On June 18th, 2021, I created the website TwoLinePush.com. The website was dedicated to sharing leaked development secrets and original content surrounding the video game World of Tanks. The initial drive behind its creation was because I was unhappy with other leak-based websites copy/pasting each other’s content and I felt there was a lack of original content from content creators. The website saw roughly five hundred unique visitors per day and about 30,000 impressions. I was proud to keep an up-to-date page of promotional codes for players to return to for in-game goodies. Even a year after stepping away from the game and the website, that page remains the highest visited page by far. The content I was most proud of, however, was the replay analysis I conducted.

After every battle in World of Tanks, a file is saved to your computer which, when opened, replays the battle from your point of view. I put a call out on Reddit for players to send me their replays for statistical analysis and received over 100,000 submissions. A fellow Redditor voluntarily threw together a script to pull the data from the replay file into a .csv, but they stopped responding to my messages soon after, even when I offered compensation for their effort, but it is important to stress I hold no hard feelings towards this individual and am extremely thankful for their support. Unfortunately, no other software was available and I lacked the know-how to write my own. I considered hiring a developer, but being a student, I was on a strict budget so decided against doing so. I had originally planned one or two more publications before returning to the data to scrutinize it further, but I stepped away from the game in July 2022. I was planning to continue working on the analysis, but found I lost the enthusiasm to do so and as I was entering my final year of study in University and was playing other games, decided in November 2022 to officially close the project. The domain name TwoLinePush.com was due for renewal in June 2023 and I decided to allow it to lapse, but to republish the analysis here.

The analysis consisted of five different sections, focusing on a different aspect of the data each time. I have consolodated all six parts (six, as I republished the initial data after a surge in replay submissions) on this page, more or less in their original form, only making changes to acommodate formatting and to remove links and references to the old website. As the analysis assumed an understanding of game-specific terminology, I have included a glossary of terms below for those unfamiliar.

I had no prior experience in presenting data, and on reflection I find it becomes quite repetitive, but the data was fascinating and I would like to do a similar analysis in the future.

Table of Contents (Click to scroll)

Glossary
Part 1: Matchmaking Spread
Part 2: Battle Duration
Part 3: Battle Results
Part 1.5: Matchmaking Spread
Part 4: Vehicle Class
Part 5: Nation

Glossary

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Part 1: Matchmaking Spread

Originally Published December 25, 2021

Many thanks to everyone who sent me their replays for analysis. With over 66,000 replays there is a tremendous amount of data to analyse and it quickly became apparent my replay analysis would require multiple parts. The initial aim was to look at the matchmaking spread, but with the data I have I can expand this to other areas.

What is my aim?

To present the analysed data in a black and white manner: I don’t want to present a statistic and then make an assumption based on the data. It would be all to easy for me to say “this is the data, and this is what it means” when actually, the meaning could boil down to opinion rather than fact.

I would rather present it and allow you to discuss the possible meaning behind data. A prime example of this would be the frequency of the matchmaking spread between EU1 and EU2 servers. With the data I have, it appears if you want to be +2, you are more likely to get it if you play on the EU2 server, but the validity of that claim could (and should!) be scrutinized and discussed. It would not be possible for me to think of everything and I would run the risk of presenting an opinion as fact, which I don’t want to do.

With that said, I will at times pose a question which intended to get that discussion started. 

How does the analyser work?

If you right-click open with notepad a .wotreplay, you see long strings of text – the replay reads this text and sorts it into csv format to be readable. Version 0.3.0 of the analyser reads several different data points:

Incomplete and rogue data

Many replays are incomplete. The most common reason for this is the player left the battle before the battle had ended. As a result, some data points, such as the battle result, duration, and survival are undefined. Also, special events (The Last Waffenträger, Mirny-13 etc.) and team battles may throw the data off. (It is possible to be -5 in a team battle!).

Also, one player sent in ~18,000 replays, mostly played in Tier 10 SPG’s on the NA server.

I have decided against ignoring this data completely, as when grouped with everything else, many elements are still viable. As such, for each data point talked about I’ll be sure to say how many replays were analysed to receive the results – this is why the number of replays analysed may be different when discussing the battle result compared to discussing the average tier of all replays analysed.

How do I define Matchmaking Spread?

There are six possible spreads: -2, -1, -1/+1, =, +1 and +2. At all times during the analysis, -2 means in the replay analysed, the player was bottom tier by two; -1: bottom tier by one; -1/+1: mid tier; =: same tier; +1: top tier by one; and +2: top tier by two. For example, -2 could mean the player was in their Tier 8 vehicle matched with Tier 9’s and 10’s and = could mean the player was in their Tier 6 vehicle matched with only Tier 6’s.

By coincidence, there are six main colors in XVM: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan and Purple. In the infographics, the spreads will be colored the same for continuity: -2: Red, -1: Orange, -1/+1: Yellow, =: Green, +1: Cyan and +2: Purple.

Unique Conditions and filters

In Random Battles, it is not possible for:

• Tier 1 to be +1
• Tier 1, 2, and 3 to be -2, -1/+1, or +2
• Tier 10 to be -1 or -1/+1
• Tier 9 and 10 to be -2

Recon Mission was only available for Tiers 8-10. All recon mission games are excluded from the analysis, unless I am specifically looking at Recon mission, as they have the potential to skew the data (e.g. it is not possible to be -1/+1, +1 or +2 in a Tier 8 in Recon Mission).

Low tiers do not play on every map. Wargaming change the map rotation every so often and don’t shout about it, making it very difficult to separate these games from the data. However, I feel this is not vitally important, as the focus is likely to be on Tier 6 and above.

Reading the data...

Of the 63,555 games...

With a focus on Tier 6 and above:

What data stands out to me?

