When we hear talk of the number of users of MMOs, we're used to hearing numbers on two different orders of magnitude: the little guys rejoicing when they reach 200K and Blizzard bragging about how they have the equivalent of the population of Greece actively subscribed to World of Warcraft. In a pleasant break from the trend of arguing over what, exactly, constitutes and active user and whether or not there is room in the marketplace for two subscription-based MMOs, ArenaNet has just announced that Guild Wars, their MMO without any subscription fees, has sold over five million copies in under three years.
The five million includes the main entry in the series as well as all expansion to Guild Wars. Even spread across four different SKUs (Guild Wars, Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North), it represents an impressive number of sales. If the subscription base is dominated by Blizzard, perhaps other companies can follow in ArenaNet's footsteps and wiggle themselves into the hearts of gamers with free online play.
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