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Star Wars: The Old Republic's Numbers Indicative of 'Healthy MMO Market'

Posted January 3, 2012 by M.H. Williams

Many believe it’s only a matter of time before BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic goes free-to-play, the last bastion of Western MMOs that haven’t quite touched success.  Analysts now believe there’s still life in the segment yet, with Electronic Arts’ announcement that the game had more than one million users as of Christmas week.  In fact, some say the numbers point to a “healthy” MMO market.

"We view the early success of Star Wars as an indication of a healthy MMO market," said Baird Equity Research's Colin Sebastian. "While there is likely some shifting of usage from Activision's World of Warcraft, we see a viable market for multiple million-user MMOs in the US and Europe."

Baird Equity is estimating peak user concurrence on the title to be around 350,000. 

Currently, the list of notable subscription-only MMOs includes Star Wars: The Old Republic, World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy XIV, and Rift.  Will another fall under the free-to-play juggernaut?

[Via GI.biz]

M.H. Williams has been writing in some form or another for ten years and has been a hardcore gamer since the NES first graced American shores.  You can catch him on Twitter as @AutomaticZen, Google+ as himself, or on his personal Facebook page.

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