Both Nexon and Jagex have recently released some impressive registered users numbers. Both free-to-play titles, Nexon’s Combat Arms is now counting approximately 800,000 registered users, while Jagex’s RuneScape has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s most popular free-to-play title, with over 105 million registered users over the title’s lifespan.
Combat Arms saw a December ’08 open beta and February ’09 official Europe release date, and has recently surpassed the 800,000 registered user mark. Nexon Europe reports that their average CCU (concurrent users) number hovers around 12,000 player mark, clearly indicating that Combat Arms is one of the fastest growing and most successful free-to-play first person shooter games in Europe.
“We are thrilled by the figures and results that we see with Combat Arms Europe” said Sung Jin Kim, Director of NEXON Europe. “We receive great feedbacks from our players who love the great mix of fast-paced FPS and socialization features within the game. We are dedicated to providing an interactive and exciting gaming experience to all players at every level, and look forward to bringing far more new action through the updates we have in queue, and, consequently, to continuing with Combat Arms Europe’s great success.”
As with all Nexon offerings, Combat Arms is free-to-play, and is supported via in-game microtransaction based purchases. Titled the “Black Market” users can exchange real-world money for Nexon credits to purchase additional gear, items, clothing, etc. in order to customize their gaming experience.
And while 800,000 users for a title that’s not yet one year out on the marketplace is quite impressive, on the other end of the scale, information surfaced yesterday regarding Jagex’s RuneScape registered users numbers. According to the Guinness World Records, RuneScape is the world’s largest free game with 105 million registered users.
In fairness, these numbers account for Runescape’s entire product runtime, some 9+ years. However, even if we’re looking at 9 years, that’s still on average 11.6 million users per year signing up. If that ‘somewhere around 12 million’ number is jumping out at you, yes, that’s the current estimate of active WoW players globally. And again, while this number is cumulative, according to Jagex’s CEO Mark Gerhard, approximately 10 million of those registered users are regularly logging in.
When pressed on the numbers, and asked if RuneScape is making more money than the industry yardstick, World of Warcraft, Gerhard comments that Jagex isn’t really measuring success based on financial returns. “The company is very strong financially, and it is thanks to RuneScape, but for us it’s all about active players. It doesn’t matter to us really if they’re free or paying for the expansion – as long as it’s going North we really don’t care.”
Looking to capitalize on RuneScape’s success, Jagex isn’t resting on their laurels. Currently in development at the Cambridge, England studio is MechScape, and sci-fi browser based MMO.
