EVE Online, the popular space travel MMO, has just witnessed its biggest and most costly battle in the game’s history, setting a Guinness World Record in the process. “The Massacre at M2-XFE” cost two of the biggest factions of EVE Online an estimated total of $ 378,012. The battle was part of an ongoing war that spanned the universe and cost $ 700,000 in total.
On December 31, 2020, 5,000 players from the EVE PAPI and Imperium factions collided in the game’s M2-XFE region near a “Keepstar” (a kind of extra large space station) when PAPI forces started firing at anchored Imperium ships . Earlier in the day, a lone Imperium pilot managed to disable a “cyno jammer”, allowing the Imperium to bring in additional reinforcements.
The ensuing battle lasted approximately 14 hours, with both factions losing supercapital ships (the largest type in the game, approximately the size of seven Empire State buildings) at a relatively equal rate. The fighting only stopped when EVE was scheduled to go offline for maintenance downtime.
Of the 1,304 Titan ships that participated in the battle, an astonishing 257 of them were destroyed. PAPI forces lost 130 Titans combined, while Imperium lost 122. Among all classes of ships, PAPI lost a total of 1,810 ships, while Imperium lost 1,596.
“This battle is a bit like a poker game in which both players have accumulated weapons for several years and then bet everything,” said PAPI member Gobbins. “One side started to scale the fight to the maximum of its resources, and the other combined in total; not only in terms of labor, but also in the value of the committed assets. It is rare in EVE to see so much at stake in a single fight, as losses can undo years of effort by thousands of participating players. this rare instance actually happened, causing the biggest fight we’ve ever seen, both for the number of players involved and the amount of goods destroyed. Really remarkable. “
To commemorate the event (and the associated damage), an official monument with the names of all players involved in the battle is being built by the developer CCP.
The estimated total damage in $ USD is based on the game currency (called PLEX) that it would cost to replace each ship. Many of the ships, however, are the result of thousands of hours of work in search of resources. The most expensive ship destroyed during the battle, Grencia Mars’ Vanquisher cost about $ 5,500 USD equivalent.
Despite the digital bloodshed, the M2-XFE Massacre is just a battle amid the ongoing “World War Bee 2” of EVE Online, the third war that spans the game universe. More than 130,000 players are still fighting for the game’s territory.
Funny, while M2-XFE is certainly the most expensive battle in EVE’s history, this is technically only the third largest battle in terms of player count. The Battle of EVE’s FWST-8 reached 6,557 players. The previous record for the most expensive US dollar battle was held by the Battle of B-R5RB, which cost players around $ 302,000.
You can check out a recording of the fight on YouTuber 1adog1.
Joseph Knoop is a support class writer / producer / ship for IGN.