Anecdotal Drivetrain Durability

I think the chainring is wearing quicker for two reasons. Firstly it's aluminium, whereas the chain and cassette are (mostly) steel, so it's a softer material. Secondly the chainring has only 30-34ish teeth and the wear is concentrated on them, the wear on the cassette is spread over multiple sprockets, likewise the chain will have over 100 rollers to spread the load. 

I'm a big fan of steel chainrings to offset this concentrated wear, plus a clean drivetrain and a wax lubricant seems to also help. Chains are definitely more durable than they once were and overall I see longer lifespans from my drivetrain components these days. 

I tried out an aluminium chainring but it quickly wore,  like a few months, to the point a new chain would cause a thunk sound when spinning because it was getting stuck on the chainring due to its wear. I put back on the steel one and it's been 2 years plus a few chains and still operating smoothly.

For chains I was going through them,  mostly due to chain failure. Supposedly they were YBN but they would snap apart frequently. One YBN in oil slick i had didn't snap but wore prematurely. Since then I've been using a xx1 chain, relatively cheap - ~$40USD each - because I can use the 118 link chain rather than more common sizes that are then sized down, and its lasted significantly longer than probably 3 previous chains combined. The YBN were supposed to be high quality, certainly priced that way, but they easily failed.

Yes both Sram & Shimano higher tier chains last significantly longer. In terms of durability, using XO1/XX1 or XTR chain are more cost effective than running lower tier chain. Zero Friction Cycling tested XX1/XO1 and GX and found the XO1 to be the most cost effective:

https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/chaintesting/

The same is usually true also for Sram Cassette between GX and XO1 because of the better coating on the XO1 cassette versus GX.

But Shimano cassette in terms of durability vs cost favor the SLX for 12 speed group since it has only the largest gear in alu while XT have the 2 largest and XTR has the 3 largest cog in Alu.

Also steel chainring are cheaper, last 2-3x time longer than alu chainring but are usually twice heavier 120g for steel versus 60g for alu.

Also shimano BB are another place where going higher tier gets you better durability with XTR vs XT or MT500 level.

My durability optimised Shimano 12 speed groupset is:

XT shifter

XT derailleur

SLX cassette

XT crank

SLX chainring

XTR BB

XTR chain

Same experience here with Eagle- alum front rings wear out much quicker than the rest of the system. 

Eagle XO chains last quite a bit longer than GX, and therefor worth the price bump for me. XO cassette? Unbelievable lifespan. I replaced one with over 5000 miles on it, because I thought it might give me a bit quicker shifting. The difference between the old one and the new one was negligible. Rear derailleurs- XO last longer than GX, but when GX is only like $110 to replace, I just put a freshie on every other season or so when they get play in the bushings. Although my most recent one still seems to shift fine despite having quite a bit of wiggle. My XO1 eagle shifter has 7000 miles on it and works great. 

The SRAM eagle front chainrings are awesome and last a long time. But I ride a lot of 10K plus elevation all summer long on single track trails and the climbs are both steep and loose, so I run a 28t in front and there is no SRAM Eagle 28t front ring. I've run Absolute Black and a few alum rings, and they are the part that wears out quickest. Recently put a Raceface 28t on. Interestingly, it has a 4.5mm offset. They don't make it in 3 and 6mm offset. Damn if that 1.5mm doesn't make a difference! Grinding it out in the big pizza in the rear is a little smoother with the Raceface than the other alum rings I've tried- the chainline is better for the big side of the cassette. Plus it was $60 or so, not $80ish. 

I use squirt chain lube every ride. I very rarely clean my drivetrain. Recently tried the new ebike version and to my surprise, it seems a little better than the regular version. 

here's my XX1 ring on my Claymore with 51 months of use and 2nd chain... if i cleaned it you would notice it's not worn. X-sync 2 has some serious engineering, no wonder it's patented. i would only recommend oe chainring and never mix and match your drivetrain.  t-type chainring has further machining/steps but i don't have a photo of it.

