Massively Multiplayer Trends Analyzed

Slashdot recently ran an article that featured a subscription analysis for various massively multiplayer games. It's interesting to see where they all actually stand relative to one another over time. Although Slashdot killed the original page, a mirror has surfaced here.

The Korea based Lineage game stands above all others at nearly 3 million registered users. Lineage II has nearly half that already, but again, these are mainly in South Korea. For mmo games that are more popular in North America or Europe, Everquest and Final Fantasy XI each carry around half a million subscribers. Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot and Ragnarok Online both come in at about a quarter million. Since the charts go back all the way to 1997, it's interesting to see how UO was the lone player for several years until Everquest and Asheron's call became popular. EA's Motor City Online, which was shut down last year, shows a clear peak and decline, as does the Sims Online. Earth & Beyond, which EA will be shutting down later this year, doesn't seem to have passed 40,000 users. The space sim Eve Online is showing steady growth to 50,000, and there is no data for NetDevil's Jumpgate. You can find the graphs for yourself here.