• Of 3,215 Tier 7 games, only 7 were of equal spread.
• Tier 8 was (almost) equally +1 or +2 and -2 or -1.
• 43% of Tier 8 games were of equal spread.

These statistics are fascinating - be honest, how many times have you sat there complaining that you've been bottom tier every game? The data contradicts this statement!

Reading the data...

Not including Province and Widepark, as they are exclusive to lower tiers...

On all maps, the most common spread was =.

-1/+1 is least common on most maps. The exceptions are:
(The less common spread was:)

Abbey: -2,
Berlin: +2,
Highway: +2,
Kharkiv: +2,
Pearl River: +2, and
Safe Haven: +2.

Reading the data...

• =, +1, and +2 were more frequent on NA than EU and -2, -1 or -1/+1 were less frequent.
• 30.17% of Tier 10 games for NA are +2, but only 13.17% are for EU.
• Tier 8 games were = almost the same between regions (42.62% for EU, 42.16% for NA.)

 

Reading the data...

• Of the 35,679 replays on the EU servers, 20,899 were on EU1 and 14,780 were on EU2.
• More games were =, +1 or +2 on EU2 than EU1 and less were -2, -1 or -1/+1 than EU1.

I would very much like to increase the data size and out of all of the statistics I have discovered in this analysis, this is the one I find most interesting - to the point where I am now routinely playing on EU2 (EU1 was my preferred server simply by habit). I have noticed more top tier games on EU2, but the mere notice of these games is likely influenced by seeing these statistics!

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Part 2: Battle Duration

Originally Published March 18, 2022

Welcome to Part 2 of my Replay Analysis. In this series I am analysing over 66,000 replays sent to me by you. Today we will look at the battle duration.

In Part 1 we looked at the Matchmaking Spread - the spread being your tier vs. the tiers of vehicles which are in the battle: -2 would mean you were bottom tier by 2, a Tier VI in a Tier VIII battle for example, with -1, -1/+1, =, +1 and +2 being self explanatory. There were some very surprising statistics, such as: only 7/3,215 Tier VII battles were of equal spread (Tier VII vehicles only in the battle) and, although it doesn't feel like it at times, an equal spread is actually the most common spread for every map.

Battle duration is probably the easiest data set to understand and to make the results even easier to read I have taken the battle duration, which is presented in seconds, and rounded it to the nearest minute. (e.g: 470/60 ≈ 8). The results are quite fascinating when comparing them against other factors such as the Tier of the vehicle the player was using in the replay, the Map the battle took place on and of course the server and region the player originates from.

An important factor: The Assault game mode has a ten minute battle timer, whereas Encounter and Standard battles have a fifteen minute timer. This report will focus primarily on standard battles, but we'll touch on Assault and Encounter after. It is not possible to know if Assault and Encounter were disabled by the player when they entered the recorded battle, so the proportion of Standard battles to Assault or Encounter battles is not an accurate representation of every day matchmaking.

Due to the new way I am filtering the data (by Standard, Random battles) I will revisit Part 1 and update the data at a later date. The figures won't change significantly, but it will better filter out rouge data such as team training, ranked battles etc. from the data, to provide a much stronger overview of Standard, Random battles.

Of the 66,849 replays, 35,030 had the battle duration data and were Standard Random Battles. 18,159 of these were played on the EU servers and 16,871 on the NA servers. The most common cause for a replay to not have the duration data is if the player left the battle before it ended (i.e. they were eliminated from the battle and returned to the garage without watching to the end). The average battle duration was 7.21 minutes (3 s.f.). Please note that all figures relating to duration in minutes are decimals, and not minutes:seconds - 7.21 minutes is 7 point 21, not 7 minutes and 21 seconds, unless I specifically list both values.

Reading the data...

The most common battle duration was six minutes (23% of all battles) and the least common was three minutes (0.4% of all battles). There were no one or two minute battles. The second and third most common battle duration was seven minutes (19%) and five minutes (18%) respectively. These are of course either side of six minutes. It is common to suggest a five minute simulator, however the results suggest battles run on average a minute or two longer.

Although five, six and seven minute battles were the most common from both EU and NA regions, on average the NA battles were longer (7.45 minutes to 3 s.f.) than those from the EU region (6.98 minutes to 3 s.f.). We can see this in the above diagram with multiple pie charts. Note: The majority of battles on the NA servers were played in SPG's. This may influence the recorded battle duration, as the duration is only recorded in a complete replay. In a later post I will attempt to analyse, or rather exclude, SPG data.

Reading the data...

Of the 35,030 battles:

The average battle duration in minutes for each spread (to 3 s.f.) was:

Looking at these averages and if we transpose the data and rank each row (smallest to largest), we can see minor variation in the spread no matter the length of the battle, suggesting the Matchmaking Spread has very little effect on the duration of the battle:

 

Reading the data...

42.96% of battles were played in a Tier 10 vehicle, 14.49% in a Tier 9, and 22.1% in a Tier 8, whereas only 7.92% of all battles were in Tier 1 to 5. (Tier 1 to 5 have been grouped together in the pie chart above to better visualise Tier 6 to 10).

The average duration in minutes for each Tier (to 3 s.f.) was:

Looking at these averages and if we transpose the data and rank each row (smallest to largest), we can see a slightly wider variation, suggesting the battle will last longer in a higher Tier. (On Average, a Tier 10 battle lasts 0.67 minutes - 40.2 seconds - longer than a Tier 1 battle, and 0.43 minutes - 25.8 seconds - longer than a Tier 8 battle).

Reading the data...

