Free Realms reaches 9 million registered players

Free 2 play... browser base. 9 million registered players easy. But how much of them are active players that keep returning to the game from day one!?

While we would all like to know that, even with "standard" game we would have no idea how many UNIQUE players there are.

EVE boasts 300k, but how many of those are double accounts, or triple accounts? According to EVE, the 300k is "active subscriptions" and I cannot recall ever reading about "unique players."

Point being, 9 million returning, signed up or new players is still impressive. And obviously it's working out for them. Take away as many as you'd like, but you'd still come up with a number that would show "success".

HOW successful is another question.

Beau

I was thinking Eve was 600k active subscribers, which doesn't include alts and such.

Go Free Realms though! I wonder how many people play Farmville?

xD

Nopers, EVE has around 300k. Even so, many many players in EVE have double and even triple accounts to raise alts and such.

And even though that sub might imply that the players are "returning", that could or could not be true. Many players keep a sub going just to keep up with skill learning. It's really the same with any game that has a sub...the developer never tells "unique players" but "Active subs."

In the case of a "normal" FTP game, the measure just works differently. Their success or profits are measured in how much the items in the cash shop/service sell.

In a "freemium" game like Free Realms, there are subs but also players that are, essentially, on a free trial that doesn't end. They can still count as a player, though, and that number of players can still help a company turn a profit in more ways than just with subs.

To be honest, I don't care how many players there are. The prrof is in the pudding, and obviously Free Realms (and SOE) are doing pretty darn well.

Beau

And thanks Amana! :)

Beau

Farmville is about 82 million people.

I created a Free Realms account once -- and even played the game for a few hours. Sign me into that 9 mil =p

On a serious note, it is impressive and, even though I only played the game once and decided it wasn't really for me, I *did* think it was a great kids/family game, very professionally done. It looks pretty and it plays well (well, at least the few professions I tried in it). I also loved the tradeskill minigames.

I have to say, though, that even if it doesn't look nearly as pretty and is a bit more simple, I also tried Wizards 101 (just the other night, in fact) and thought it was a lot more fun. Plus, I liked that they allowed players to be every class, not just those who signed up for the premium access.

I have to say it was the first game that convinced me voice acting can actually add a lot. The voice acting in that game, especially given that it was in all the quests, was actually better done and more relevant to me as a player than some games where I actually doled out real cash to play without having ever being given the chance to give it a thorough free trial of it. It makes me *pumped* for The Old Republican and the potential of that game with 100% voice acting.

In any event, it's nice to see new games doing well, and games doing well with completely different business models than most any other game before it.

Isnt that like only 2 mil less than World of Warcraft??

EVE has around 300k subs on EACH server. There is a western and Eastern servers. That is roughly 600K users.

Some SOE games they refuse to release any numbers - so perhaps Free Realms is doing well.

It's hard to tell though. SOE is only a part of the Sony company. The stock has partially recovered from the crash in October 2008.

I really wish that these companies were federally mandated to release subscription numbers as well as profits from their games. Too many smoke and mirrors and it is up to bloggers and industry intelligence like Bruce Woodcock (MMOGCHART.COM) to try and weed out the real numbers. Bruce and others have quit posting numbers about two years ago though. Needless to say, I'm suspicious of the numbers.

SOE is ANYTHING but transparent.