Rainbow Six Siege Hits 30 Million Players

If there was ever an argument against games as a service from a business standpoint, it’s that continuing to support and update a game for free after the first wave of sales could be seen as an economically poor decision. After all, for the majority of titles, most sales happen within the first week or so of launch, and whatever comes after that tends to be a trickle. But as we saw yesterday with Shovel Knight, there are exceptions to every rule: and as it turns out, Ubisoft’s own Rainbow Six Siege is one such exception.

As it was announced, over on their blog, that the game has officially hit 30 million users, gaining a whopping 3 million over the past month as “Operation Chimera” has shaken up the game. Rainbow Six Siege brand director Alexandre Remy had this to say:

"On behalf of the entire team, we wanted to thank every member of our diverse, global community for their support of our game. Our players are the most valuable element to our game. Over the last three years, we have endeavored to create a solid community built on transparency as we grow and evolve the ever-expanding world of Rainbow Six Siege. We are so tremendously honored to achieve this milestone, and we will continue to do everything we can to earn each and every new person that decides to play."

30 million ain’t nothing to sneeze at, obviously, and judging by the fact that Ubisoft plans to continue supporting the game into the foreseeable future, that number has every potential to grow even bigger. Speaking as one of the late joiners, I rather hope it does: the fact that its eSports scene seems to be catching on will probably help with that endeavor, and as long as future content is as interesting as this new operation? I like the odds.