Microsoft Excel's fun-filled, EVE Online add-in takes center stage at the Excel World Championships in Las Vegas

What you need to know

• Microsoft Excel ships with the massively multiplayer online (MMO) space sim EVE Online as an add-in.

• Excel enthusiasts immersed themselves in role-playing fantasies deep in a persistent universe this past weekend in Las Vegas, during the the Microsoft Excel World Championship 2023 finals via the add-in.

• Some of the activities included crunching down data on market trades as well as asteroid mining within the Excel add-in.

Boy! They weren't kidding when they said all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Who said Microsoft Excel is only good for crunching down numbers? In 2022 at EVE Fanfest, it was announced that Microsoft Excel would gain a neat add-in from the massively multiplayer online (MMO) space sim EVE Online.

For a bit of contextd, first debuted in 2003, EVE Online allows gamers to immerse themselves in role-playing fantasies deep in a persistent universe. The same joy and fun was shared among Excel enthusiasts this past weekend in Las Vegas, during the the Microsoft Excel World Championship 2023 finals.

You can check out how the events unraveled at the tournament with EVE Online at the center of it all via the YouTube link embedded above. Finalists used the Excel add-in to showcase their prowess in writing Excel formulas and more.

At the end of it all, the finalists took part in a case study curated by EVE Online content creator Oz, which required them to analyze data from EVE's Microsoft Excel add-in. This entailed crunching down data on market trades as well as asteroid mining within the Excel add-in.

More than your basic productivity tool

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As shared with Windows Central by TriplePoint:

"The first integration of its kind for a video game, EVE Online’s Excel add-in empowers EVE players to gain deep insights into their in-game activities, track their progress, and strategize their next steps. The free add-in is available now for all EVE Online Players via the Microsoft Store, accessed directly through Excel."

If you've dabble a bit with the Excel add-in, you're aware that it allows you to access and analyze in game data across all your accounts and characters within Microsoft Excel. Simultaneously, you can leverage the platform's analytic tools such as generation of graphs and custom reports for a better overview of the data.

Have you interacted with Excel's exciting add-in yet? Share your experience with us in the comments.

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