Wargaming.net’s free-to-play phenom World of Tanks can add one more milestone to its already impressive list of feats, as the game just recorded over 1.1 million users playing at the same time on its Russian servers alone, the developer and publisher confirmed to GI.biz. The game was originally released in Russia in 2010, and now features over 75 million registered players around the globe.
“In 2013, we put a great amount of effort into growing World of Tanks, enriching it with new gameplay features and content,” VP of publishing Andrei Yarantsau said.
Although originally created as a PC-only game, World of Tanks also made its debut on Xbox 360 last year in beta. In December, Wargaming briefly opened up the testing to users from around the globe, and stated that the game was in its final beta prior to release, though there’s been no official confirmation of a release date as of this writing. There are currently no plans for an Xbox One edition of the game either, but Wargaming has confirmed that it is a possibility.
Recording 1.1 million concurrent users is an impressive feat, but according to Wargaming, the numbers were inevitable, and right in keeping with the average user count.
“Tankmen on the Russian servers all play at different times of the day and although their overall number has long since surpassed several million daily active users, the PCCU has been hovering around 900,000 gamers for the past few months,” Yarantsau said. “Finally, we’ve breached the one million mark. We are set to scale even greater heights with considerable improvements planned for World of Tanks in 2014″.
The game hasn’t reached quite the same heights in the West as it has in Russia, but it is growing. Tanks earned $372 million worldwide in 2013, and it was joined in November 2013 by Wargaming’s next major release, World of Warplanes. A third game, World of Warships, will begin alpha testing this year.
