According to an NCsoft earning release, here are the numbers of accounts activated to date...

Dec. 2005.....1,270,000
Mar. 2006.....1,490,000
Jun. 2006.....2,080,000
Sep. 2006.....2,447,000
Dec. 2006.....3,122,000
Mar. 2007.....3,555,000
Jun. 2007.....3,917,000
Sep. 2007.....4,500,000
Dec. 2007.....4,878,000

...which roughly looks like a 45° incline on a line chart.

Yet, I don't know if ArenaNet and NCsoft are playing with the numbers. I bought Guild Wars, Nightfall, Factions and Eye of the North... do I count as four Guild Wars account sales or just one? Do I count as three accounts, because Eye of the North is an expansion?

I'm thinking ArenaNet is only counting me once, not three or four times. When ArenaNet is releasing these kind of numbers, wouldn't it make sense to include expansion numbers?

Anyway, this is good news. They're only about 50% of the way from beating World of Warcraft.

I notice that the Press Release mentions Guild Wars 2. Isn't it unusual that ArenaNet has been so quiet about this game? If the beta is going to be later this year, where are the screenshots?

Also, I find it unlikely that creators of a highly competitive game are uncompetitive themselves. No, I think it bothers "The Founders" that WoW is outperforming Guild Wars. If WoW stays a subscription model and Guild Wars stays free, eventually Guild Wars will beat WoW. I don't think the developers want to win that way. Instead, I think there's a hidden message here... wait until the sequel!

Something always felt a little off about the original series. The developers know this and they seem determined to fix it.

This is just speculation though. Maybe the founders are like... "Five million is good enough. I'll take my silver medal and go home." What do you think? Are "The Founders" still hungry? Will Guild Wars 2 out perform the original?