Xbox Live breaks concurrent users record

By Ellie Gibson Published 13 November, 2009

MW2 release boosts figure to 2 million.

A new record has been set for the number of Xbox Live users online at one time.

"We just hit a new Xbox Live record: Over TWO MILLION people connected to the service at once," wrote Major Nelson on his Twitter page.

Shacknews pointed out that the release of Modern Warfare 2 might have had something to do with it, as nearly a million people were playing the game on Live yesterday.

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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 (25) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • t8yman #1 2 years ago

    and meanwhile, the PSN is broken. no mention of that yet EG?
    Since tuesday I (and everyone I know IRL) has found it completely impossible to connect to friends on the PSN for MW2. is there an official line?

  • muscleblade #2 2 years ago

    I know i did. Need to get more stars. Addictive stuff that special ops.

  • rotmm #3 2 years ago

    Yes, there is:

    [link url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/mw2-ge ts-trophy-patch-mp-issues-linger
    ]http://ww w.eurogamer.net/articles/mw2-ge...[/link]

    ""It's a server overload not a bug in the code. They're working to have servers back up ASAP," he wrote last night. "MP Servers gradually coming back online. Some users may still experience issues," he added a couple of hours later.

    "Looks like it was the amount of connections at once that killed PSN. They're enabling 20,000 users at a time to connect now," he continued later in the evening. "I believe this is Sony/DemonWare's temporary solution while they work on fortifying the infrastructure.""

    Looks like you haven't been one of the 20K people yet, but I'm sure it'll all be up and running soon.

  • mingster #4 2 years ago

    PSN is not completely broken.
    Played online all last night and with friends.
    There is a bug in the friend invite but you can work around it by going to acvcount management press triangle - sign out - then sign back in and select your friend game invite. It works every time and you join your friends party.

  • mingster #5 2 years ago

    Yeah we played special ops a lot too only got 10 stars and have put 8hours into it!

  • Toothball #6 2 years ago

    I was on Xbox Live for several hours yesterday evening. None of those hours were spend on Modern Warfare.

  • mcmonkeyplc #7 2 years ago

    I was on Halo waypoint last night for abit. I am a member of the rebel 1 million users!

  • cyacomini #8 2 years ago

    Was playing Worms on Live! last night - hardly a bandwidth hog :)

    I refuse to buy MW2 until I've finished WAW and MW1

  • Mongoose #9 2 years ago

    I was playing Operation Flashpoint. Good news for Xbox Live though.

  • jambo74 #10 2 years ago

    @Mongoose

    Trying to play you mean....
    With all the 12 people worldwide who still play.

    That game needs major work!

  • t8yman #11 2 years ago

    no, my issue isnt with the complete arse failure of PSN on weds, its the fact that you cant invite or join any friends. google it, everyone has the same problem from what I can see. there is a workaround, but its a bit fiddly, and you obviously need all your friends to know the workaround too. it is still broken. the failure on weds was the complete inability to even get to a lobby. this is different.

  • Mongoose #12 2 years ago

    @jambo74 Yeah I know, in fairness I was playing co-op, which works flawlessly for me on Live. But certainly they ballsed up the multiplayer in general considering it was the series' strength.

  • superted #13 2 years ago

    2 million people playing xbox - jesus christ, that's like, what... 40 girlfriends angry too.
    Edited by 1 at 13/11/09 @ 09:57

  • penhalion #14 2 years ago

    Suddenly PSN being free is catching up with people. You really don't get something for nothing people. Least of all a reliable online service!

  • dr_faulk #15 2 years ago

    I've never seen so many people play the one game on my friends list. Only GTAIV came close.

    Senator Roflz @ superted
    Edited by 1 at 13/11/09 @ 10:09

  • metalangel #16 2 years ago

    No doubt a record has also been set for the number of 12 year olds shrieking 'fag', 'n00b' and 'nigger' at each other while teabagging furiously.

    I was playing Puzzle Bobble, locally, with SWMBO, so she wasn't angry.

  • Gregolution #17 2 years ago

    What is it with all these comments about the initial PSN problem proving you don't get something for free? They had problems for all of 12 hours and now it's fine, supporting similar numbers (probably a shade less) as the Xbox. I think it proves the opposite, PSN being free and can support 1.5 million COD players! Goes to show you DON'T need to pay to play online games. Lots of games have early teething problems, it's no biggie. I seem to recall problems on both platforms during the last release...

  • skybastos #18 2 years ago

    @superted
    So you are saying if I search for xbox live down in google I will not encounter results ? like this http://ar stechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/... ? or this year http://ww w.gamespot.com/pages/forums/sho... so tell me again what do we get and what don't we get when we pay and don't pay.

  • Brogan #19 2 years ago

    And all of them were better than me.

  • davisorle #20 2 years ago

    Its ok.. you can keep bitching about ppl that pay a total of 40$ for whole year of great online and how free PSN is. Well stick with it, really. Just stop compairing a perfect online service with the freebie. Simple stuff. Other than that my PC always comes first and where ive been playing MW2 at. Amen to Spec Ops.

    And no my GF plays with me some times, my games too :p She's no miracle but she knows how to play very well actually. And complains that we cant play S[ec Ops on the same Screen cause on the damn PC version at least there is not splitscreen.. :/ Is there on the console version splitscreen? I havent looked it up.

  • beckyh #21 2 years ago

    Over two million users and xbox live puts me into a game with French speaking users. What is that all about then?

  • tnt_2008smum #22 2 years ago

    "2 million people playing xbox - jesus christ, that's like, what... 40 girlfriends angry too."

    wow you are so f**king funny!

  • Wyrm #23 2 years ago

    What what? PSN has been rock solid for me. Clocked in a fair few hours of MW2 yesterday and today and not a hitch.

  • richyroo #24 2 years ago

    I own a 360 and bought a PS3 the other week. I have been playing MW2 on the PS3 and have to say it has been performing online just as well as the 360's live service. The only thing I miss is I dont have a mic or the frinds on the PS3, but as far as an online service goes, I have no complaints!

  • JimmyT67 #25 2 years ago

    Sounds like PSN went through what XBL went through when Halo 3 came out, just couldn't handle that many users.