Age of Conan nets 400,000 players

Funcom has announced that 400,000 players have signed up to play its new MMO launch, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, in the last few days.

Age of Conan has been on general release in the US for a week, and in Europe since last Friday. Assuming the figure excludes beta testers, it indicates very healthy early sales for the game - and means it's one of the fastest-selling PC games ever.

Age of Conan broke pre-order records for a PC game last week. Funcom announced then that it had shipped an initial print run of 700,000 copies, and it seems a good proportion of these have been sold, around half of them in North America, according to the developer.

Funcom also claimed an "astounding amount" of concurrent players logged into the game, but didn't offer a specific figure.

New MMOs have struggled to succeed in World of Warcraft's shadow in recent years, with titles counting themselves lucky to gather a quarter of a million subscribers. Although it's not guaranteed that all current Age of Conan players will convert their 30 days' free play into a subscription, the signs are that this trend has at last been broken.

For more on Age of Conan, check out last week's Conan Week features on Eurogamer MMO: the launch event, the class guide, and the verdict.