Demons Souls makes it possible to answer that question thanks to its trophy list - there's exactly one trophy for every boss. With the timestamps, it's possible to go back and check exactly what your boss order was. My plan was then to use PSN Profiles to gather data, but I didn't see a way to find what I was looking for. So I decided to use True Trophies, which has a smaller user base but better statistics. If you click on a trophy there, you can see every single person who's won it. That's what I needed.
I used the False King Allant trophy, figuring that it's probably the last boss trophy most people earned (there's no trophy solely for beating the game, since you don't get one for the evil ending). From there, it was just a slightly tedious task of entering every person's boss order who had won that trophy. Of the 1,205 people I checked, I ended up being able to use 1,164 for this analysis - the others either didn't beat all the bosses, lacked timestamps for some of them, or had something screwy.
I should also note that True Trophies' user base is much more hardcore than the average player. 25.7% of players there have platinumed the game, versus 10.7% on PSN Profiles and 2.4% overall (checked on PS4). However, the trophies do measure only the first time through the game, so hopefully it didn't have a huge effect on the stats. Of course, like PSN Profiles, people whose profiles are on True Trophies may not have actually signed up for the site themselves. Also, it's possible that some people may have played the European or Japanese versions first, since they have separate trophy lists. I only used the US list.
The Average Order
| Average | Trophy % | ||
| 1-1 | Phalanx | 1.00 | 61.8 |
| 1-2 | Tower Knight | 3.00 | 44.9 |
| 2-1 | Armor Spider | 3.10 | 42.4 |
| 2-2 | Flamelurker | 5.73 | 33.7 |
| 4-1 | Adjudicator | 5.86 | 34.5 |
| 3-1 | Fool's Idol | 6.34 | 34.2 |
| 2-3 | Dragon God | 7.75 | 31.6 |
| 5-1 | Leechmonger | 8.87 | 31.0 |
| 4-2 | Old Hero | 9.76 | 27.2 |
| 3-2 | Maneater | 10.10 | 27.2 |
| 1-3 | Penetrator | 10.46 | 28.8 |
| 4-3 | Storm King | 11.50 | 26.5 |
| 3-3 | Old Monk | 11.85 | 26.2 |
| 5-2 | Dirty Colossus | 12.30 | 25.6 |
| 5-3 | Maiden Astraea | 13.78 | 25.1 |
| 1-4 | False King | 14.60 | 22.8 |
On the right, you'll find the trophy percentage (from the PS4, so that means everyone). Next to it is the average position of the sixteen bosses from the 1,164 people I looked at. Other than Flamelurker being two spots higher, they match up exactly the same. So, I really didn't need to do all this work to figure out what the average order was. However, I have a lot of other interesting info to share below.
One thing that stands out is how each world 5 (Valley of Defilement) boss is the last one beaten for its group (x-1, x-2, x-3). People seem to be affected by the layout of the worlds in Nexus; most people will end up doing the earlier worlds first even if you can do them in any order. Maybe they should've had all the archstones on ground level, with their positions randomized or something.
I think that this order sheds some light on boss difficulty as well. Flamelurker is considered to be a very hard boss, and if most people are beating him 4th, it's easy to understand how he got that reputation. The opposite is true for the Dirty Colossus - he should be tougher for the spot that most people are fighting him.
After Phalanx
Who do most people kill second?
| Tower Knight | 66.7% | 776 |
| Armor Spider | 25.3% | 294 |
| Fool's Idol | 2.1% | 25 |
| Adjudicator | 5.0% | 58 |
| Leechmonger | 0.9% | 11 |
Exactly two-thirds of players continued straight past him, further into world 1 to kill the Tower Knight. I was surprised to check my own trophy list and see that I did the same thing. I always go for 4-1 first these days.
If you didn't kill the Tower Knight second, you probably killed the Armor Spider instead. If you killed one of the other three, then your playthrough was pretty unique.
