New EverQuest II players rise by 300%

The number of new signups to EverQuest II has tripled since the Sony MMO game went free-to-play one month ago.

Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley revealed a series of statistics on Twitter about the RPG’s rise in new players.

We are seeing some amazing growth in EverQuest II,” he said.[There’s been a] 40 per cent increase in daily logins since going free-to-play and a 300 per cent increase in new players.

And we’ve seen a 200 per cent increase in item sales. Plus we have added a lot of new subs. All during the time that some really good competition hit the market.”

EverQuest II is free to play but users can pay to upgrade to a Silver or Gold account. The former provides space for extra characters, quests, in-game coins and more, while the latter gives even greater access to these, as well as powerful items, classes and more.

EverQuest II originally hit shelves on PC in 2004. A scaled down free-to-play title, EverQuest II: Extended, went live in late 2010 but the recent free version incorporates the main game itself.

Several MMOs have adopted the free-to-play model over the past year or so including City of Heroes, Champions Online and Lord of the Rings Online. Star Trek Online is due to go free-to-play on January 17th.