ArenaNet has now commented on the numbers that have been circulating on the internet for almost a week. According to them, there were almost 4 million new accounts in China, and the global player base of Guild Wars 2 had reportedly doubled.
We had already published the numbers with references a week ago. When business sites like games.industry.biz and venturebeat got attention from the Chinese site that had brought a reddit thread to the attention of the West in recent days, it triggered an avalanche. The numbers were practically endorsed from the highest level. Almost every gaming site reported in the last 2 days that Guild Wars 2 was selling like crazy in China, thereby doubling the global number of GW2 players. Gamesindustry.biz felt confirmed in their assumption of how incredibly lucrative the Chinese market is for Western MMOs and that there are substantial profits to be made for bold companies. But the celebration was probably premature.
Now, almost a week later, ArenaNet was forced to comment on the numbers. In a tweet, they stated that the numbers were inaccurate, came from a Chinese fansite, and might only be an estimate of the characters created on the Chinese servers. However, they did not disclose any numbers themselves.
We’d like to clarify recent news of GW2 China sales: it’s inaccurate, from a Chinese fansite, and they could be estimating characters.
— Guild Wars 2 (@GuildWars2) July 11, 2014
