Up to 1.5 Million Could Be Playing Star Wars: The Old Republic Before Launch, Says Analyst

Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz, has stated that up to 1.5 million people could be playing Star Wars: The Old Republic ahead of the tomorrow’s official launch date for the game.

As of last weekend, EA and BioWare had 140 servers up and running, up from 106 last Wednesday and Creutz said that average player densities “had increased meaningfully”, with many fans, including GodisaGeek staff, still reporting long server queues.

“Based on the number of servers now in operation, and the relatively high densities thereon, we feel fairly comfortable estimating that the game already has in excess of 1 million players, and potentially could have as many as 1.5 million, with the official launch date of the game yet to come.” Creutz wrote.

“We note that EA gives players the first month free, so ‘players’ does not yet signify paying subscribers; however, our estimate does at least signify the number of people who have bought the game (and thus far, includes only a subset of those who pre-ordered the title).”

Though Cowen & Company doesn’t have the exact figures, it remains confident that SW:TOR will hit two million subscribers by FY13. “Based on the progress of the launch so far, we continue to feel very comfortable with our FY13 2 million subscriber estimate for Star Wars.”

It’s fair to say that plenty of people are eager to play some Old Republic, then, which over nine million hours where logged on the beta alone. If you are buying this for someone over the Christmas period, don’t expect to see too much of them.

Star Wars: The Old Republic releases December 20 PC. 

Thanks, CVG.