<cite>MapleStory</cite> Tops 92 Million Players

Mega successful kid-friendly, 2-D MMO MapleStory celebrates the fourth anniversary of its U.S. debut this week, and to celebrate publisher Nexon has revealed some figures detailing the success of the online world.

To date, the title has hooked "over 92 million worldwide users," Nexon claims. Of those, around 6 million are located in North America.

Pulling down a large audience is rather simple when you have a game that is free to play, but Nexon also released a statistic demonstrating their fan's rabid love for the game.

"Maplers have traveled through the many lands of the game’s vast world, as well as unleashed the game’s traits of individuality and freedom beyond its game borders," the press release states. "Players have turned MapleStory into an online video mainstay through blogs, community fan sites and fan videos. Over 200,000 videos are available by searching MapleStory at YouTube."

Additionally, Nexon plans to offer players a few anniversary events in the near future. Full details can be found below.

Alongside daily events to commemorate the anniversary, Nexon has the following planned for players:

Fourth Anniversary Maple Weapons - Monsters will be dropping special anniversary weapons. Or the players can exchange previous anniversary weapons and Maple Leaves for new Fourth Anniversary Weapons, Maple Hats, Maple Shields, Maple Earrings, or Fourth Anniversary Scrolls.

Item Upgrades - Maple Hat and Maple Earrings obtained through monsters are upgradable using Maple Leaves. The earrings can be upgraded by completing additional quests.

Leveling Up Event - Each time players levels up, they will receive Maple Leaves. The number of Maple Leaves rewarded will vary depending on the level. Higher level players will receive more Maple Leaves.

GM Events - The GMs will run special events and summon last year’s anniversary boss, Big Puff Daddy, at random times.

Monster Transformations – Any player can transform into one of MapleStory’s monsters for a given period of time.

4 Candle Event - Nexon is giving away 1,200 prizes over 40 days, including in-game items, Nexon Game Cards, digital cameras, iPod Touch and a laptop computer. Players who play for 40 minutes will receive a candle. Once a player has a candle, they can receive up to four pieces of cake for each successive 40 minutes of game play. Players who get four pieces of the cake will have a chance to win.

Maple Quiz – Players can take the Maple Quiz. For every question a player gets right, five Maple Leaves and a special cake will be rewarded.

Image courtesy Nexon