Guild Wars 2 Reaches New Player Milestone As First Expansion Launches

ArenaNet's PC MMO Guild Wars 2 has now reached more than 7 million global player accounts, the developer announced. The new milestone comes less than three months after ArenaNet switched the game's business model from paid to free. Thousands of new accounts are created every day, it claimed.

ArenaNet also announced that Guild Wars 2 players have a combined 1.4 billion-plus total gameplay hours since the game launched. In addition, ArenaNet called out the game's "friendly" environment by noting that, during the weekend that Guild Wars 2 switched business models, around 40 percent of max level characters traveled to starting zones to welcome new players.

The game's first expansion, Heart of Thorns, launched today (October 23). The paid expansion introduces a new zone called Maguuma Jungle, where players will fight an elder dragon voiced by Uncharted and Destiny actor Nolan North. The add-on also brings a new endgame character progression system called Masteries and adds Guild Hall social spaces.

In addition, ArenaNet says it will launch Guild Wars 2's first-ever raids in the near future.

Guild Wars 2 was released in summer 2012 and sold more than 5 million copies before its free-to-play conversion. For more on Hearts of Thorns, check out GameSpot's hands-on preview.