The Range has been tricky for me to define. In fact, I was going to focus on it in this post, but decided in order to do so I needed to redefine it. For the purpose of this post, we are only looking at one aspect (Battle Duration), which is why I have included it. The Range is the number of surviving team members minus the number of surviving enemies. A 15-5 win would have a range of 10, whereas a 7-10 defeat would have a range of -3. It is possible to have a negative range in a win when your team captures the base to win the battle and has less surviving vehicles in the field than the enemy does. The issue I have here is it only approaches it at a surface level: a 15-14 win has a range of 1, but so does a 3-2 win. This is why I need to approach the Range in a different way in the future and is why we are only looking at the table of values for now.

The most common Ranges were +10, +9, -9 and -10 respectively. These were all six minute battles and the most common values surrounded them in terms of Range and Duration, forming some beautiful butterfly visualisation in the statistics. The longer a battle lasted, the less likely it would end in a wipe of the allied or enemy team and more likely it would end with a range of 0. The closer the Range was to 0, the longer the battle lasted.

Reading the data...

The map with the shortest average battle duration was Ensk (4.93 minutes) and the map with the longest average battle duration was Prohorovka (8.98 minutes). Most battles were fought on Mannerheim Line (1,211 battles) and the least frequent map (excluding Safe Haven, as it is a new map, and Province and Widepark, as they are exclusive to lower tiers) was Berlin, with 458 battles.

Note: It is not possible to know which maps each player had on their ban list for each battle. This can skew this data significantly, for example if one person submits 15,000 replays and had the same maps on their ban list for every battle, in those 15,000 battles it is guaranteed (providing they played solo or as the commander in a platoon) not to see those maps. Considering the average frequency of each map (excluding Safe Haven, Province and Widepark for the same reasons as above) was 907, I would say the above scenario is true for Berlin, Empires Border and Pearl River. Looking closer at the statistics on a per-player basis strengthens this theory: Player 23 had 31 battles in Berlin, 68 on Empires border and 34 on Pearl River (out of 11,982) but it is still not possible to see exactly when a map was banned - we can only theorize that the player had them banned (or the commander of their platoon had them banned) for a significant number of their battles.

Reading the data...

Of the 66,849 battles, 3,889 (5.82%) were Random Battle, Encounter. The same butterfly effect can be seen in the heatmap for the range, focused around 5, 6, and 7 minute battles, with Himmelsorf and Ensk being the most common five minute battle.

Of the 66,849 battles, 2,383 (3.56%) were Random Battle, Assault. The same butterfly effect can be seen in the range, but this time it is not primarily surrounding 5, 6, and 7 minute battles. There was more variation in battle duration with Karelia having the most 10 minute battles, but with 6 and 7 minute battles still a strong factor.

In conclusion, we can see that the average Standard Random Battle length was 7.21 minutes (3 s.f.), but was longer for the NA region (7.45 minutes to 3 s.f.) than the EU region (6.98 minutes to 3 s.f.). Matchmaking Spread does not appear to effect the battle duration, however battles lasted on average 40.2 seconds longer at Tier 10 than they did at Tier 1, or 25.8 seconds longer at Tier 10 than they did at Tier 8. The most common ranges (+10, +9, -9 and -10 respectively) all occurred in six minute battles, further strengthening the five minute battle or fifteen to five simulator curse so many people complain about.

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Part 3: Battle Result

Originally Published March 26, 2022

Welcome to Part 3 of my Replay Analysis, where I analyse over 66,000 replays sent to me by you. Today we will focus on the Battle Result.

In Part 1 we looked at the Matchmaking Spread (were you bottom tier by two, by one, or top tier? etc.) and the results showed that equal matchmaking is far more common than we might realise.

In Part 2 we looked at the Battle Duration, visualising perfectly the 5-7 minute games we all love so, so much.

In Part 2 I used a different method to filter the almost two million data points and have found it far more efficient in filtering out rouge data that may skew the results, such as Ranked Battles (only equal spread), Assault games (ten minute timer) and more. It has also made it easier for me to gather the data, so I will return to Part 1 soon and republish it with the updated data set. I'm not expecting the results to change drastically, but it will provide a more accurate understanding of the Matchmaking Spread.

Due to Assault and Encounter battles being optional, and their different battle durations and play-style, this analysis will focus on Random, Standard Battles, but Assault and Encounter will receive honourable mentions at the end.

Of the 66,849 replays submitted, 35,030 were Standard, Random Battles and contained the victory condition data. 18,159 were played on the EU servers (51.84% of all battles) and 16,871 (48.16% of all battles) on the NA servers. The victory rates were 48.96% and 49.89% respectively. North America had the highest draw frequency of 306 (1.81%), even though it had less overall battles.

Most EU battles (31.46% of all battles) were fought on the EU1 server, and for NA (44.13% of all battles), the US Central server. Both servers had a respective 49.92% and 49.84% victory rate. US Central has more than twice as many draw results as EU1 (288 to 116).

Tier 10 was the most popular (42.96% of all battles), 64.15% more Tier 8 (22.10% of all battles) which in turn was 41.61% more than Tier 9 (14.48% of all battles). Ignoring Tier 1-5, Tier 9 had the best victory rate (50.34%), closely followed by Tier 8 (50.27%). No other Tier had more than 50% victories. Tier 10 had more draws than all other Tiers combined (272 to 244).

Equal matchmaking Spread was the most common (37.57% of all battles), with -1 / +1 being the least common (7.43% of all battles). Equal matchmaking had the highest victory rate (50.76%), but +2 matchmaking had the lowest of only 48.97%. It also had the highest draw rate of 1.86%.

A Range of 8, 9, -9 and -8 were the most common (5.76%, 5.70%, 5.56% and 5.54% of all battles respectively). The closer the range to 0, the more likely the battle will result in a draw. The lowest range to achieve a victory was -6, and the highest range to achieve a defeat was 8. The table visualises the 15-5 (or rather, 15-7) simulator perfectly.

