EVE Online, the popular space MMO, just witnessed its biggest and most precious battle in the game’s history, setting a Guinness World Record. “The Massacre at M2-XFE” cost two of EVE Online’s largest factions an estimated $ 378,012. The battle was part of an ongoing war that spans the entire universe and cost a total of $ 700,000.
On December 31, 2020, 5,000 players collided with EVE’s PAPI and Imperium factions in the game’s M2-XFE region near a “Keepstar” (a sort of oversized space station) when PAPI troops began firing at docked Imperium ships . Earlier in the day, a lone Imperium pilot managed to take out a “cyno-jammer”, allowing the Imperium to bring in additional reinforcements.
The ensuing battle lasted about 14 hours, with both factions losing super-capital ships (the largest kind in the game, roughly the size of seven Empire State buildings) at a relatively even pace. The battle only ended when EVE was scheduled to go offline for maintenance due to downtime.
Of the 1,304 Titan ships that took part in the battle, as many as 257 were destroyed. PAPI forces lost 130 Titans while the Empire lost 122. Of all classes of ships, PAPI lost a total of 1,810 ships, while the Empire lost 1,596.
“This battle is a bit like a poker game where both players gathered a stock of weapons for several years and then went all-in,” said PAPI Member Gobbins. “One side started to escalate the fight to the absolute maximum of their resources, and the other matched. Completely; not just in terms of manpower, but also in the value of the assets pledged. is at stake in a single fight as the losses could undo the years of efforts of thousands of participating players.in this rare case it did indeed happen, triggering the biggest fight we have ever seen, both for the number of players involved and for the number of assets destroyed.
To commemorate the event (and its damage), developer CCP will build an official monument with the names of all players involved in the battle.
The estimated total damage in $ USD is based on how much in-game currency (called PLEX) it would cost to replace each ship. However, a large part of the ships are the result of thousands of man-hours searching for raw materials. The most expensive ship destroyed in the battle, Grencia Mars’ Vanquisher, was estimated to cost $ 5,500 equivalent in $ USD.
Despite the digital bloodshed, the M2-XFE carnage is just one battle amid EVE Online’s ongoing “World War Bee 2,” the game’s third universe-spanning war. More than 130,000 players are still working on in-game territory.
Funnily enough, while M2-XFE is certainly the most expensive battle in EVE history, this is technically only the third biggest battle in terms of player count. EVE’s Battle of FWST-8 clocked in at 6,557 players. The previous record for the most costly USD battle was held by the Battle of B-R5RB, which cost players an estimated $ 302,000.
You can watch a recording of the fight on YouTuber 1adog1.
Joseph Knoop is a writer / producer / support class ship for IGN.