- i used to be on shimano for a long time. no matter what it always pedals like its "bumpy" then cassette starts creaking and eating driver body. loctite 638 worked on rivets but still didn't 'feel' like what i paid for..

other photo is idler wheel with 3 months of use. Currently designing an idler wheel with this same x-sync 2 tooth profile and will outsourse a machine shop to make it. Sram stuff is no joke for functionality and durability!

every year: Sram DUB BB,jockey wheels (GX), cable 

every other year chain (GX)

3-4 years sram clutch, by purchasing new derailleur (gx) or when brake it

GX cassette and NX chainring(steel) are long lasting, i ride lift assisted resorts in the summer, so chain wear is minimal, also I use chain lube once in while, and clean bike with just water

On T-Type SRAM, I had that stupid 5Dev titanium chainring wear out in a few hundred miles.  Aluminum Wolf Tooth chainrings last longer for me but still wear out before any other drivetrain components.  Steel SRAM ebike chainrings last forever.  The X0 and XX chains I have are lasting even longer than the Eagle ones did (I bought a replacement one last summer figuring my ebike would need a new one soon at ~2,000 miles but it keeps passing the chain checker so I keep using it).  Ditto for the X0 & GX cassettes.  I did rotate those between my ebike and enduro bike since my common pedaling gears are different (3-4 usually on ebike vs. 1-2 on the enduro), but they both look to be in great shape.

yep... gotta stick to OE chainring! patents patents patents. 

On the ebike, I'm happy to use the SRAM steel direct mount one from now on.  But on my enduro bike, I've had a set of eeWings for several years that I'm not about to get rid of and SRAM won't make 3-bolt T-Type chainrings, so I'm stuck using aftermarket like Wolf Tooth.

yep i have EeWings too... didnt bother with t-type though haha. you can use spider adapter with t-type 104 BCD chainring

https://northwestbicycle.com/products/sram-t-type-light-emtb-chainring-teeth-32-speed-12-bcd-104-bolts-4-aluminum-black?currency=USD&variant=41000172879977&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&stkn=398fa69d1b59&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIk9_E-oXdiwMV1ZfuAR1WfyrpEAQYASABEgIdgfD_BwE this one is aluminum too

Yeah that thought has occurred to me, except finding a 104bcd spider that's compatible with eeWings is apparently like finding a unicorn.  The only one I've ever seen that fits the reversed 3-bolt pattern for them is the NSB one for eeWings, which is never available.  I'm not going to risk using a Chinesium spider.

CHINESIUM SPIDER HAHA don't let it bite you!!

11sp XX1 chain + cassette and steel WF chainring last forevah.

Seconding this. I've run 11sp X01 for the past 6-7 years and it lasts forever, doesn't require much maintenance, and is very light. I've even run it with a GX derailleur/shifter and it's almost as good. No complaints with RaceFace cinch chainrings though I do gaze longingly at wolftooth.

@1llumA  already mentioned Zero friction but I'll mention it again for some sweet SEO goodness (if that matters any more) and because Adam is a legend doing some of the best work in the industry right now https://zerofrictioncycling.com.au/

But from his non-anecdotal findings the top Sram chains last an exceptionally long time, and combined with a good modern wax lube show almost zero wear after 1000's of k's. If you are eating through chains quickly it is almost definitely down to using a bad chain lube, usually one of the "legacy" companies that have been in shops for decades but are actually pretty useless.

always surprises me how bad Mucc-off products do in Tests considering how they always have a big stand display in shops.
The only thing I found of their products worth buying is the  'bike protect'  can's.

TLDR up front: 0.5% on Eagle = smoked rings and cogs that are now mated for life with that old chain for as long as it lasts.
Here's the full scoop: the reason you smoked your chainring prematurely is not *just* because higher-end Eagle chains are so much more durable that other options: it is because SRAM never informed most of us that Eagle chains cannot be measured and replaced with conventional gauges & replacement schedules the way older SRAM or any Shimano chain variant can.  
Eagle chains begin wear at 0.0% chain growth instead of 0.25% like everything else on the market.  You need to replace them at 0.25%, which is the equivalent of 0.5% with other chains.  By the time you let an Eagle chain wear to 0.5%, you have worn the chainring and cassette to exactly the same extent as if you'd run another chain type to 0.75% - past the point of no return.
The silver lining: Eagle X01 and XX1 chains last a ridiculously long time.  
I learned this "0.5% = smoked Eagle" lesson in quite the costly fashion: I was running one XX1 chain while alternating between two XX1 cassettes on two different wheelsets.  I also tried rotating in a new chain at 0.5% and was met w/ horrible skipping & mis-shifting. I then reinstalled the old chain and ran that "mated" setup for a total of 9000 miles of hard trail use(!) with the original Race-Face Narrow-Wide ring and those same two cassettes before wear got so bad I had to replace the whole mess.