The most common Battle Durations were six, seven and five minutes (23.19%, 18.72% and 17.88% of all battles respectively). Only 3,351/35,030 (7.49%) of all battles lasted 11 minutes or longer, but 42/516 (8.14%) of all draw results were not due to the battle time expiring - a higher value than expected. The charts perfectly visualise the five (or rather six) minute simulator.

Excluding Safe Haven, as it is a new map, and Province and Widepark, as they are exclusive to lower Tiers...

Mannerheim Line had the most battles played (3.46% of all battles), and Berlin had the least (1.31% of all battles). The highest victory rate was Redshire (55.04%) and lowest was Prokhorovka (45.88%). Prokhorovka had the highest draw rate (5.21%) and only 0.15% of battles ended in a draw on Ensk.

In Conclusion...

There isn't a huge amount to look at on the surface of win rates, however there are some surprising results, such as +2 matchmaking having the lowest victory rate of only 48.97%, and 8.14% of all battles ending in a draw did so before the timer ran out. The statistics further visualise the average Range and Duration of a battle: 15-5 (or rather, 15-7) simulator and five (or rather six) minute simulator are prevalent in these results.

When I return to this data set to scrutinize it even more than I have done today, I would like to take a closer look at the battles from the NA region. I am interested to investigate why it has significantly more draw results than EU did, with fewer overall battles. I suspect it is because a large number of battles on the NA region were in an SPG, and SPGs appear to have longer games, or at least, survive for longer on average.

I have thrown together some tables for Vehicle data, and Assault and Encounter. You can find them below.

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Part 1.5: Matchmaking Spread

Originally Published April 2, 2022

Welcome to Part 1.5 of my World of Tanks Replay Analysis, where I revisit Part 1 and update the data with more accurate and filtered statistics.

I am now using a different method to filter the data, excluding many points of rogue data and focus only on the Standard, Random Battles. The original data set comprised of 63,555 replays and with the new method of filtering Standard, Random Battles, this figure has dropped to 50,252 (minus 13,303).

Not all, but a large proportion of the removed replays will be Skirmishes and Ranked Battles, followed by other game modes, such as Team Training and special events. This is the data I was keen to remove in the first place, but had not found the (in hindsight clearly obvious) way to filter it out, which is why I am republishing it.

Reading the data...

Of the 50,252 battles...

With a focus on Tier 6 and above:

What data stands out to me?

• Of 2,864 Tier 7 battles, only 7 were of equal spread.
• Tier 8 was (almost) equally +1 or +2 and -2 or -1.
• 40.5% of Tier 8 battles were of equal spread.

These statistics are fascinating - be honest, how many times have you sat there complaining that you've been bottom tier every game? The data contradicts this statement!

Reading the data...

Not including Province and Widepark, as they are exclusive to lower tiers, and Safe Haven, as it is a new map...

On all maps, the most common spread was =.

-1/+1 is least common on most maps. The Exceptions are Berlin, Empire's Border, Ghost Town, Karkov and Pearl River, where +2 was the least common.

Reading the data...

• =, +1, and +2 were more frequent on NA than EU and -2, -1 or -1/+1 were less frequent.
• 29.21% of Tier 10 battles for NA are +2, but only 16.87% are for EU.
• 42.30% of Tier 10 battles on NA were at equal matchmaking, whereas only 30.46% were for EU. 
  • The majority of NA battles were at Tier 10, which may cause a disparity when comparing the Spread frequencies.

Reading the data...

• Of the 29,475 replays on the EU servers, 17,630 were on EU1, 11,684 on EU2 and 161 on EU3.
• More battles were +1 / +1, =, +1 or +2 on EU2 (11.50%, 30.78%, 15.32% and 7.77% respectively) than EU1 (10.91% 30.31%, 13.77% and 6.63% respectively) and less were -2 or -1 on EU2 (12.83% and 21.80% respectively) than EU1 (15.36% and 23.02% respectively).
• Ergo if you want =, +1, or +2, play EU2!

I would very much like to increase the data size and out of all of the statistics I have discovered in this analysis, this is the one I find most interesting - to the point where I am now routinely playing on EU2 (EU1 was my preferred server simply by habit). I have noticed more top tier battles on EU2, but the mere notice of these battles is likely influenced by seeing these statistics!

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Part 4: Vehicle Class

Originally Published April 8, 2022

Welcome to Part 4 of my Replay Analysis where I analyse over 66,000 replays sent to me by you. Today we'll be focusing on the Vehicle Class.

When referring to Vehicle Class in this analysis, at all times I am referring to the vehicle the player was driving in the replay. i.e. if I have a replay where the player in focus was driving the Type 64, the class of that replay is considered to be a Light Tank. I have been tinkering with an older replay analyser recently and hope to be able to get statistics of other players within the battle, which will enable me to look deeper into some statistics, such as, how many battles had 0, 2, 4, or 6 SPG's, or does the number of Tank Destroyers in a Battle and the Battle Duration correlate at all?

But first, some quick definitions:

• HT = Heavy Tank
• MT = Medium Tank
• LT = Light Tank
• TD = Tank Destroyer
• SPG = Artillery / SPG

The colors used for the charts in this post correspond with the vehicle colors used in Aslains Modpack (Heavy, Medium, Light, Tank Destroyer, SPG) with the exception of the Spread chart, which utilizes the common XVM Red to Purple color scheme for spreads -2 to +2.

50,253 Standard, Random Battle Replays had the complete data and were included in this part of the Analysis. 29,475 (59%) were from the EU Region and 20,778 (41%) from the NA Region.

64.67% of all battles from the NA Region were played in SPG's, with the EU Region being more diverse, but still with a leading majority in Medium Tanks (36.37%). Light Tanks were the least played vehicle for NA (5.12% of all NA battles), and SPGs were the least played for EU (7.92%).

