I was just curious, I went under "Members --> Country List" and saw this at the top of the screen:

Chess.com has 180,068 members from 225 countries!

That sounds GREAT, but that sounded a little low to me (this site deserves more signups!), so that got me thinking: is that the number of every single person who has signed up on this site, even if they stayed 5 minutes and left?  Or is this the number of "active" members (e.g. count all members that have made some sort of site activity (move in a game, posting to forum, etc.) in the last x number of weeks or days).  Then again, for marketing purposes, I would think you would want to advertise the highest number possible, right?  Any thoughts on this?

 

Sounds right to me.  My guess it's the total number of sign-ups.

that is the number of total people who have registered, minus those who have opted to close their accounts. that number isn't bad for 1 year :)

Why oh why did I forget that you have only been around a year?!?!?   My apologies...I am sure no site of this nature has pulled in those kinds of numbers in that timeframe...

I'm not sure whether the 180,000 people or the 225 countries is the most impressive. The trouble with starting out amazing is it's hard to top yourself in the future. But good luck on that!

I have a question: there are 180,000 people registered at Chess.com, though in my stats there's an item:

Today's Rank: #3358 of 21,905

Then 21,905 is the amount of active players or the amount of members who have ever played at least one game? 

EDIT: And, by the way, I took a look en the country list and I found it funny it counts both United Kingdom and England!

I shudder to ponder the cost of the chess.com domain name.  It's got to be one heck of a lot of paid subscriptions.

Im guessing that there are a large number of people who have only played the Live chess part of this site. They would have to, as has been mentioned above, have played a ranked correspondence game (or perhaps more than one) to appear on the list of 21000 odd.

Gabriel_dCF wrote:EDIT: And, by the way, I took a look en the country list and I found it funny it counts both United Kingdom and England!

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This is correct and perfectly in line with the confusing situation that exists viz-a-viz all sports:

Football: (Soccer to the heathens): England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Rugby Union: England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland (this title even includes Eire, not part of the UK!).

Rugby League: Great Britain.

Olympics: Great Britain.

 

The United Kingdom is formed from four constituent countries. It's a complicated political solution, seemingly always in a state of flux, that throws up many inconsistencies.

 

Yeah, it's rather complicated, Ray! United Kingdom is formed by four countries, though, it's head of State, Queen Elizabeth II, is the queen of 16 independent countries!

two things:

"That would be correct gabriel.  21,905 have played one or more games." <= that is wrong. those are people who have played more than 20 games and who have logged in within the last 90 days.  

and yes, it doesn't include live games :) 

Okay, interesting...now what we would really like to know is the ratio of paying vs. non-paying members.  An approximation will do!

Regards, Zug

What was there on chess.com, before chess.com.  Another chess website, or was the domain not in use?

Ray_Brooks wrote: 

Football: (Soccer to the heathens):

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 Off topic comment: We're all very thankful for that first American who looked down and said: "instead of trying to kick that damn thing, why don't I just pick it up and run into the goal?!"

On topic comment: The International Olympic Committee seems to be more concerned with political boundaries and international recognition, so the UK is one country, Taiwan is not a country, and so forth. But for things like sports leagues and Chess.com, your "country" seems more like self-identification than political reality. Personally, I like it.

WHat about the players who haven't signed in for the last 6 months?

Zug wrote:

Okay, interesting...now what we would really like to know is the ratio of paying vs. non-paying members.  An approximation will do!

Regards, Zug

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I'm not sure that's any of our business. 

Zug, my educated guess is that 3% of playing members are paying members.

eternal21 wrote: What was there on chess.com, before chess.com.  Another chess website, or was the domain not in use?

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chess.com used to be primarily a commercial site for the Chess Mentor software.  I used the site to purchase this software several years ago. 

WyoKid wrote: eternal21 wrote: What was there on chess.com, before chess.com.  Another chess website, or was the domain not in use?

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chess.com used to be primarily a commercial site for the Chess Mentor software.  I used the site to purchase this software several years ago. 

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 Yeah, actually I have started a new thread about it here with some information from the wayback machine - it would be cool if Erik could shed some light on that (if he hasn't already - I don't remember).