Lord Of The Rings Online Playerbase Surges, Sees Login Queues For First Time In Years
There’s nothing like the promise of free stuff to get the crowds to come in. Case in point - Lord of the Rings Online just got a huge surge in its playerbase, so much so that the 15-year-old MMORPG is experiencing login queues for the first time in years. Surprisingly, players don’t mind the queues at all and are actually happy about the sudden influx of players.
Players shared screenshots of login queues on various social media platforms with good humor and taking it all in stride. LOTRO also set a new all-time peak concurrency record of 3,744 players. The previous record was 3,702 which was set back in November 2013.
The fact that Standing Stone Games has made a whole host of content permanently free definitely played a part in bringing in new players and bringing back old ones to the game. All quests and content from launch up to and including Helms Deep, as well as the High Elf race and Beorning, Rune-Keeper, and Warden classes, are now free-to-play as part of LOTRO’s 15th anniversary celebrations.
The studio is also giving away a ton of freebies and anniversary gifts which can be claimed by simply logging in to the game. Plus, there’s also the opening of the new Yondershire zone.
The queues seem to have died down with only around 1,300 players online as of this writing. The only complaint I have about all this is that Standing Stone missed the opportunity to reference Gandalf’s iconic “You shall not pass!” quote on the queue timer.
You can learn more about how Lord of the Rings Online is celebrating its 15th anniversary on the official site.