14.83% of all battles were in Heavy Tanks, 25.13% in Medium Tanks, 11.31% in Light Tanks, 17.34% in Tank Destroyers, and 31.39% in SPG's.

The least common spread for each class was:

• Heavy: +2 (8.31% of all Heavy Tank Battles were of +2 Spread)
• Medium: +2 (7.22%)
• Light: +2 (2.66%)
• Tank Destroyer: +2 (7.86%)
• SPG: -2 (2.46%)*

Equal Spread was the most common for all classes.

If we transpose the data to focus on the Spread first, we can see the most common vehicle class to feature in each Spread:

• -2: Medium (37.28% of all -2 Spread battles were in Medium Tanks)
• -1: Medium (32.64%)
• -1 / +1: Medium (34.58%)
• =: SPG (42.51%)**
• +1: SPG (31.09%)
• +2: SPG (62.51%)

The least common vehicle to feature in each Spread was:

• -2: SPG (7.57% of all -2 Spread battles were in SPG's)***
• -1: SPG (9.85%)
• -1 / +1: Light (10.41%)
• =: Light (11.38%), closely followed by Heavy (11.70%)
• +1: Light (7.69%)
• +2: Light (2.39%)

*The majority of SPG battles submitted were in Tier 10, meaning it was not possible to be -1 / +1, -1 or -2. So, if we ignore those spreads, the least common spread for SPG's was +1 (16.25% of all SPG battles were of +1 Spread).
**Ignoring SPG's again, the most common vehicle to feature in =, +1 and +2 Spreads were Medium (20.86%), Tank Destroyer (23.32%) and Medium (14.45%) respectively.
***And again, the least common vehicle to feature in -2 and -1 Spreads were Heavy Tanks (17.69%) and Light Tanks (17.56%) respectively.

With a focus on Tier 6 and above...

The most common vehicle class for each Tier was:

• Tier 6: Medium (39.97% of all Tier 6 battles were in Medium Tanks)
• Tier 7: Medium (26.26%)
• Tier 8: Medium (41.20%)
• Tier 9: Medium (29.93%)
• Tier 10: SPG (73.73%)

The least common vehicle class for each Tier was:

• Tier 6: Tank Destroyer (9.42% of all Tier 6 battles were in Tank Destroyers)
• Tier 7: SPG (12.60%)
• Tier 8: SPG (5.24%)
• Tier 9: Light (8.12%)
• Tier 10: Light (3.72%)

If we transpose the data to focus on the Tier first, we can see the most common Tier for each vehicle class:

• Heavy: Tier 8 (33.26% of all Heavy battles were at Tier 8)
• Medium: Tier 8 (40.26%)
• Light: Tier 6 (22.13%)
• Tank Destroyer: Tier 8 (33.81%)
• SPG: Tier 10 (82.98%)

And the least common:

• Heavy: Tier 6 (9.38% of all Heavy battles were at Tier 6)
• Medium: Tier 7 (5.95%)
• Light: Tier 7 (10.04%)
• Tank Destroyer Tier 6 (5.21%)
• SPG: Tier 7 (2.29%)

The values on a per-map basis are fairly representative of the number of total battle for each class, but we can cross-examine them to see the exceptions. These exceptions are italicised as lower than average in the most common list, and higher than average in the least common list.

A reminder: Of all 50,253 battles, Heavy Tanks accounted for 14.83%, Mediums 25.13%, Lights 11.31%, Tank Destroyers 17.34% and SPG's 31.39%.

The most common vehicle class for each map was:

The least common vehicle class for each map was:

If we transpose the data to focus on the Map first, we can see the most common Map for each vehicle class:
Not including Province and Widepark, as they are exclusive to low tiers, and Safe Haven as it is a new map...

• Heavy: Mountain Pass (3.26% of all Heavy Tank battles, excluding Province, Widepark and Safe Haven, were on Mountain Pass)
• Medium: Live Oaks (3.31%)
• Light: Mines (5.22%)
• Tank Destroyer: Steppes (4.10%)
• SPG: Live Oaks (3.62%)

And the least common:

• Heavy: Himmelsdorf (1.64% of all Heavy Tank battles, excluding Province, Widepark and Safe Haven, were on Himmelsdorf)
• Medium: Ensk (1.54%)
• Light: Ghost Town (1.44%)
• Tank Destroyer: Erlenberg (1.49%)
• SPG: Berlin (0.55%)

The most common Range for each vehicle class was:

• Heavy: +10 (6.27% of all Heavy battles ended with a +10 Range)
• Medium: +9 (5.93%)
• Light: -9 (5.68%)
• Tank Destroyer: +8 (6.16%)
• SPG: +8 (5.89%)

The least common Range for each vehicle class was:

• Heavy: -15 (0.25% of all Heavy battles ended with a -15 Range)
• Medium: -15 (0.23%)
• Light: +15 (0.13%)
• Tank Destroyer: -15 (0.17%)
• SPG: -15 (0.23%)

Due to how I still haven't figured out how to better portray the Range (see the drop-down above) I'm not going to explore it any further in the context of Vehicle Class. However, if we change the table to show a rank (lowest to highest frequency) we can better visualise the clusters surrounding 15-5 battles.

The most common battle duration for all vehicle classes was six minutes (23.19% of all 35,030 battles with the battle duration data lasted for six minutes). In fact, for all vehicle classes it was less likely to take a minute longer each minute after six, with the exception of fifteen minute battles. It is likely battles ending in a draw account for the increase in number of 15 minute battles, as draws are most likely to occur due to the battle timer expiring, as we found out in Part 3: Battle Duration.

