Guild Wars 2 Launches, Sells Over 1 Million Copies In Pre-Launch

Written by: Jason Winter (@winterinformal) | August 28, 2012 10:40 am

74 Comments

For those of you up to your eyebrows in Headstart the last three-plus days, it may seem like Guild Wars 2 has already launched. Technically, that’s not the case, and today — 8/28 — marks the “official” launch of the game that a lot of people have been waiting for for a very long time.

At this point, there isn’t much more to be said — especially if you’re already playing — so why not take a look back at our (Pre-)Launch Party from Friday night, or our exclusive premiere of Guildhead, which at least one person found out about from our site.

Or, check out this article on Time‘s Techland page, which provides some eye-popping numbers:

Over 1 million sales just among pre-purchasers and pre-orderers.
400,000 concurrent users; by comparison, World of Warcraft regularly nets 800,000.
3.2 million innocent bunnies slaughtered… OK, I made that one up. But I’m trying.

So let us know what you think of the game so far, whether you’re just starting up today or you’ve been playing all weekend and haven’t gotten any sleep in the past three days. Now, if we’re finished, I’ve got some daily achievements that need completing…

Guild Wars 2 Launches, Sells Over 1 Million Copies In Pre-Launch

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http://www.facebook.com/MelanieDawnMcGreevey Melanie Dawn McGreevey

I think there will be a lot of sales this week up to the weekend. I think having 1 million people who bought it, and 400k playing at one time… when wow has what 9 million subs and ONLY 800k logged in at a time? that’s a HUGE percentage difference. GW2 FTW
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=613400106 Francois Brisson
  
  Sigh… in 8 years we’ll see how many people are playing gw2.
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002038208867 Dan Winborne
    
    Im sry your mmo is hung out to dry…
  - Spammerbam
    
    I’m guessing by that time, Anet will be announcing a new MMO. Who knows =
- http://twitter.com/Mantose Leo P
  
  Would have been more but EU is messed up.
  
  Also its hard to compare an opening weekend with an 8+ year old game? Of course everyone is going to want to play a game they just bought on opening weekend. Numbers from rift or swtor opening weekend would have been more interesting compared to gw2 numbers.
- Deathstar2x
  
  You can’t compare first day concurrent users vs. a normal day. I’m sure if World of Warcraft launched with 9 million, there will be at least 7 million concurrent players.
  If you want to have an objective view, wait a few months then check how many concurrent users Guild Wars 2 have compare to their box sales.
http://twitter.com/squared002 Squared002

“I’m level 12 and finished first zone” No you didn’t. Did you only do 1 dynamic event? You may have done 100% of the unlocks, but you missed a LOT of stuff.
- Rodrigo Gomez
  
  true , there are also some “not so hidden events” in wich you talk to some dude he says some things and there you have it a “not so hidden event”
  - Jay
    
    Yeah, I love finding those… Glad ANet rewards people for exploring the world around them.
Camzillasmom

Was away over the weekend and tried to play today. I don’t know if it was only the EU Servers that had / have massive issues, but after connection issues i had those massive lags that made Vistas unjumpable. After an hour I felt more stressed then at all stress tests together. I stick to Sleeping Dogs for another couple of days and then try again. I hit 80 soon enough so i take my time.
Revanhavoc

Leave it to Jason to be all measured and reasonable. How dare you.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Hamad-Ali-Al-Jalahma/512893526 Hamad Ali Al-Jalahma

A lot of people don’t have credit cards and stuff like that, so ofc a lot of people well only buy post launch from stores. As for myself I prefer to buy from to a store since I have points in that store that get my discounts and prizes ect ect.
http://www.facebook.com/andyghoffman Andy Hoffman

100% agree with the hump around 15. At around level 13 I started having to do level 15-16 quests to catch up. Once I got to ~16 there were two level 15-25 zones to go and it feels like it’s going to be smooth sailing from here on out.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/W76UOX2IDTRMMYTPASSJDLXLRM Bob
  
  What I did was just craft until I got to about level 17. I got two full levels doing that. The key is to only craft for discoveries (which is pretty easy).
Razor4884

Solution: Go to other starter zones.
BigH001

I totally forgot today was WoW Patch Day lol
Theyrealone

I am would like to know how many sales they got a month from now
http://www.facebook.com/inkogni.alex Inkogni Alex

man, make these things faster. i cant watch some dumb video while my GW2 is online…
lvl 20 ele asura
FOR ASURA! (great video btw )
Anhan

yea was just doing mostly the hearts and crafting.. Ran into a couple times where the next areas were several lvl’s ahead so had to wait around for events to pop.. ugh
Currently at lvl 19.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Bergevin-Jr/1393526370 Jim Bergevin Jr

