Planetside 2 is a massive game. It was built from the ground up for immense player-on-player fights: dozens of soldiers, mounted guns and vehicles, all vying for the same territory. The scale of the game is unrivaled, and it's incredibly fun to fill any sort of role, be it basic infantry, pilots, or vehicle gunners. It manages to find a balance between semi-realistic sci-fi shooters and team-based fun a la Team Fortress 2.
While console games are still catching up to PC titles in terms of simultaneous online players, other PC games are trying to catch up with Planetside 2. The game is built to support hundreds upon hundreds of players, all fighting at the same time. Usually, however, server choices and player population will keep the count from ever reaching the limit.
Then again, you can never underestimate the tenacity of gamers: thanks to the community site Planetside Battles, the game now holds the world record for highest number of simultaneous players in a single multiplayer match.
The video above is only a snippet of the carnage that went down: four minutes of a game that lasted for hours. Most games support 16 players, some PC games support 64 - Planetside 2 is on a completely different level.
A grand total of 1,158 players joined in on the carnage. That's right: over a thousand people were in the same game, playing the same match, at the same time.
On top of the absurd player count, the game featured over 53,000 player deaths, over 3,000 team kills and over 7,500 vehicles destroyed. Considering that the game is based around capturing bases, it only makes sense that dozens were captured throughout the carnage: 31 capture points were seized in total.
As seen on the official recap page, the event took dozens of coordinators and event planners to pull off, but it was worth it because this is a record that likely won't be bested for some time. There are some towns with fewer people than players in this match of Planetside 2, and the people running the event should be proud of what they managed to accomplish.
So - how does one get in on a record-setting game like Planetside 2? Well, it's available now for PC, and currently in closed beta for the PlayStation 4 - all of the information can be found on the official site.
The best part? Joining in on the carnage won't cost you a dime. That's right - Planetside 2 is free-to-play (and without any of that pay-to-win nonsense, too).
