5.5 million hours spent in Star Wars: The Old Republic over Christmas weekend

Electronic Arts is touting the latest numbers for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it seemed that lightsaber hums competed hard with the sound of jingle bells.

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Over the last weekend, 5.5 million hours of potential quality family time were sacrificed for the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire instead, according to the publisher. It’s a sign that EA’s major bet on The Old Republic, which has been in development for years in the hopes of recreating World of Warcaft’s success, has paid off big.

After a full-week early access period for pre-order customers, the massively multiplayer online (MMO) game launched on December 20^th to positive reviews, including an 89 out of 100 score on VentureBeat. The aggregated Metacritic tally currently stands at 88.

The marketing efforts for the game also seemed to pay off, as a well-edited promotional video from The Old Republic’s launch day event went viral. “The first ever lightsaber freeze mob duel in the heart of New York’s Times Square” reached over 1.6 million views on YouTube.

Electronic Arts also delights us with updated trivia statistics from the game servers. As of December 26, a total of 60 million in-game hours were accumulated, 260 million quests completed, 44 million PvP battles fought and 9 million space combat missions accomplished. In the course of action, over 3 billion unfortunate NPCs (non-player characters) were killed. The Dark Side has a narrow lead in the popularity contest, as 850,000 Sith Warriors have been created compared to 810,000 Jedi Knights.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is set thousands of years before the Star Wars movies. Players choose one of eight character classes and can team up with friends online or solve missions on their own. Rich storylines, companion characters and fully voiced dialogs are the stand-out features compared to other MMO games.