EVE surpasses 300,000 subscribers

By Robert Purchese Published 6 May, 2009

Over 50,000 at once on one server.

CCP has revealed that EVE Online has surpassed 300,000 active subscribers, a figure up 22 per cent since the beginning of the year (and that doesn't include trial accounts).

The space MMO has also broken its peak concurrent user record three times this year, with 53,850 people (on the same server) now the current number to beat. That's a statistic even World of Warcraft cannot match.

CCP celebrates the milestone as EVE Online turns six years old. In that time, CCP has empowered a democratic population with control of the economy and the opportunity to elect representatives to meet the developer for real-life discussions.

There have also been significant game improvements, most recently the largest free expansion, Apocrypha, which we dived bow-first into to deliver our thoughts recently.

Head over to the EVE Online website for a free trial, or purchase the game to receive a 60-day free subscription.

Our EVE Online gamepage has much, much more information, including a feature EG old boy Pat wrote where he starts off talking about Che Guevara.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Benno #1 3 years ago

    Better than Darkfall

  • Xeaon #2 3 years ago

    :D

  • Figgernaggot #3 3 years ago

    I wonder what the paying account/player number is. I remember most of my corp had 2, sometimes 3 characters all running at the same time.

  • ZuluHero #4 3 years ago

    well anything is more than 5 really isn't it? :p

    Good ol' EvE. As soon as they patch it to let me walk on stations im going back for a looksie :)
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/09 @ 17:30

  • InfiniteFury #5 3 years ago

    Just started playing again myself and much more into it - even if I go back to my previous MMO of choice for a bit I would like to keep my Eve sub going as well to keep skills ticking over and dip in when I fancy it.

    I wonder how many people like me take 3 or 4 trials to really get under the hood - or maybe I'm just bored of being a bitch to a one and only MMO.

  • TriggerHippie #6 3 years ago

    I started my first EVE character in 2004 and just couldnt get into it. I got a few months of training under my belt and buggered off to play FFXI, on the PS2 of all things.

    After the first month of WAR I realised I was sick of fantasy MMOs so I decided to revisit EVE and it really clicked with me. I started with a three week trial from Steam but within a week I was trying to remember my original login.

    Its a game that might not grab you right away, its a matter of finding a role that you enjoy. The thing I like best about EVE is that I find myself dipping into it for an hour or two at a time weeknights, rather than the feverish all consuming "is it bed time already? But I havent had me dinner yet!" effects of WoW :)
    Edited by 4 at 06/05/09 @ 18:14

  • Gurrah #7 3 years ago

    So true TriggerHippie. I was always put off by all those people telling me that EVE is like a second job, that you can't catch a breath and basically have to stay online 24/7 until I gave it a shot about a year ago. I've never cancelled the subscription. I had days and weeks where I just didn't feel like playing at all, but I still did something in the game, training skills, and when I came back, I was able to do something new, enjoy a new facet of the game. It really is a gem amongst the plethora of generic MMOs.

  • Pirotic #8 3 years ago

    See, this is how you do it. Don't go to investors promising World of Warcraft subscriber rates and returns and then have to shut down because you only got half a million users, nice to see a company carving a good little niche out and making a tiny profit from it still.

  • AphoticCosmos #9 3 years ago

    EVE is so full of win. As soon as my exams are over on the 20th then [after getting slaughtered] I'm resubbing to EVE.

    Best MMO out there at the moment, something unlikely to change.

  • Apostle #10 3 years ago

    2/10

  • Eraysor #11 3 years ago

    As good as EVE is, I got so damn bored of it after a while. For pure fun WoW is easily the best bet.

  • Azazel #12 3 years ago

    I am a Darkfall player and I find EVE is not HARDCORE enough.

  • AphoticCosmos #13 3 years ago

    I am a Darkfall player and I find EVE is not HARDCORE enough.

    HAAAAAAAAAAAARDSTYLE!

    YEEEEEEEEAH BRAH! FUCKIN' YEEEEEAH!I AM THE KING!

  • Waffleaber #14 3 years ago

    Still haven't played this. Its been sat on my hard drive since steam started offering a free trial. I just cannot bring myself to double click it.

  • levitate #15 3 years ago

    Oh how I wish I would like this game enough to buy it and play it for real...

  • FooAtari #16 3 years ago

    Hmmm, this, Wow or LOTRO

  • EmiliasHorse #17 3 years ago

    I am still scared of EVE but I really want to give it a try. Game are flogging it for £24.99 with a 60 day sub, that should be enough to decide if I can hack it.
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/09 @ 20:50

  • AphoticCosmos #18 3 years ago

    I am still scared of EVE but I really want to give it a try. Game are flogging it for £24.99 with a 60 day sub, that should be enough to decide if I can hack it.