Not playing at all. GW1 will always be my first choice (along with SWTOR). Too many design decisions turned me off to the game, and the Betas only cemented the fact that it ultimately was not as fun to play for me as many others I have (and still do play) over the last 30 years of PC gaming. Truly ’tis a shame, but I take hope in the fact that if GW2 is as successful as the original, it will give a longer lease on life to my favorite Anet release – as long as GW2′s server crashes don’t affect my GW1 playtime any more … do you hear me Anet!!?
- Spammerbam
  
  GW1 was pretty deep in terms of the skills system combat. Having people run different builds in PvE and PvP was amazing — that’s what got me back into the game after 1 year of ownership; it wasn’t a bad game at all, so I somewhat agree with you!
- Ravenstorm
  
  You must join GW2 soon, the game needs ppl like you to uphold the foundations and the overall metabeing of Tyria. Otherwise the balance will be offset. I allready heard some punk in live GW2 stream saying things like noobs and he raping them in WvW. But just wait a bit, I heard accounts are being hacked, which is a big problem ofcourse. Also imho the advantages this mmo brings like not running from questgiver to questgiver like a lobotomized bunny, and the exploring side, will give you new fuel for that world you obviously love so much. Let the dust settle and then make your entrance, you seem too good a person to not be in GW2Tyria.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Bergevin-Jr/1393526370 Jim Bergevin Jr
    
    Nope, it’s just not the game for me. I wanted to like it and I wanted to continue my adventures in Tyria, but it seems that with each piece of information released over the last 5 years of development about the game’s choice of direction and mechanics just whittled away my enthusiasm until the betas, when I found out for certain that the game is just not one I am going to like in the long haul.
    
    Part of the problem stems from the fact that Anet took the direction to be almost as anti-WoW as possible. I’ve never played WoW and outside of Vanguard and STO, never played a “true” MMO long term except for GW1 and SWTOR. The fact of the matter is that things like the Trinity and Guided Quests, and all the MMO staples are not inherently bad (10 million players over 8 years seem to think it’s pretty good). GW1 befits my playstyle better than any other game, and that’s why I’m sticking with it, and why I did not really enjoy GW2 and ultimately will not play GW2.
Spammerbam

Launch was very smooth for me. Only had minor problems like lag for 5 minutes and being disconnected 1-2 times. Other than that, I was able to log in at exactly 9:00pm PDT; compared to other game launches, ArenaNet did a great job — they even post up all the issues and updates on their Facebook to notify the community.
RolyVento

The game is AMAZING! It’s super fun! – yes there was a few issues in the beginning not connection issues and disconnect but that all got solved.

The only problem that I see right now is that there is NO AUCTION HOUSE is down for maintenance and there is a bug where you can’t zone in with your party to do Ascalon Catacombs.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1541376670 Benjahmin Johnson

Level 30. Yeah, I haven’t felt this way when playing an mmo for a VERY long time. Honestly, I expect within a month, after the belief that GW2 gameplay is all hype has diminished, countless people will start buying the game.
Morturion

So you may have heard of this game called Guild Wars 2 … rumor has it it’s a tad enjoyable ;P
- Jay
  
  Lies…
  
  It’s more than a tad.
jgelling

The game has a lot going for it. One thing I’ve noticed: it doesn’t feel anywhere near as addictive as WoW ever did. That’s probably a good thing but I don’t feel drawn in to play for a couple of hours at a stretch – the game is easier to jump in and out of. (I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the reduced grind and less-exciting gear/achievements).

WoW does a better job with the achievements and the grindiness, which suck players in. I’m glad GW2 is so successful, though, because Blizz needs a solid kick in the butt: their greed and refusal to innovate has really tanked a great product.
http://www.facebook.com/anthony.perry.357 Anthony Perry

I’m level 33 at the moment and up to the lvl 36 portion of my personal story. Having a blast with the game. Waiting for the rest of my guild to catch up before we attempt the Ascalon Catacombs
http://twitter.com/H3L1ON Samir

I think Sharuko’s mind just exploded after the pre-launche
havent heard of him since

lvl 31 Sylvari ranger and having a blast ^^
- Old Ben
  
  > havent heard of him since
  
  He’s the world first level 80, don’t you know?
  - http://twitter.com/H3L1ON Samir
    
    That explains everything he was trying to demotivate us
    so that he could increase his chances hitting lvl 80 first.
testguy111

gamebreaker guys:

pls check their sources. they used WoWs 2010 numbers with WoW at its height.

now it has no 800k concurrent users
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Did you read the original article, it was an odd piece of journalism.
  