First Archdemon
Which of the archdemons did most people kill first?
| Dragon God | 73.6% | 857 |
| Old Monk | 7.5% | 87 |
| Storm King | 14.0% | 163 |
| Maiden Astraea | 4.9% | 57 |
It is very, very common for players to immediately clear out the entire second world before moving on to any of the last three. It's also very common to do this, in general, for any of the worlds, as you'll see next.
Clearing an Entire World in Order
Beating all three of the bosses in a row:
| World 2 | 31.0% | 361 |
| World 3 | 28.2% | 328 |
| World 4 | 27.0% | 314 |
| World 5 | 40.8% | 475 |
It's most common for world 5, where lots of people tended to leave the entire thing until last or near last.
Final Boss
Who was the last boss killed?
| False King | 69.4% | 808 |
| Dragon God | 1.0% | 12 |
| Old Monk | 5.9% | 69 |
| Storm King | 3.4% | 40 |
| Maiden Astraea | 20.2% | 235 |
I'm surprised that over 30% didn't finish with the False King, and also that so many ended with Astraea instead. It's pretty unusual to end with any of the other three.
Most Common Back-to-Back Kills
| Boss 1 | Boss 2 | |||
| 1 | Dirty Colossus | Maiden Astraea | 82.6% | 961 |
| 2 | Old Hero | Storm King | 75.3% | 876 |
| 3 | Maneater | Old Monk | 74.2% | 864 |
| 4 | Flamelurker | Dragon God | 67.3% | 783 |
| 5 | Phalanx | Tower Knight | 66.7% | 776 |
| 6 | Tower Knight | Armor Spider | 57.8% | 673 |
| 7 | Leechmonger | Dirty Colossus | 45.6% | 531 |
| 8 | Armor Spider | Flamelurker | 43.3% | 504 |
| 9 | Penetrator | False King | 36.7% | 427 |
| 10 | Dragon God | Penetrator | 35.1% | 408 |
What this means is that 82.6% of people who beat the Dirty Colossus, then beat Maiden Astraea next. The top are the final two fights of worlds 2-5. I guess a lot of people enter the fog and immediately see a boss fight, so why not finish it right away? Tower Knight to Armor Spider and Dragon God to Penetrator are the only pairings from different worlds.
Least Common Back-to-Back Kills
There were seven pairings that were never seen:
| Boss 1 | Boss 2 |
| Tower Knight | Old Monk |
| Armor Spider | Old Monk |
| Armor Spider | Storm King |
| Armor Spider | Maiden Astraea |
| Flamelurker | Maiden Astraea |
| Adjudicator | Maiden Astraea |
| Dirty Colossus | Armor Spider |
Everything else that was possible was seen at least once.
The Next Boss
Here's the full list of which bosses were beaten next after defeating one. To read this: For example, directly after beating the False King, 5 people beat 2-1, 11 people beat 2-2, 17 people beat 2-3, and so on. When looking at a column, it tells you which boss was beaten directly before (i.e. 46 people who beat 1-3 had just beaten 1-2).