The average battle duration for each vehicle was:
(Figures are decimals, not minutes:seconds. i.e. 7.15 minutes = 7 point 15 minutes, not 7 minutes and 15 seconds, which would be 7.25)

• Heavy: 6.95 minutes
• Medium: 6.96 minutes
• Light: 6.75 minutes
• Tank Destroyer: 7.15 minutes
• SPG: 7.54 minutes

Interestingly, but unsurprisingly, SPG's were more likely to have longer battles. (53.62% of all 14 minute battles and 54.00% of all 15 minute battles were in SPG's). I say unsurprisingly, because when a player is eliminated from the battle, it is common to leave the battle so they can enter a new battle in a different vehicle. It is unlikely they will watch to the very end and be automatically returned to the garage once the win/draw/defeat condition is met. These replays do not have the battle duration data, and as SPGs tend to be some of the last vehicles to be destroyed, we can see that their battle duration will be, on average, longer.

Heavy Tanks had exactly the same number of Defeats as Victories and the greatest variation was Medium Tanks, with 180 less Defeats than Victories.

The Defeat rates for each class were:

• Heavy: 49.45% (49.45% of all Heavy battles ended in a defeat)
• Medium: 48.29%
• Light: 49.15%
• Tank Destroyer: 47.96%
• SPG: 48.65%

The Draw rates for each class were:

• Heavy: 1.10% (1.10% of all Heavy battles ended in a draw)
• Medium: 1.16%
• Light: 0.90%
• Tank Destroyer: 1.54%
• SPG: 1.85%

The Victory rates for each class were:

• Heavy: 49.45% (49.45% of all Heavy battles ended in a victory)
• Medium: 50.55%
• Light: 49.95%
• Tank Destroyer: 50.50%
• SPG: 49.51%

Finally, we have the Nation of the vehicle which was featured in the replay. As I was adding the class data, I thought it would be interesting to also take a brief look at the Nation, to see if there is anything that correlates. Part 5 of the Replay Analysis will cover all areas with the focus on the Nation.

With a focus on Tier 6 and above, due to the lowest Tiers being almost exclusively Light Tanks...

The most common Nation for each Vehicle class was:

• Heavy: U.S.S.R. (29.45% of all Tier 6 or above Heavy Tank battles were in U.S.S.R. vehicles)
• Medium: U.S.S.R. (17.50%)
• Light: France (35.39%)
• Tank Destroyer: U.S.A. (25.78%)
• SPG: U.S.A. (42.27%)

The least common Nation for each Vehicle class was:

• Heavy: Italy (1.23% of all Tier 6 or above Heavy Tank battles were in Italian vehicles)
• Medium: Czechoslovakia (4.23%)
• Light: U.K. (5.18%)
• Tank Destroyer: France (0.19%)
• SPG: France (5.19%)

I find the least common data interesting, specifically for Heavy Tanks. Italian Heavies entered the game in update 1.11.1 at the end of January 2021, seven months before the Czechoslovakian Heavies (update 1.14, August 2021). The majority of the 66,000+ replays sent to me were sent in December 2021, not five months since 1.14, but Italian Heavies are still the least common Heavy Tank. In fact, the Czechoslovakian Heavies are the fifth least common (seventh most common) Heavy Tank to be played. The second, third and fourth least common are Poland (1.63% of all Tier 6 or above Heavy Tank battles were in Polish vehicles), Japan (2.89%) and China (4.99%) respectively.

If we transpose the data, putting the Nation first, we can see the most common vehicle class for each Nation:

• China: Medium (38.13% of all replays, where the player was driving a Tier 6 or above Chinese Medium Tank)
• Czechoslovakia: Medium (52.38%)
• France: Medium (36.22%)
• Germany: SPG (48.40%)
• Italy: Medium (93.01%)
• Japan: Medium (78.41%)
• Poland: Medium (83.61%)
• Sweden: Tank Destroyer (41.23%)
• U.K.: SPG (39.57%)
• U.S.A.: (63.07%)
• U.S.S.R.: SPG (35.92%)

And the least common vehicle class for each Nation:

• China: Tank Destroyer (12.87% of all replays, where the player was driving a Tier 6 or above Chinese Tank Destroyer)
• Czechoslovakia: Heavy (47.62%)
• France: Tank Destroyer (0.28%)
• Germany: Light (6.34%)
• Italy: Heavy (6.99%)
• Japan: Heavy (21.59%)
• Poland: Heavy (16.39%)
• Sweden: Heavy (24.00%)
• U.K.: Light (6.67%)
• U.S.A.: Light (5.05%)
• U.S.S.R.: Light (7.60%)

This concludes Part 4 of my Replay analysis. It has been interesting to see the many different data points, especially how SPG's were more likely to have longer battles, and Italian Heavies are the least played vehicle, even though they are eight months older than the Czechoslovakian Heavies.

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Part 5: Nation

Originally Published April 26, 2022

Welcome to Part 5 of my Replay Analysis where I analyse tens of thousands of replays sent to me by you!

Thank you to those of you who have recently sent me more replays. I now have around 90,000 of them, but because this part of the analysis was already being written when you sent me the replays, the total number of replays analysed for this part is 66,849. Of those, 50,253 were Standard, Random Battles, which are the only replays to be analysed.

Of the 50,253 Standard, Random Battles, 29,475 were played on the EU Region and 20,778 on NA.

U.S.A was the most popular nation, with 21.61% of all battles, and Czechoslovakia the least popular with only 1.85% of all battles.