  Arenanet was touting 400,000 simultaneous online players and then Time way under counted the simultaneous players for WoW. At it’s peak, WoW was at 1.8 million simultaneous players.
  
  Lol, they also left out the 2 million plus numbers for Fantasy Westward Journey and Zheng Tu Online.
http://twitter.com/Vazzaroth Josh Hagood

My friend goes around and does each heart in order by level. I just kind of wander around and do what suits my fancy, then 100% later.

He has leveling issues and I don’t.
- bsqminus4ac
  
  That makes perfect sense. It’s hardly surprising that people are finding that pure WoW type questing doesn’t work. That’s not the way the game is designed.
  
  As they’ve said countless times on gamebreaker, people expecting to run around and find the exclamation points above heads are going to have difficulties until they adjust to the GW2 system.
  
  Personally, I much prefer your method of play to your friends.
http://twitter.com/QSatu QSatu

I thought this 1m number didn’t count pre-orders, only pre-purchases.
http://twitter.com/EdwardvanRaak Edward van Raak

I think you are supposed to go another starting area around lvl 15. Just like you go to 2 areas above 20.
- http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hornsby.7 Jonathan Hornsby
  
  No, you’re just not supposed to play by a check list. My main is currently over leveled for the zone he’s in, and I haven’t gotten 100% on anything. As strange as it sounds you actually seem to level faster if you DON’T try to level. Just wander around, do events, fill in the occasional heart, and do a little crafting or PvP. If you try to “power level” and focus only on leveling as fast as you can you actually level SLOWER than players who take their time and do a little bit of everything.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    I don’t think they are trying to level. For me, during the first BWE, I got into trouble by following the personal story. If you focus on the personal story, at some point you get hit in the face pretty hard and you are sent whimpering back to the starting zone.
    
    For launch, I had a much smoother experience by sampling many parts of the game before progressing the personal story.
    - http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hornsby.7 Jonathan Hornsby
      
      True enough. Of course I’ve been avoiding that issue by playing cooperatively with my fiancee and jumping back and forth between our personal stories. Between that and doing whatever hearts and events we run into along the way has kept us up to date with our levels, sometimes ahead.
    - Jado Cast
      
      ^This! If you do some events, and wonder around as you complete Hearts you level faster. Especially if you do a lot of the nearby events. If you focus on personal story, your level will not keep up.
    - DoctorOverlord
      
      I also found that often the personal story was surprisingly rough and it had no issue slamming you hard if you tried to advance in it before your character was ready.
      
      My strategy has changed to advancing more in PvP and open-world PvE while leaving my personal story on the backburner until I’m fairly certain I’m past that minimum level, whatever it might be.
      
      Now that I think about it, ArenaNet really should have provided feedback if you were going into a chapter of your personal story at too low a level. They included warnings in the open world if you try to go into a higher level zone, it’s odd they left it out of the personal story.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1018077056 Rolando Rangel

Other equivalent area stuff is right next to the zone so you can do the last few hearts to get to the right lvl its very easy. The sense that you want to continue progressing heart wise will still be there and you still feel that progression. So if your lvl 12 and done with the zone go to the one next to is and do the later hearts and your set.
http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Alvino/1094406295 John Alvino

Apart from the small issues going on atm it’s been one of the smoothest MMO launches I’ve seen.
- bsqminus4ac
  
  Actually, I found Rift to be smoother …. well right up until the forum site was hacked to get my username and password.
  
  I think the message to think about is that MMO’s, particularly popular ones, WILL have problems at launch. There’s just no avoiding it. All a company can do is minimize the problems and fix them quickly.
  
