Free Realms breaks the 3 million mark
by Shawn Schuster 
Jun 12th 2009 at 11:30AM
Filed under: Business models, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, MMO industry, Free-to-play, Free Realms, Kids
"SOE worked diligently over the past four years to ensure that Free Realms would take the online space by storm," said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. "We are pleased to be able to provide such a vast, in-depth and, most importantly, fun world to an average of 500,000 new gamers per week."
As with the previous milestones, this one is being celebrated with more exclusive in-game items. The 3M Pet Party Pack will be filled with goodies for use on a character's virtual pets, and players have until June 19th to redeem this special offer. Keep reading just after the jump below for the complete press release.
FREE REALMS™ CELEBRATES THREE MILLION
PLAYER MARK IN LESS THAN SEVEN WEEKS AFTER LAUNCH
"3M Pet Party Pack" Granted to All Three Million Players
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - June 12, 2009 - Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) today announced that more than three million unique users have registered for Free Realms (www.FreeRealms.com), the free-to-play, family-friendly online video game that launched on April 28, 2009. Recently awarded recognition by Guinness World Records for conducting the first concert to take place simultaneously in the real world and a virtual space during E3 in Los Angeles last week, Free Realms continues to redefine the scope and pace of online games.
"SOE worked diligently over the past four years to ensure that Free Realms would take the online space by storm," said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. "We are pleased to be able to provide such a vast, in-depth and, most importantly, fun world to an average of 500,000 new gamers per week."
To celebrate the rapidly growing community of players, SOE will grant its first three million Free Realms registrants the "3M Pet Party Pack," filled with goodies for use with their virtual pets, both cats and dogs. In Free Realms, players are free to do or be anything, including donning the job of pet trainer to raise a pet! From the in-game Marketplace, players can choose from more than 20 different types of playful dogs and cats to train, feed, groom and dress up. Players have until Friday June 19, 2009 (11:59 PM PDT) to redeem the "3M Pet Party Pack".
Free Realms also features 14 other fun jobs to master, as well as the Free Realms Trading Card Game: a full-featured trading card game, playable both digitally within the Free Realms online game and offline via physical card decks sold wherever you buy trading cards.
To support the initial release and launch of Free Realms, nearly one million Station Cash game cards were made available across five major retail chains. Free Realms players can pop into select retailers to purchase Station Cash cards, which are used to redeem Station Cash and buy virtual goodies or upgrade to a Membership status in the game.
Free Realms is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and up with content descriptors of Crude Humor and Fantasy Violence. To play Free Realms, visit: http://www.FreeRealms.com.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Halldorr said on 11:35AM 6-12-2009
Ha nice, would be interesting to see how many are paid users now. I paid for a month but canceled after.
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snowleopard233 said on 11:37AM 6-12-2009
Yeah, I wonder how many of those accounts are people logging in for two minutes and saying “Fairies? Ok, I’m out.”
UltimateQ said on 11:56AM 6-12-2009
I still play it. ^_^
I have nothing better to do. Currently there are no released MMO's that interest me. My old love EQ has become a tired old dog, and everything else feels like a clone of each other.
So until Mortal, Star Trek or MAYBE The Old Republic come out, I probably won't play anything non-casual.
If someone logged in and saw fairies/pixies then left the game based on that. Well, it's their loss.
JP said on 11:42AM 6-12-2009
Not to piss in the cheerios, but I just can't wrap my head around how F2P games make claims of success, by having that many people DL a game.
That's not active players. I mean, I DL an uninstall about 1 F2P game a week. I hope it'll be fun. It's usually not, and I uninstall in about 1-2 days. I count in the 1 mil, even though I have no intentions of playing it ever again?
It's celebrating mediocrity IMO. It's like McDonalds giving away free burgers and then claiming a huge success b/c they served over a billion people in one day. Of course you did! It was free! So one billion got their free burger and dipped out. BFD.
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Holgar said on 4:30PM 6-12-2009
Yea 3 million people downloading is a sign of good marketing.
Three million people subcribing is a sign of good gameplay. Lets get the important numbers here fellas.....