The least common spread for each nation was:

• China: +2 (26.73% of all Chinese Battles were of +2 Spread)
• Czechoslovakia: +2 (8.48%)
• France: +2 (7.50%)
• Germany: -1 / +1 (6.57%)
• Italy: +2 (7.18%)
• Japan: -2 (8.95%)
• Poland: +2 (7.32%)
• Sweden: +2 (9.81%)
• U.K.: -1 / +1 (7.50%)
• U.S.A: -2 (5.87%)
• U.S.S.R: -1 / +1 (6.64%)

Equal matchmaking was the most common for all Nations:

• China: 29.22% (of all Chinese Battles were of Equal Spread)
• Czechoslovakia: 26.18%
• France: 35.42%
• Germany: 35.08%
• Italy: 31.80%
• Japan: 35.01%
• Poland: 33.82%
• Sweden: 27.22%
• U.K.: 35.95%
• U.S.A: 36.22%
• U.S.S.R: 41.84%

I find the least common data very interesting. At this stage we must consider the impact Tier 10 SPG's have on the data. As I've pointed out in previous parts of this analysis, a considerable amount of submitted replays were from the NA region in Tier 10 SPG's. Whilst this doesn't effect the data if we're not looking at SPG data, it does effect results like this. It is not possible for Tier 10 to be in a battle with -1 /+1, -1 or -2 spread, and when we consider most Tier 10 battles were in SPG's, we can see how the spread may not show a true value for SPG's overall. So, when we see the least common Spreads for Germany, U.S.A and U.S.S.R being Spreads that are not possible in Tier 10 SPG's, we can understand that these results may not be a true representation for that nation. However, the least common spread for Japan was -2 (8.95% of all Japanese Battles were of -2 spread) - Japan does not have SPG's, so this Nation stands out among the rest.

If we transpose the data, putting the Spread first, the least common Nation for each spread was:

• -2: Czechoslovakia (1.60% of all -2 Spread Battles were in Czechoslovakian Vehicles)
• -1: Poland (1.90%)
• -1 / +1: Poland (1.40%)
• =: Czechoslovakia (1.37%)
• +1: Poland (1.01%)
• +2: Poland (0.87%)

And the most common Nation for each spread:

• -2: U.S.S.R (18.71% of all -2 Spread Battles were in Soviet Vehicles)
• -1: Germany (21.80%)
• -1 / +1: U.S.A (20.17%)
• =: U.S.A (22.14%)
• +1: Germany (26.20%)
• +2: U.S.A: (36.51%)

The most common data supports the argument surrounding Tier 10 SPG's.

The most common Nation for each Tier was:

1. Germany (52.38% of all Tier 1 Battles were in German vehicles)
2. U.S.A (53.74%)
3. Germany (52.62%)
4. Germany (74.39%)
5. Germany (46.86%)
6. U.S.S.R (29.87%)
7. Germany (26.26%)
8. Germany (16.16%)
9. U.S.A (24.25%)
10. U.S.A (33.18%)

The least common Nation for each Tier was:

1. China and U.S.S.R (equally, 4.76% of all Tier 1 Battles were in Chinese Vehicles and 4.76% of all Tier 1 Battles were in Soviet Vehicles)
2. Japan (3.40%)
3. Czechoslovakia (0.15%)
4. France (0.73%)
5. Poland (0.35%)
6. Italy (0.25%)
7. Japan (1.33%)
8. Czechoslovakia (1.38%)
9. Poland (0.58%)
10. China (0.39%)

If we transpose the data to put the Nation first, The most common Tier for each Nation was:

• China: Tier 8 (51.37% of all Chinese Battles were at Tier 8)
• Czechoslovakia: Tier 9 (35.62%)
• France: Tier 8 (35.27%)
• Germany: Tier 10 (35.39%)
• Italy: Tier 8 (68.88%)
• Japan: Tier 10 (34.21%)
• Poland: Tier 8 (61.12%)
• Sweden: Tier 9 (32.70%)
• U.K.: Tier 10 (33.17%)
• U.S.A.: Tier 10 (54.23%)
• U.S.S.R: Tier 10 (44.99%)

And the least common Tier for each Nation (ignoring Tier 1-5) was:

• China: Tier 10 (2.59% of all Chinese Battles were at Tier 10)
• Czechoslovakia: Tier 6 (9.12%)
• France: Tier 7 (6.10%)
• Germany: Tier 6 (4.75%)
• Italy: Tier 6 (0.91%)
• Japan: Tier 7 (3.82%)
• Poland: Tier 6 (5.33%)
• Sweden: Tier 7 (6.19%)
• U.K.: Tier 7 (4.93%)
• U.S.A: Tier 6 (5.93%)
• U.S.S.R.: Tier 7 (2.52%)

When it comes to looking at map data, the heatmap is better represented as a percentage of the Nation's total games:

Using the heatmap we can see the outliers with the most and least common maps, but we can break it down further on a per nation / per map basis:

The most common map for each Nation was:

• China: Serene Coast (3.69% of all Chinese Battles were on Serene Coast)
• Czechoslovakia: Glacier (4.20%)
• France: Live Oaks (3.44%)
• Germany: Mines (4.78%)
• Italy: Highway (4.12%)
• Japan: Live Oaks (4.07%)
• Poland: Live Oaks (4.07%)
• Sweden: Fjords (3.52%)
• U.K.: Abbey (4.51%)
• U.S.A.: Mountain Pass (3.63%)
• U.S.S.R.: Mountain Pass (3.75%)

The least common map for each Nation was:

• China: Himmelsdorf (1.56% of all Chinese Battles were on Himmelsdorf)
• Czechoslovakia: Berlin (1.10%)
• France: Himmelsdorf (1.44%)
• Germany: Berlin (0.97%)
• Italy: Ensk (1.07%)
• Japan: Berlin (1.02%)
• Poland: Ghost Town (1.08%)
• Sweden: Himmelsdorf (1.34%)
• U.K.: Pearl River (1.63%)
• U.S.A.: Berlin (0.91%)
• U.S.S.R.: Berlin (1.39%)

If we transpose the data, putting the Map first, the most common Nation for each Map was:

And the least common Nation for each Map was:

The Range is better visualised if we rank the table from lowest to highest:

Let's explore the four most common ranges: -8, -9, +8 and +9.

