the makers of the game (called the RATS) don't disclose that information, but a good estimate would be in the ten thousand range.

their forums (http://discussions.playnet.com/index.php?) has about 150,000 members, but you're probably looking at closer to one tenth (or less than) that number of actual paying subscribers.

the game is played all over the world, so don't expect everyone to be on at the same time, but on a good friday or saturday night (US primetime) you're sure to find some epic battles accross several towns, that will easily last for hours.

our most recent campaign just ended on sunday (axis victory)... it was the longest ever at 102 days (thats the equivalent of one "map" on call-of-duty)... Just to give you an idea of the scale of things in this game.



oh: and one other thing: this game has more 5+ year members than any other. How many people you think will be playing planetside in two years? Games like that and WoW have to constantly make new "expansion packs" to keep people interested. I personally have been playing the same WWIIOL since April of '03 and I still remember the first kill I ever got.

What keeps these people coming back? Give it a good month of playing (1st month free when you subscribe IIRC), and you'll see.