14 DAY TRIAL // CCP, the developers and operators of EVE Online, the space based MMO, are saying that the game has set a new record, registering 45,186 concurrent users on its single shard server, which is set to contain the entire game world in only one instance. When CCP offered the most recent data, the game had more than 240,000 active subscribers and the community built around the MMO is continuing to grow, which is surprising given the fact that the game was launched in 2003, MMOs tending to attract lower numbers of players as time goes by.
The company put out a statement revealing that “It is truly a testament to our loyal fans that 5 years into EVE's existence we are still breaking records and more people are flying in New Eden than ever before.”
The game has managed to keep people interested through regular updates and free expansions but also by engaging directly with the community and listening to what the players were saying regarding their experiences. The developers have created a Council of Stellar Management made up of gamers who had been voted into office, that can ask questions and suggest changes on behalf of the players.
The entire game world of EVE Online is hosted by a single cluster of servers, meaning that all the players logged in are in the same space at the same time, sharing the same experiences. This model is hard to sustain for a game like World of Warcraft, which has 11.5 million subscribers, but EVE can do it because it has a relatively small player base.
Recently, EVE has been hit by an exploit that took advantage of the way rare metals are created in the game. It seems that some of the biggest corporations in the game took advantage of it, but CCP has banned players and frozen assets in an effort to make sure that the title was still balanced.