they realized it showed the number of players online so they quickly took it down.
That's too bad. It's a good feature. 1000 players at peak time is actually a pretty good number for an MMORPG. Note that does not mean 1000 people are playing every day, nor does it mean the same 1000 people are logged on at any given time. It simply says that about 1000 people are online at peak times. If those 1000 people are only spending $1 an hour, or 10 PED, thats $1000 every day at peak hours, or $365,000 for one hour out of every day for the entire year. There are 23 more hours in the day each day for 365 days a year to account for. Even at 20% of that, if the extreme off peak is 200 people, thats $73,000 a year just for that hour alone. Again, 23 more hours.
When was the last time you only spent 10 ped for an hour of hunting, crafting, or mining? Sure some spend 0. Others like me easily spend 300 PED an hour hunting, more if I am crafting or mining, and fluctuate anywhere from 30% return to 150% on average. Taking those figures, if I get 80% of my 300 PED back (which is often normal) and that's the average (some at 30%, some at +150%) thats 60 PED average of 300 going to MA times 1000 players times 365 days, or $2,190,000 for that hour of play alone.
Of course the numbers will fluctuate, but the mean should exist somewhere in that range. At any rate, you get my point.
The numbers look damn good.
Plenty of money to pay their staff, pay their utilities, and pay their players.
- MR