While word that people like free stuff isn’t exactly mind-blowing news, what does appear to be surprising to players of Lord of the Rings Online is just how many people like free stuff; the game’s servers started experiencing login queues for the first time in years, and player numbers overall have hit a new all-time peak on Steam.
Several players shared images of queue timers on LOTRO’s launcher across social media, with image tweets and a wide variety of posts on Reddit. Some of the bigger server queues appear to have hit EU servers, which opened up just as most players in the region were heading home. The influx of players was also felt on Steam, as the MMORPG broke a new all-time peak concurrency of over 3,700 players. Many players were very likely drawn back to LOTRO to take advantage of the extremely generous anniversary goodies being handed out as well as the new area of Yondershire and other new content.
Overall, the wider LOTRO community appears to be taking this population surge in stride and good humor, marveling in amazement at queue numbers and reminiscing about the old days when the game was similarly busy at launch.
