DDO third-biggest MMO in the US
Ony RuneScape, WOW are bigger - survey.
Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited is the third most played MMO in North America.
That's what NPD Group found after surveying a random 19,000 people in January, according to Massively.
Of those people, 30 per cent play WOW, 10 per cent play RuneScape and now 7 per cent play Dungeons & Dragons Online.
Guild Wars had held third place for two years before this, but DDO activity doubled at the beginning of the year and dislodged the ArenaNet-developed game.
The boost in Dungeons & Dragons Online activity stems from a re-launch in autumn 2009 as a free-to-play game. That means people can download and play for absolutely nothing, only choosing to splash out to access more content past level 20 and enable the full suite of guild, auction house and support features. Micro-transactions are built in, too.
DDO is not free-to-play here in Europe, but Europeans are able to access the free US servers.
Warner Bros. Interactive splashed out and bought DDO developer Turbine in April 2010. Turbine also makes The Lord of the Rings Online.