  Personally, I haven’t had ANY troubles at all except for getting into WvW but that’s more a function of my choice of a server (I picked Blackgate and I knew ahead of time it would be overloaded).
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

I was a little surprised, I figured it would be twice that number.
- http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hornsby.7 Jonathan Hornsby
  
  Nah; that will be sometime next month. This is only the pre-purchases and pre-orders; the majority of the (soon to be) community haven’t arrived yet.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    I really do hope so. Let’s see what the first day sales end up.
http://www.facebook.com/stradus.woods Stradus Woods

72 and been taking my time. Gw2 love some issues but there most are a love hate relationship. Biggest problem (trading post please fix it)
http://www.facebook.com/toph1980 Christopher Fischer

Crafted my first legendary weapon today. Nah, just kidding. But I did slaughter an innocent bunny…
Sharuko

This article including the Time article is incredibly deceptive. The WoW figure for 800k concurrent users is the figure only for mainland China, it doesn’t include NA/EU. A better comparison for GW2 would be SWTOR. SWTOR had about 350K concurrent players during the first week. And I would expect sales figures to match SWTOR closely. Also, do not expect the concurrent number to go up ever, as MoP will really destroy the chances of that happening.

Leveling in this game is an incredible grind. Basically all you are doing is grinding mobs from 1-80. The only difference between grinding mobs and the GW2 system is that in GW2 there is text on the top right hand of the screen telling you what to grind.
- Spammerbam
  
  ”Leveling in this game is an incredible grind forget the gaps in
  leveling. Basically all you are doing is grinding mobs from 1-80.”
  
  ^ Sounds like Tera. I can craft, explore, and do Personal Storylines and still be gaining exp. Btw, what level gaps are you talking about?
  
  Other than that, MoP will be MoP. It’s not surprising for them to have a large player base.
  - http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hornsby.7 Jonathan Hornsby
    
    I’ve leveled three of my characters, all different races with different start zones, past these supposed “leveling gaps” with no problems at all. This is another case of people on the internet thinking their opinions are fact, or in this case thinking the game is broken because they are playing it wrong.
    
    It is like in Skyrim where you power level your character with smithing and then get flattened as soon as you step outside of town because all the enemies leveled with you and your character isn’t balanced. There is, objectively, a wrong way to play.
    - DoctorOverlord
      
      I have to agree. It definitely makes GW2 more fun to play if you try to get into ArenaNet’s head and figure out how they are trying to get you to play. I suppose this is true for any game and fortunately, in this case, it’s actually fun when you do.
      
      But it does mean that one needs to take the effort to understand what ArenaNet is trying to do and trusting that it will be fun. This isn’t a sandbox MMO, there is freedom of choice in how you play but there is still a method to the game design. It took me a couple of the beta tests to wrap my head around it. Once I did that, I found myself enjoying the game (combat, systems etc) much more.
      - http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hornsby.7 Jonathan Hornsby
        
        I’ve always had the opposite problem; I always start trying to play other MMOs the way I play GW2, and always end up having a hard time and being disappointed, sometimes even abandoning the game outright. For me this exploration and experimentation style of game is natural; it is how I like to play, and the kind of MMO I’ve always wanted ever since buying into the hype and being let down by my first (Final Fantasy XI).
      - DoctorOverlord
        
        The years of brainwashing from other MMOs could be GW2′s greatest challenge to overcome.
        
        I’ve been trying and quitting MMOs for years for the same reasons although I would always try to play them the way they were intended. That never made them any better.
        
        Every time there was the vain expectation that perhaps the latest MMO would start to live up to the potential of an online RPG. And every time there was nothing but disappointment.
        
        It reminds me of the line from ArenaNet’s Design Manifesto. “If you love MMOs you should try Guild Wars 2. If you hate MMOs you REALLY should try Guild Wars 2.” :)
- http://www.facebook.com/osiris.neits Osiris Neits
  
  Do you even know what a “grind” is? It amazes me how often I hear this term misused . There is absolutely NOTHING grindy about GW2.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Bergevin-Jr/1393526370 Jim Bergevin Jr
    
    The same was said about GW1, until we found the grind. There’s no real grind in the starter areas, but trust me, the grind is there, but like GW1 it will be more of a “voluntary” grind than anything else at this point in the game’s life. A few years from now, I think we will see more and more grind enter the game.
    - Old Ben
      
      If it’s voluntary, it’s not a grind. That’s kind of the definition. The alternative would be a game that _doesn’t_ let you repeat anything even if you want to, which would be just dumb.
DoctorOverlord

Nice healthy numbers. The real test will be what the player-base looks like in 6 months, or a year. Who know what the future will bring, but I find myself wanting to log back into the game while I’m stuck at work and that’s always a good sign IMO.

