WAR claims 500,000 players

By Oli Welsh Published 26 September, 2008

Fastest-selling new MMO ever, says EA.

Mythic and EA have claimed that over half a million players have registered for their new fantasy MMO, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, since it launched last week.

The figure includes North America and the Oceanic region, as well as Europe, where the game is published by GOA.

EA reckons that this makes it "the fastest-selling new MMO of all time". Note the "new". Rival Age of Conan claimed 700,000 accounts created after one month on sale.

In both cases, the figures refer to players who've registered their copies and started the standard 30 days' free play. These players won't necessarily become paying subscribers.

Earlier this week, an analyst predicted that Warhammer Online would settle at 250,000 to 300,000 subscribers.

"In just one week we have a half a million people playing WAR online, and the ranks of Order and Destruction are growing at a record-breaking pace for a new MMORPG," said Mythic's Mark Jacobs.

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • Triggerhappytel #1 4 years ago

    Good work, although it's all about the staying power. Let's see how many are still playing in 12 months.

  • Benno #2 4 years ago

    its quite good, and a lot more people will subscribe than other recent mmos

  • Benno #3 4 years ago

    /glares at conan

  • qoobah #4 4 years ago

    That's very true - it's all about player-keeping power.

    WAR is a fun game, it has the good old "Just 15 more minutes, just one more quest" thing going for it, but how it will develop remains a question. The animations are poor, the combat feel is off (but I do enjoy the slower-paced more tactical approach!) but the biggest gripe for me is the lack of players on my server (Order, Alarielle). It's hard to get group for a scenario or PQ going outside peak hours.

    I don't know why is that, but I sure hope 500k is not all that it will get, otherwise the whole group content (and that means basically 90% of the game) will flop, at least for me and my server.
    Edited by qoobah at 26/09/08 @ 15:52

  • Gargant #5 4 years ago

    Age of Conan is quite good..... early in the game.

    Later-level content is all that counts.
    If they can't keep up with the players, heads will roll.

  • jack_klugman #6 4 years ago

    I wonder what the reasoning behind what so many servers available from the off is? Surely you keep the number to a minimum to ensure large populations develop and then expand as required?

  • Phattso #7 4 years ago

    I'm one of the few people who didn't think Conan had raped his family, and I played it for a good two or three months before cancelling the sub. It was great fun, but had too many issues and lost its lustre somewhat.

    WAR does it all properly. Engaging from the start. Very stable. Simply an incredible amount of fun. I can't see myself turning the subscription off for many many months. When WotLK lands I suspect I'll have to run the two side by side, as I really don't want to stop playing WAR at all.

  • Silvervein #8 4 years ago

    I wish them luck (even though they are EA). Even though they strangely call chaos side 'destruction'. Still, at its heart war offers more or less the same kind of fun as wow did. The difference is stress put on different aspects. It's almost like saying the same word with french, and then german accents. Now if you ask me if there are games that offer different things than wow or war...try ryzom.

  • Jigglybean #9 4 years ago

    Impressive for such an unfinished game. Its unforgiveable given that MMOs have been around a while now, that the same mistakes are still being made. RvR is its saving grace but its no WOW beater

  • Fleisch #10 4 years ago

    Its got 500,000 because its an excellent game! I'm loving it, totally pulled me off WoW (at least till WotlK) and as for LOTRO..phhhh thats well and truelly cancelled now I have this!

    Its a solid game, good characters, beasutifully realised world and I can fulfil my child hood dream of having a Squig!! :p

  • M83J01P97 #11 4 years ago

    Yeah, this is one MMO that really deserves to do well, despite some early hick ups, Mythic has released a very polished game, that while it does imitate WoW in some ways (not a bad thing) it also brings a lot of it's own unique aspects to the genre and pretty much set's a new benchmark for MMO PvP and also, to a certain extent PvE.

  • makeamazing #12 4 years ago

    I am also enjoying it, the RVR aspect is alot of fun. Im finding it better than WOW so far, hope that continues :)

  • hiddenranbir #13 4 years ago

    As most have said, I'll only consider this when I see how it fares in about 6-12 months.

  • Royal Fool #14 4 years ago

    GOA's incompetence is going to cost them subscriptions in the coming months, however.

  • spammage #15 4 years ago

    I give them till roughly the 13th of November..........

  • davisorle #16 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 20:44:35 16-04-2012

  • Gl3n #17 4 years ago

    Good news. I think with time the subscriber numbers will only increase.

  • makeamazing #18 4 years ago

    @davisorle I think AOC probably should have waited and got more content, as I really think it wont do as well as WAR... I just think it wont have as big a draw...imho.

  • M83J01P97 #19 4 years ago

    The fact that AoC doesn't run on the majority of low to medium (even some high) spec computers where as WAR does, along with WoW, suggests that actually having a large number of people capable of playing your MMO goes a long way to making one a success.

    Edited by M83J01P97 at 27/09/08 @ 18:13

  • Orange #20 4 years ago

    AoC was a failure, a pity as I really wanted it to do well and be my sole mmo. It's not just the lack of content, the whole pvp mechanics weren't properly thought through or implemented at all well.

    WAR is very promising indeed, it's already highly polished so should just be a case of a bit of bug fixing and balancing then onto new content.

  • UncleLou #21 4 years ago

    Well deserved.

    Most fun I had with an MMO since the early days of WoW.

  • actionfitz #22 4 years ago

    Phattso
    26-Sep-08 16:17:00
    " When WotLK lands I suspect I'll have to run the two side by side, as I really don't want to stop playing WAR at all. "

    yeah me too.
    I meant for this to fill the time until wotlk.
    but I'm having a blast.
    will run both subs for a while.

  • makeamazing #23 4 years ago

    Im considering still keeping wow as well as paying for war... but at the moment WAR is lots of fun.. Its the most fun in an MMO ive had in along time as well. Defeating alot of Destruction forces is always good :D... though we do seem to be alittle outnumbered now and again :)