Admiring their handywork

Betabeat stopped by Stack Exchange the other day to interview the CHAOS team. We snapped some pictures of the big monitor array they have set up, including some eye popping stats on the way traffic is growing. But we didn't want to make those public just yet, since we were invited in to visit to report another story.

But today Stack Exchange COO did an interview with founder Joel Spolsky about the big board and tipped their hat about some of these numbers. Over the last 30 days Stack Exchange has grown 40 percent, hitting more than 17 million page views on 6.3 million unique visitors. Gaming.stackexchange.com led the way, with 245 percent growth in the last month. 

There are now more than 70 sites that make up Stack Exchange, with dozens more being tested in Area 51, the section of Stack Exchange were users can suggest new verticals. All these sites put together still don't come close to the godfather of them all, Stack Overflow, which clocked in at 19 million unique visitors and more than 132 million page views. But the new sites are growing much faster.

The release of SkyRim, the most played game of 2011, has led to the huge growth on the Gaming Stack Exchange. As Seth Schiesel reported in the New York Times, SkyRim is the sort of game that lets a single player get sucked into a fantasy world for hours and even days on end. But when these gamers come across a particular challenge they can't solve, or just want to discuss which way to lead their character, they are increasingly turning to Stack Exchange as the best forum for discussion. For example, What Did Happen on That Drunken Night Anyway and Where Did I Get This Wedding Ring?