Even with the hiccups (and there haven’t been many with this launch compared to some I’ve seen), I’ve been enjoying the game and I want to do more dynamic events, exploring, personal story chapters, WvW, team PvP, RP-ing and even crafting. And I’ve hated crafting in every other MMO I’ve tried. From what I’ve seen so far, I’ll be playing this game for a while.
http://twitter.com/ShawnaRM Shawna R. M.

I actually bought it on launch day and it was sold out in 6 stores.
http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Sardella/1422784105 John Sardella

As far as the level gap and hearts being more spread out. You are entirely correct, and that is the point. Anet are trying to wean players off of the heart = quest hub mentality. Come Orr at 80 there will be no hearts at all. It’s about exploring the zone and running into events. What also helps is visiting other races zones.
Op MoFo

over 1 million “Pre-purchases”…not including Pre-orders
MiZTiiX

too bad 400k was their highest amount of players playing
- http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hornsby.7 Jonathan Hornsby
  
  Well let’s break that down to percentiles. Out of one
  million players they had four hundred thousand concurrent users. That is forty percent.
  World of Warcraft, at its peak, had twelve million players with a record eight
  hundred thousand concurrent users. That is only six point six percent.
  
  40% > 6.6%
  
  Guild Wars 2 may not have the largest player base right now,
  but clearly it is the king when it comes to actually rallying its current
  players. WoW can’t even get ten percent of its current players into the game at
  one time.
  
  /end counter-troll
  - MiZTiiX
    
    And where did you get the information about wow’s players?GW2 had 400k players out of the millions that purchased which is awful especially for RELEASE. normally on release the MAJORITY of players play the game not the MINORITY. It’s funny how many people have given up with the game when you think about how hyped up it has been.
    - http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hornsby.7 Jonathan Hornsby
      
      Million; not millions. But I am pleased that you think so highly
      of the game that you believe it already has millions of players. Still, it only
      did just come out, so dial back your enthusiasm GW2 fanboy.
      - MiZTiiX
        
        So now you’re nit picking letters/minor mistakes? Two can play at that game. What’s up with that awkward big space between “only” and “did”
      - http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hornsby.7 Jonathan Hornsby
        
        Nice way to deflect the issue fanboy. Seriously; calm down. GW2 is a good game, but it isn’t the MMO messiah and you don’t need to spend all your time on comments talking about it.
      - MiZTiiX
        
        How was i the one who deflected the issue? it was you but trying to nit pick my minor mistakes, i think you are a fanboy aswell tbh, and i never denied GW2 was a good game..
      - http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hornsby.7 Jonathan Hornsby
        
        /bored with this
        
        Actually I was just trolling you in retaliation for your trolling this thread. Seriously dude; bashing the game for only having a million pre-purchases? That is nit-picky. Look, I am a fan of the game because I’ve been playing it since April, and I am a fan of the developer because I’ve seen their work with the previous entry. I’m actually rather critical and have
        directly bitched Arena Net out on more than one occasion, even going so far as to call one of their community managers an evasive prick who was refusing to acknowledge a proven discrepancy between what Arena Net said about the betas, and what was done.
        
        I say this to let you know that while I am a fan; I am not a fan boy. So when I speak, I am being honest. Guild Wars 2 is good, and I am sure it will be a success. But no one in their right mind has said it will be
        the “messiah of MMOs” or that it is a “WoW killer” and especially not that it
        should have already had some huge number of players. It has only just come out
        and is different enough that it WILL turn off lots of MMO veterans. In fact I
        expect to see several thousand players drop the game by Christmas, and most of
        the “real” GW2 community agrees with me. We’ve been saying for years that this
        game isn’t for everyone and that it probably won’t kill WoW. So, back to my
        point, coming on here and trolling with BS like saying the game isn’t any of
        those things, won’t kill WoW, and “only” has a million pre-purchases doesn’t
        upset anyone; it makes you look retarded because trolls are the only ones who
        EVER said it would be one of those things.
http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.hornsby.7 Jonathan Hornsby

It is currently 3:48 PM on the east coast, and I just opted to sign into GW2. This is a new record, in spite of raising the population cap on all servers for possibly the third time nearly every single US server is full. All of the old ones. I repeat; ALL OF THEM. The only ones not at capacity are the three new servers they just brought online today.

So, ahem, called it. I knew they would end up bringing new servers online, and if this population holds until more of the EU comes online later I think GW2 will surpass their previous 400k concurrent players.

Guild Wars 2 Microtransactions: Still Consistent and Strong

Guild Wars 2 Expansion In The Works

Guild Wars 2 Update: The Secret of Southsun

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