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PS2, Xbox Online Titles Show Record Player Numbers

Posted by simoniker on from the talking-network-smack dept.

Thanks to the QT3 forums for linking to a Yahoo-hosted press release describing Sony's SOCOM II as a 'major online success', with "more than 22,000 simultaneous players in its first 48 hours", apparently taking the "number one online console game spot." The press release also reveals that "...the original SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs supports 11,000-14,500 simultaneous players and between 50,000 and 60,000 people are playing every day at an average of three hours per session." Meanwhile, Microsoft have announced that Xbox Live enjoyed its busiest weekend ever, as: "On Sunday, November 2, no less than 83,652 players spent a total of 262,268 hours online", and the most popular title, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3, "recorded a total of 24,478 players for the day, and at one point accounted for 6,731 players simultaneously."

2 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. Record Player Numbers!! by alefbet · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wow! They have record players in their online games! I thought everybody switched to CDs a decade ago.

    --

    A hack is just an idiom waiting for wider use.
  2. Some numbers for comparison by edwdig · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I just signed on to Battle.net with Warcraft 3 Classic. The greeting message says there are 10,404 users currently playing Warcraft 3 Classic. Exited and check The Frozen Throne. There are 22,541 users playing that. It Also says there are 151948 total users online on Battle.net right now.

    Warcraft 3 is almost a year and a half old. Frozen Throne is losing its appeal too - the numbers were much higher over the summer. Yet those games still have numbers not too far off from the hottest online console games.

    Also, those numbers were for the US East Battle.net server. Keep in mind that Battle.net is broken into 4 seperate servers for different parts of the world.

    Xbox Live's record players is 1/2 of the number of a random sampling at Battle.net's numbers - or rather, of 1/4 of Battle.net. This isn't really a peak time for Battle.net, as the most recently released Battle.net game is decreasing in popularity.

    My take: Nintendo is right and the time isn't right yet for online console gaming from a business sense.