Scopique said on 11:44AM 6-12-2009
It's a numbers game, so that 3M value is how many people on the books, not necessarily active.
It's the same way WoW get's their numbers.
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Jack said on 12:04PM 6-12-2009
WoW's Numbers are paying costumers every one that got there account active and payed for. no game time and trails are not counted.
Halldorr said on 1:05PM 6-12-2009
Pretty sure WoW has been giving bs numbers for a couple of years now.
Myria said on 1:23PM 6-12-2009
Ummm, no, they haven't. WoW's numbers can generally be found in SEC filings and shareholder documents. These are legal documents, falsifying information on them is actionable in both civil and criminal court. No one is going to risk being sued into the poorhouse and then going to jail just to inflate an MMOs numbers a tad.
If it's a press release, you can be sure it's a lie.
If it's a legal document, you can be sure it's at least close enough to the truth to be defensible in a court of law.
Whatever Blizzard, Vivendi, and WoW's flaws, and they are legion, transparency and believability where their subscriber numbers are concerned are not among them.
Jack said on 12:02PM 6-12-2009
In other news Sony's Everquest/Everquest 2 servers getting lots of lag many people are quieting over it.
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UltimateQ said on 12:38PM 6-12-2009
Troll much?
Weile said on 12:28PM 6-12-2009
Actually, Jack, their numbers aren't ACTIVE people. It's everyone.
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DurEdhil said on 1:07PM 6-12-2009
Actually, Weile, according to Blizzard's press release, its subscribers which is what Jack said. So not everyone, paying customers.
Though you are correct, they may not be active. I still have my subscription open but have not logged in for almost 3 weeks.
http://www.blizzard.com/us/press/081121.html
Pingles said on 12:40PM 6-12-2009
I'd be interested to hear how many other F2P games have hit those numbers.
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ScytheNoire said on 1:42PM 6-12-2009
1) It's only REGISTERED users, not actual players. I get their emails and they tell me that I helped them, but I've never even downloaded the game, yet alone played it. So those numbers are very misleading, as I'd hardly count myself, and probably many others, as players. Registered user is much different than active players.
2) How many of those transfer into actual money? This is important. I hope it's enough, although I doubt they'll ever tell, to get other companies to move away from subscription to a alternative business model.
3) What if Blizzard released their registered user information? That would be all people who have ever created an account. Basically all accounts, not just active one's, but all accounts for all time. That would be the same as what Free Realms keeps bragging about, and I somehow feel that WoW's registered user numbers would make those look pathetic. It would be over a hundred million.
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wolfsterne said on 2:00PM 6-12-2009
ScytheNoire you are lying plain and simple SOE is has said time and time again (they have to keep repeating it to the SWG Vets and SOE haters) that the only numbers they count are the people who have downloaded the Free Realms client and have created a character. Just because a station account list FreeRealms as active doesn't mean that they are counting them...if they were the FreeRealms would have well over three million because there are a hell of a lot more Station accounts than a paltry 3 mil.
It's common sense dude
CCon99 said on 2:06PM 6-12-2009
I get those annoying emails as well, I think if you were a Station Pass subscriber (because you're technically subscribing to all of their games) you automatically get flagged as a FR player. My account is flagged active and I get the emails from them, but I've never downloaded, registered, or played the game.
ScytheNoire said on 2:11PM 6-12-2009
Wolfsterne, I am not lying, and rather insulted you accused me of it. I registered for Free Realms back in the beta, but have never created a character, never downloaded the game, never played it. Yet, I get those emails. I also have never had a Station Pass, as I have not owned an SOE game since EverQuest, before they had the Station Pass.
So once again, I claim that they are counting REGISTERED USERS, which I am part of, as I did register an account. But I have never logged in and any member of SOE can see that I haven't.
Accusing me of lying though is just pathetic.
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Pingles said on 2:57PM 6-12-2009
Actually, the company rep has said several times that the numbers are for folks who have created a player.
I suppose we could assume HE is lying but I think the safer bet is that you are misinformed.
ScytheNoire said on 3:52PM 6-12-2009
Well, then they are sending me emails thanking me for my participation for no good reason, because I've never played. Their emails are wrong then.