play on in 200 games, 5 if you discount the top tier maps. There are also some sub versions of other maps missing - like some of the versions in different areas of Hurtegen forest.
Anyway, thoughts, opinions? experiences? I may or may not continue to count just to see if the data changes or the trends continue. I’m not sure yet. Maybe once the BF6 addiction wears off lol.