MapleStory, Nexon's hidden juggernaut

The Korea Times has up a piece on Nexon's MapleStory, a title that the article refers to as a homegrown success story. Though it's long been known that the game has runaway worldwide popularity, the article adds some concrete numbers to that perception. How accurate the numbers are, of course, is only for Nexon to know. They're still food for thought. According to the Times, Nexon just recently signed contracts to spread MapleStory into a total of 60 countries. Brazil and Vietnam are the 59th and 60th. They also claim the game has 83 million players overall. 18 million are in South Korea alone.

They also touch on the game's success outside of the online games arena. There are over 700 MapleStory-related products, from comics to card games, on the market right now. My favorite factoid: the highest-level character in the game is played by a man in his 40s who runs a pizza joint. He lives in the city of Gwangju.

[Via PlayNoEvil]