14m players have given World of Tanks a go since the game launched on console four years ago, said Wargaming today. Originally launched on Xbox 360 back in 2014 the game is now also available for all PS4 and Xbox One consoles as well.
The Xbox’s head start means it has the lion’s share of players historically, with 8.9m on Xbox versus 5.3m on PS4 to date. And those players have been pretty busy, with 90m battles fought, 44bn shells fired, resulting in over 4bn tanks destroyed.
Moving closer to the present day, there were 228,000 battles fought every day in 2017 and with 15-vs-15 players that’s quite a lot. Although concurrent player numbers for the console version aren’t available. The headline player number includes any player who downloaded, installed and has played games.
The console version is entirely separate to the PC title, with its own game engine and development team, Wargaming West, formerly Day 1 Studios in Chicago. Gameplay is faster, there are hero tanks for various nations & more tanks in-game,
While tanks currently still form the core of the company’s line-up, that may not be forever. Wargaming and Creative Assembly’s partnership on Total War: Arena is coming to a head with an open beta planned for February 22nd.
The company is also working with London-based Splash Damage on a new project. There’s no details on that, but with Splash Damage coming off the back of Gears of War 4 multiplayer, and Wargaming’s history, then something competitive and multiplayer is a certainty.