Czechoslovakia was the most likely to have a Range of -8 (6.42% of all Czechoslovakian battles were of -8 Range), whereas Japan was the least likely (4.77%).

Poland was the most likely to have a Range of -9 (6.71% of all Polish battles were of -9 Range), whereas Czechoslovakia was the least likely (4.69%).

Japan was the most likely to have a Range of +8 (6.52% of all Japanese battles were of +8 Range), whereas Czechoslovakia was the least likely (4.86%).

Czechoslovakia was the most likely to have a Range of +9 (7.29% of all Czechoslovakian battles were of +9 Range), whereas Japan was the least likely (4.77%).

The most common duration for each nation was:

• China: 5 (21.91% of all Chinese battles lasted 5 minutes)
• Czechoslovakia: 6 (21.01%)
• France: 6 (24.18%)
• Germany: 6 (23.85%)
• Italy: 6 (25.94%)
• Japan: 6 (24.48%)
• Poland: 5 (21.82%) and 6 (21.82%)
• Sweden: 6 (24.56%)
• U.K.: 6 (22.87%)
• U.S.A.: 6 (21.83%)
• U.S.S.R.: 6 (23.38%)

The least common duration for each nation (excluding 3 minute battles) was:

• China: 13 (0.93% of all Chinese battles lasted 13 minutes)
• Czechoslovakia: 14 (1.04%)
• France: 14 (1.23%)
• Germany: 14 (1.23%)
• Italy: 13 (0.62%)
• Japan: 14 (0.79%)
• Poland: 15 (0.72%)
• Sweden: 14 (0.91%)
• U.K.: 14 (0.93%)
• U.S.A.: 14 (1.28%)
• U.S.S.R.: 14 (1.01%)

If we transpose the data to put the duration first, we can see the most common nation for each battle duration was:

And the least common nation for each battle duration:

Let's explore the three most common battle durations: 5, 6 and 7 minutes.

China was the most likely to have a five minute battle (21.91% of all Chinese battles lasted five minutes), whereas U.S.A was the least likely (16.57%).

Italy was the most likely to have a six minute battle (25.94% of all Italian battles lasted six minutes), whereas Czechoslovakia was the least likely (21.01%).

China was the most likely to have a seven minute battle (20.32% of all Chinese battles lasted seven minutes), whereas Italy was the least likely (17.21%).

Czechoslovakia had the highest victory rate of 53.13%, whereas U.K. had the lowest of 48.81%. They each had the lowest and highest loss rate respectively (45.49% and 49.94%). U.S.A had the highest draw rate (1.72%) whereas Poland had the lowest (0.72%).

Finally, we have the Nation of the vehicle which was featured in the replay. As I was adding the class data, I thought it would be interesting to also take a brief look at the Nation, to see if there is anything that correlates.

With a focus on Tier 6 and above, due to the lowest Tiers being almost exclusively Light Tanks...

The most common Nation for each Vehicle class was:

• Heavy: U.S.S.R. (29.45% of all Tier 6 or above Heavy Tank battles were in U.S.S.R. vehicles)
• Medium: U.S.S.R. (17.50%)
• Light: France (35.39%)
• Tank Destroyer: U.S.A. (25.78%)
• SPG: U.S.A. (42.27%)

The least common Nation for each Vehicle class was:

• Heavy: Italy (1.23% of all Tier 6 or above Heavy Tank battles were in Italian vehicles)
• Medium: Czechoslovakia (4.23%)
• Light: U.K. (5.18%)
• Tank Destroyer: France (0.19%)
• SPG: France (5.19%)

I find the least common data interesting, specifically for Heavy Tanks. Italian Heavies entered the game in update 1.11.1 at the end of January 2021, seven months before the Czechoslovakian Heavies (update 1.14, August 2021). The majority of the 66,000+ replays sent to me were sent in December 2021, not five months since 1.14, but Italian Heavies are still the least common Heavy Tank. In fact, the Czechoslovakian Heavies are the fifth least common (seventh most common) Heavy Tank to be played. The second, third and fourth least common are Poland (1.63% of all Tier 6 or above Heavy Tank battles were in Polish vehicles), Japan (2.89%) and China (4.99%) respectively.

If we transpose the data, putting the Nation first, we can see the most common vehicle class for each Nation:

• China: Medium (38.13% of all replays, where the player was driving a Tier 6 or above Chinese Medium Tank)
• Czechoslovakia: Medium (52.38%)
• France: Medium (36.22%)
• Germany: SPG (48.40%)
• Italy: Medium (93.01%)
• Japan: Medium (78.41%)
• Poland: Medium (83.61%)
• Sweden: Tank Destroyer (41.23%)
• U.K.: SPG (39.57%)
• U.S.A.: (63.07%)
• U.S.S.R.: SPG (35.92%)

And the least common vehicle class for each Nation:

• China: Tank Destroyer (12.87% of all replays, where the player was driving a Tier 6 or above Chinese Tank Destroyer)
• Czechoslovakia: Heavy (47.62%)
• France: Tank Destroyer (0.28%)
• Germany: Light (6.34%)
• Italy: Heavy (6.99%)
• Japan: Heavy (21.59%)
• Poland: Heavy (16.39%)
• Sweden: Heavy (24.00%)
• U.K.: Light (6.67%)
• U.S.A.: Light (5.05%)
• U.S.S.R.: Light (7.60%)

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This concludes the replay analysis. To those of you who supported me throughout this process, thank you.

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