My experience is that GX chains wear shockingly quickly and X01 chains wear shockingly slowly. GX mech and cassette are perfectly fine, shifter lasts indefinitely. GXP BB also seems to last really well in British weather. Works oval chainring wears quicker than anything else. Given what everyone is saying, perhaps I need to find someone that'll sell me a SRAM oval ring in the UK. I used an SLX mech for a while and it exploded thanks to a stick fairly early on. Given that's never happened on SRAM mechs, I'm tempted to things they're not as strong

11sp X01 cassette for €250 is simply the best cassette for weight and durability. 

Add in the fact that the 11speed derailleurs are much shorter and almost never smash into rocks. You just have to accept the 10-42 range life (hint put 30-32 tooth chainring and pedal less down fire roads).

Get some ochain (or similar) for reduced chainring wear. A lot of the wear is just from the chain tugging on the chainring when suspension compresses.

I burn through GX Eagle deralleurs in one year due to the b-bolt interface wearing and creating slop. It's metal on metal, and moves/grinds while descending. X01s last much longer with an added bushing on the b-bolt.

Solution is to buy an X01 b-bolt and swap it onto your GX derailleur for ~$30. Then keep that bolt for future derailleurs. Makes the GX every bit as durable as the X01.

Even better is the Hall-lock mod to stop the derailleur from moving at all at the b-bolt pivot. Best way is to file a teensy bit off the X01 b-bolt bushing until you achieve the desired level of locked down. This is a good way to resurrect a GX derailleur that developed slop at the b-pivot. Downside is it's a little harder to mount your rear wheel w/out the derailleur pivoting, but it's not too bad. This mod also makes your bike a LOT quieter, which is why I do it.

I've also noticed far less wear when using an OChain. 

Same deal here.  NX Eagle chain, Squirt liquid wax, and unless my chain gauge is the problem, the wear is barely measurable after almost 4,000 km.  Likewise with a KMC 12 speed chain with over 5,000 km, although that's on a commuter bike so it doesn't see dirt or mud.  I do have an XT 12 speed chain in service too, but without enough distance on it to draw any conclusions.  And all of this on a single 500 mL bottle of lube.

Reliability for me peaked at 10 speed Shimano XT/XTR. The only weakness was the chain. 

11 speed was definitely more fragile, the XD hub driver is nice though. 

12 speed stuff is pretty much made of glass in comparison to the 10 speed stuff. Derailleurs get tweaked on the stupidest stuff. Eagle X01/XX1 chains are damn good. AXS was kinda hot garbage, clutch is junk. Haven’t tried Transmission yet. Only tried Deore, clutch lost its adjustment in one run at Creek. The new Shimano driver gouges just as quickly as the old one did, what a waste. 

I definitely go through high-quality rings faster than XO cassettes and chains (using GRAX, although I think I'm getting ready to bite the bullet on Silca).  For me, an XO drivetrain wears out laterally before longitudinally.  By that I mean XO chains become too flexy laterally well before they elongate.  And I seem to wear out the shifting ramps on an XO cassette before the teeth.  For me, this manifests itself as having to decrease cable tension to get good shifts down the cassette, and eventually that stops producing acceptable results.

Most of my rides are on fairly rolling terrain (not winch and plummet), so I suppose I shift a lot more than some.  The lateral wear is more pronounced on my lightweight ebike, which makes sense to me because my years of relying on pressure through the cranks to determine whether I'm shifting under too much load doesn't account for the motor.

I'm a home mechanic and have always considered most Abbey shop-quality tools to be a little too heavy on consumption vs function for me, but their new chain gauge is awesome.  It measures the lateral wear and, to me, does a better job on elongation than the three prong tools.  Using the Abbey gauge on a new chain along with several chains at different stages of their lives on different bikes makes me think I'm not might not be doing something wrong or totally crazy.

dont bother with AXS, hot garbage is right, weak clutch is even right-er haha. i went back to mechanical and it was one of the best drivetrain choices I've made in years. transmission is cool if you like really slow shifting and heavy components... and a derailleur that's bigger than a Yeti coffee mug LOL

also 12sp eagle axs have shorter cages which heavily impacts shifting performance. once i found this out i ditched it immediately.

where'd you find that hall lock mod?

I had to check the Abbey chain wear tool and it's amazing to see how they pretty much re-invented a simple ruler, powered by your own eyeballs. For $44+shipping, I think I am going to stick to the good ole ruler though. I may scratch a few wear % marks to it to make it fancier.

Didn’t find it, just saw it was possible with the X01 bushing and did it. I’m away from my workshop for another month but I can make a vid to demonstrate once I’m back there.