    EVE is undoubtedly scary at first, but the new player experience has recently been totally revamped, menus are now a lot more intuitive and easier to navigate and the playerbase still has enough very friendly and helpful people [contrary to popular belief that it's full of dicks, I'll tell you now that it's not - they all moved to Darkfailol] to make your first 30, or in your case 60, days in EVE very enjoyable and get you hooked.

    If you do want to join you should check out EVE University - a pretty philanthropic bunch of guys who have formed a large organisation for the training of new EVE pilots. The help they offer is invaluable to a newbie in a game like EVE :)

  • Velios #19 3 years ago

    Still the best MMO out there by far in my opinion. M.CORP is also Six years old in EVE next week and we are really looking forwards to all the new stuff coming out soon, especially T2 Siege Arrays and Dancing in Stations.

    Check us out if you want to join one of EVE's oldest and most established corps.

  • basalarmageddon #20 3 years ago

    only join M.corp if you want to be TCF,Razor and Morsus mihi's meat sheild/pet.

  • Velios #21 3 years ago

    Or my personal waffle taster

  • jiveguy #22 3 years ago

    All the cool kids* are in Lollipops for Rancors, THE eg corp.




    *Kids may not be cool.

  • EmiliasHorse #23 3 years ago

    Thanks, I think I will give it a try.

  • RedSparrows #24 3 years ago

    What's that, Darkfall sucks?

    (sorry)

  • ave #25 3 years ago

    "That's a statistic even World of Warcraft cannot match."

    Why the hell is that even in the news article? It's constant things like that that make me disregard anything to do with Eve on this site as being something other than positive PR fluff.

  • RedSparrows #26 3 years ago

    Aye, it's a bit odd. I mean, WoW has 10+ million players. I'm not sure they care...

    It's still cool though, kudos to EVE.

  • Xeaon #27 3 years ago

    It's probally there because WoW is the benchmark for all mmos at the moment, they wouldn't compare it to anything else.

    All the cool kids are indeed in lollipops, i'm so cool I wear shades indoors.

  • Spekingur #28 3 years ago

    Because WoW can't claim to have that many people logged into one server at once. Except maybe the login server itself.
    Btw, CCP is an Icelandic company, they hope to match and go above the population number of Iceland this year. That's like WoW trying to match the population of the US with their subscriber numbers.

    Eve gives you no illusions that you are "the hero of everything!" - you are just one of the many. That's what I like.

  • trooper6 #29 3 years ago

    Just started up again last week with Eve (I played for a few months a few years ago and stopped...got bored and it felt too grindy...and there was no RP). Started off with a brand new character and everything. I'm 2 weeks in and still enjoying myself. But I don't know if it'll last.

    Basically, I'm just not all that into PvP. I'm into PvE (generally solo) and RP. Everybody says, "Then don't play EVE. EVE is only for hardcore griefers all the time"....and that just doesn't sound fun for me.

    But at the moment I'm enjoying the Epic arc and I'm going to play on the markets and see how good I can get at engineering. If I can find an RP guild I may even stay longer than the month or so I was on last time.

    We'll see.
    Edited by 1 at 07/05/09 @ 03:39

  • UncleLou #30 3 years ago

    Why the hell is that even in the news article? It's constant things like that that make me disregard anything to do with Eve on this site as being something other than positive PR fluff.

    Because it is an absolutely fundamental difference between EVE and almost the complete rest of the MMO market, including WoW - and actually a far more interesting number than total subscription numbers spread over a gazilliion of servers.

  • Halo.Jones #31 3 years ago

    @ Emilia'sHorse

    I ordered a copy at the weekend from Play for 14.99. (I'm only buying the game for the x2 30 day time codes so i can sell them on the eve market :) )

  • President_Weasel #32 3 years ago

    Do the box-copy time codes convert to plexes you can sell? I thought they converted to straight to game time. I still bought a couple of the cheap boxes though since it's effectively a half-price sub.

  • Halo.Jones #33 3 years ago

    @ President Weasel.

    Yup, the time code is on a card, these can be converted to plex's. I don't think Play are doing the 14.99 offer now. Amazon do it for 18.99 but I think they are out of stock.

  • Ginger #34 3 years ago

    Although PVP is central to everything in Eve, it's not just straight pewpew PVP - all the market / manufacturing stuff puts you in competition with other players, either for materials or for customers.

    Also, I've been in M.Corp and the current EG corp, and while they're both excellent, they're very different beasts. If you want to get deep into the endgame of eve, contact Velios at M.Corp (hi mate!). If you want to bog about with a mix of new and experienced guys and not take the game too seriously, contact any of us in the EG eve thread.

    I've been playing for 6 years on and off and quite frankly, it puts all other MMOs in the shade, and as Lou said, it's pretty much becuase it's all one server and you can find and fight ANYONE.

    tl;dr. Eve rocks, join lolli

  • Ginger #35 3 years ago

    by the way, 50k subs is something like the adult poipulation of Bath.

  • Xeaon #36 3 years ago

    'you can find and fight ANYONE. '

    And a good job we've done of it too :D