Number of Free Realms players hits 2m

By Ellie Gibson Published 27 May, 2009

Three-quarters of them are under 17.

More than 2 million people have signed up for free-to-play MMO Free Realms.

That's young people, to be specific, as 75 per cent of players are under the age of 17. Just under half are under 13 and nearly a third are female. Though presumably that's counting the people who say they're 12 year-old girls but are really 35 year-olds called Ian.

To celebrate, SOE is giving all players a "party pack" of in-game items to play with. There's no word on what this'll include though.

Free Realms lets you fight goblins, complete quests, care for pets and cook meals amongst other things, i.e. punch rats. You can read all about it on the gamepage, and expect a full review soon.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • Phattso #1 3 years ago

    Paging FluffyTucker to the comments. Paging FluffyTucker to the comments. Underaged players detected.

  • mingster #2 3 years ago

    Girlz?

  • Golgo #3 3 years ago

    A gaming demographic that makes we want to weep. I can't imagine anything worse than spending time in their virtual spotty company, so I shan't. So there.
    Edited by 1 at 27/05/09 @ 15:12

  • Fixxxer #4 3 years ago

    Sounds like a perfect opportunity to get my groom on.

  • Emth #5 3 years ago

    I foresee their forums melting the internet with never before seen levels of flaming, trolling and whining...

  • Vistrix #6 3 years ago

    SOE seems to of hit a niche here, this is going to open the gates for other companies to follow...

    Seems like an extremely polished game judging by the videos.

  • Gnort #7 3 years ago

    Why does this remind me of that article a while back where some member of a child protection taskforce said there was no legitimate reason for an adult to own a copy of Animal Crossing?

  • BigJonno #8 3 years ago

    Brilliant game to play with your kids and one of the few kid/family MMOs where you can make a vaguely adult-looking avatar. I tried playing that Cartoon Network MMO with the little'un and I just felt weird running around as a child. At least in FR you can have a beard.

  • Tyranix #9 3 years ago

    It's a fantastic game and deserves all this success and more, unlike a certain other extremely popular mmo these days.

    And as for the young player base, in my time with Free Realms so far i've hardly met anyone undesirable and most of the players seem to be polite.

  • ZuluHero #10 3 years ago

    "presumably that's counting the people who say they're 12 year-old girls but are really 35 year-olds called Ian."

    Oh behave. Free Realms is probably the most wholesome multiplayer place you can find on the net at the moment. Judging on the official FR forums I have no reason to doubt that the statistic is real. You should join up, I’m almost certain that it will crack that hardened husk that the embittered view of humanity and life has built up over the years… and who knows you might even have… fun?

    And besides, I don't think even the most ardent paedophile could stomach the style of the game for very long.

    And like Tyranix says, I’ve yet to find any of the community to be childish. Everyone is helpful and polite and for the most part very well spoken. Based on my 3 and a bit years in WoW, I'm sure that more three-quarters of that community are under 17. If they're not, then they could learn a lot from the real under 17 year olds of Free Realms...

    I’m really impressed with how quickly the game has taken off. It’s a credit to SoE, and I commend them for creating an experience that is quite different to every other mmo out there.

    Im having the time of my life.

  • AaronTurner #11 3 years ago

    "Im having the time of my life."

    Peado

  • DFawkes #12 3 years ago

    Free Realms is really good. Plus the community seems to be really mature, certainly more so that Archlord (though that isn't saying much). Plus this is the second batch of free stuff in as many days, which is nice :)

    I didn't see me liking it, or it taking off, but it really has managed to become a real player in the MMO scene. Though obviously I'm not comparing it to hyper-digital-crack WoW and it's life stealing ways.

  • Spekingur #13 3 years ago

    Free Realms is quite nice, lots of mini-games to enjoy - that I wish more MMO's would have in their item-creation process. Or just in general. Seriously, why don't more MMO's have simple mini-games within their games?
    Like, chess? Or card-games? Or whatever? I doubt these are hard to do.

    I must also say that the quality of Free-to-play MMOs seem to be on the rise.

  • ZuluHero #14 3 years ago

    @AaronTurner

    The word on the net is "peado"s can't spell. There was an official warning from the government and everything...

  • shotgun44 #15 3 years ago

    I heard that paedos make up government warnings and that the people who point this out have massive muscles

  • ZuluHero #16 3 years ago

    Thanks for pointing that out - i'll be sure not to believe those government warnings in future! Mind you, I should have guessed something was up from the atrocious spelling! :p

  • levitate #17 3 years ago

    How can the guy be a paedo if he's 12 himself?

  • ZuluHero #18 3 years ago

    Compare:


    "How can the guy be a paedo if he's 12 himself?"


    How can the guy be a paedo if he's a 12 "year-old girl" himself?




    I'll let you re-read that a few times;)
    Edited by 1 at 02/06/09 @ 09:31