| 1-1 | 1-2 | 1-3 | 1-4 | 2-1 | 2-2 | 2-3 | 3-1 | 3-2 | 3-3 | 4-1 | 4-2 | 4-3 | 5-1 | 5-2 | 5-3 | (done) | ||
| 1-1 | Phalanx | 776 | 294 | 25 | 58 | 11 | ||||||||||||
| 1-2 | Tower Knight | 46 | 673 | 122 | 10 | 87 | 6 | 0 | 134 | 10 | 1 | 70 | 4 | 1 | ||||
| 1-3 | Penetrator | 427 | 13 | 23 | 23 | 128 | 125 | 52 | 77 | 111 | 32 | 82 | 54 | 17 | ||||
| 1-4 | False King | 5 | 11 | 17 | 39 | 51 | 30 | 25 | 41 | 19 | 44 | 56 | 18 | 808 | ||||
| 2-1 | Armor Spider | 129 | 3 | 4 | 504 | 255 | 4 | 0 | 188 | 16 | 0 | 57 | 4 | 0 | ||||
| 2-2 | Flamelurker | 18 | 8 | 1 | 783 | 115 | 71 | 4 | 70 | 25 | 3 | 50 | 16 | 0 | ||||
| 2-3 | Dragon God | 17 | 408 | 24 | 170 | 92 | 44 | 119 | 90 | 34 | 82 | 57 | 15 | 12 | ||||
| 3-1 | Fool's Idol | 61 | 46 | 13 | 34 | 112 | 57 | 396 | 259 | 48 | 12 | 108 | 15 | 3 | ||||
| 3-2 | Maneater | 1 | 26 | 14 | 2 | 9 | 26 | 864 | 34 | 105 | 13 | 36 | 28 | 6 | ||||
| 3-3 | Old Monk | 7 | 158 | 138 | 4 | 19 | 29 | 108 | 159 | 96 | 172 | 158 | 47 | 69 | ||||
| 4-1 | Adjudicator | 56 | 38 | 11 | 78 | 156 | 39 | 124 | 45 | 10 | 389 | 211 | 7 | 0 | ||||
| 4-2 | Old Hero | 2 | 26 | 12 | 6 | 20 | 21 | 17 | 46 | 23 | 876 | 32 | 76 | 7 | ||||
| 4-3 | Storm King | 9 | 131 | 139 | 19 | 33 | 37 | 99 | 139 | 62 | 209 | 158 | 89 | 40 | ||||
| 5-1 | Leechmonger | 66 | 47 | 23 | 30 | 124 | 43 | 61 | 83 | 16 | 67 | 65 | 8 | 531 | ||||
| 5-2 | Dirty Colossus | 1 | 26 | 15 | 0 | 4 | 58 | 8 | 25 | 20 | 2 | 18 | 26 | 961 | ||||
| 5-3 | Maiden Astraea | 21 | 201 | 343 | 6 | 27 | 21 | 36 | 81 | 39 | 23 | 87 | 44 | 235 |
Most Common Boss Orders
Here's the top five most common boss orders taken through the game:
#1 - 29 times (2.49% of players)
1-1
1-2
2-1
2-2
2-3
1-3
3-1
3-2
3-3
4-1
4-2
4-3
5-1
5-2
5-3
1-4
This beats the Tower Knight, clears out world 2, takes out the Penetrator at the first opportunity, then clears the final three worlds in order before facing off with the False King.
#2 - 18 times (1.55%)
1-1
1-2
2-1
2-2
2-3
3-1
3-2
3-3
4-1
4-2
4-3
5-1
5-2
5-3
1-3
1-4
This differs from the first only by doing the Penetrator second to last, rather than when his stage opens.
#3, tied - 10 times (0.86%)
1-1
1-2
2-1
2-2
2-3
1-3
1-4
3-1
3-2
3-3
4-1
4-2
4-3
5-1
5-2
5-3
This is what I like to call the "stupid order." You just start on the left, and complete every world as soon as you can, ending with Maiden Astraea. Kind of similar to the first two, but this one kills the False King as soon as possible, which couldn't have been easy.
#3, tied - 10 times (0.86%)
1-1
2-1
3-1
4-1
5-1
1-2
2-2
3-2
4-2
5-2
2-3
1-3
3-3
4-3
5-3
1-4
This is the "recommended order." Most of the time, people will suggest to new players that they beat the first level of every world first, the second levels next, and so on.
#5 - 8 times (0.69%)
1-1
2-1
4-1
4-2
4-3
3-1
1-2
5-1
2-2
2-3
3-2
3-3
5-2
5-3
1-3
1-4
I have no explanation for this one. They all seemed to beat the game more recently (not in the early days of its release). So maybe going to 4-1 for the crescent falchion, they then decided to complete that world before moving on. It's the only order in the top five not to beat the Dragon God as the first archdemon.
All other orders were seen six times or fewer. Most players had a completely unique order, including my own.
Speadsheet Link
Here's the full list of player orders I used for this post:
Google Spreadsheet link
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