Half a million people play massively multiplayer online game World of Tanks.

That's 500,000 active players, Wargaming.net announced. There have been 700,000 registrations.

The game launched in Russia, home to 350,000 of those active players, three months ago. But that's not surprising. Everyone knows Russians build the best tanks - at least they do in Command & Conquer.

World of Tanks is still in closed beta in the US and Europe, but 150,000 active players are getting their tank on in those territories.

Brace yourself for some stats: The number of peak con-current users in Russia exceeded 43,000. In the West PCCU surpassed 10,000 players. On average each active gamer spends three hours and 20 minutes playing the game every day. 10 million battles have been fought since September. "It's just the beginning of a global legend," said a confident CEO Victor Kislyi.

"We see this game running for at least 10 years in the West and Asia with tons of new content coming out every month."

World of Tanks is the first and only team-based MMO action game dedicated to armoured warfare, Wargaming.net claims. It's a free-to-play game that loves World War II.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...world-of-tanks