Board Game Arena

Is there any way to check first player win rates by game? I'm curious and it seems like that data on wins vs player position should in theory be available.

Not sure every publisher would like to make it public

Edit: misunderstood question

wodan46 wrote: ↑06 September 2023, 17:28 Is there any way to check first player win rates by game? I'm curious and it seems like that data on wins vs player position should in theory be available.

I don’t think that information is provided here. You may want to search forums for this topic. I’ve seen it before. Some games have a clear advantage for 1st p and obv the advantage will vary from game to game. To offset this I know some games will give less money/items/moves whatever to the 1st player. The option for multiple games in a match is available in some games as well. In particular that is why I like tournament mode for lucky numbers.

wodan46 wrote: ↑06 September 2023, 17:28 Is there any way to check first player win rates by game? I'm curious and it seems like that data on wins vs player position should in theory be available.

Many games have a "Winner's Average" column in the stats for the game. Some games have a "first player" line item in the stats, although in looking over the games I play I only found one with that stat. Looking at that stat would tell you on average how often the winner was the first player.

To find it, go to your profile and select the "XXX games played" tab, then "[username]'s games history" in the upper right. From there, under "Filter tables" type in the game you want to see. After that, in the middle under "XXX tables found" there will be a link for "[username]'s statistics at this game." Finally on that page you will see not only your stats, but global stats like "All players' average" and "Winner's average" under Playing Profile.

Ed.: Actually, a less circuitous path to get there exists, but that one above works. This link will take you directly to the "Filter tables" step above: https://boardgamearena.com/gamestats

Ed. 2: It looks like some games (such as Strands) may have stats like "Wins as [Black/White] player" which is basically a stat about turn order (because black places the first piece in that game).

I asked because it feels like every game that has non-simultaneous player turns, then either a race to hit a goal, or ends immediately rather than giving an even amount of turns, will immediately incite a "1st player advantage!?" thread. Some examples:

Splendor: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23750
Rainforest: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32201
Barenpark: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26357
Space Station Phoenix: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27045

I could for example manually go through past sessions in a game, click view replay on the winning player, and then immediately see from the action log whether they are the first player or not. But doing that is time-consuming and also non-representative. The impact of turn order on win chances could shift depending on player skill levels or preferred play style.

But as that information can be manually accessed, it should in theory be possible to just have all that data stored somewhere. I wanted to know if this was the case, and if so is it accessible to subscribers or only programmers and developers on the back end if at all, unless you are lucky and its one of the subscriber data statistics.