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1.5M Xbox Live Users Online, Bogging Us Down

Microsoft's online service has hit a new record for concurrent on line users. Is that everything's been so darn slow?

By Brad Shoemaker  |  Jan. 6, 2009

This isn't mine, but it seemed appropriate.
This isn't mine, but it seemed appropriate.
Over on Gamesindustry.biz I caught a Microsoft announcement proclaiming a new record--1.5 million, to be exact--for simultaneous online Xbox Live users over the holidays. Not surprisingly, they attribute that milestone in large part to the launch of the New Xbox Experience, though I'm sure the holiday hardware sales surge and the big pile of worthwhile games also contributed. This release comes on the heels of some previous self-congratulation regarding the Xbox 360's lifetime global sales, which now sit at a fairly beefy 28 million.

Anyway, 1.5 million users online at once is a lot of users online at once. I spent a respectable amount of time over the break on Xbox Live, and at least in my experience, the service was generally running a good deal more slowly than I'm used to. I'm not even talking about game performance or download speeds, just access to the service's basic functionality. Things like reading my inbox, populating my friends list with "what people are doing right now" data, or--most bafflingly--even punching the guide button to spawn the in-game blade display have been lagging for several seconds before responding.

Some of those functions are the sort that would be hitting databases frequently, so it seems like a reasonable assumption that this influx of people jumping online is bogging down Live's performance. Though maybe the NXE also introduced additional network overhead that wasn't present in the previous interface. Clearly I am no network engineer.

How's your Xbox Live experience been these last few weeks? Are you getting the same laggy interface elements I am?

While we're on the subject of Xbox Live numbers, Microsoft put out 2008 top-20 lists for both retail and Arcade. The lists are ranked by unique users and sales, respectively. Braid at number three on the XBLA list is heartwarming to see, and we got a kick out of the number of demos and betas on the retail list--especially where the associated full game is not represented.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles

  1. Halo 3
  2. Call of Duty 4
  3. GTA IV
  4. Gears of War 2
  5. Gears of War
  6. CoD: World at War
  7. Guitar Hero III
  8. Battlefield: Bad Company Demo
  9. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Demo
  10. Rock Band
  11. Fable II
  12. Mirror's Edge Demo
  13. Madden NFL 09
  14. BF: Bad Company
  15. Rainbow Six Vegas 2
  16. UNO
  17. Castle Crashers
  18. COD: World at War Multiplayer Beta
  19. Forza Motorsport 2
  20. Too Human - Demo

Xbox Live Arcade Top Titles

  1. Castle Crashers
  2. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
  3. Braid
  4. A Kingdom for Keflings
  5. UNO
  6. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
  7. Fable II Pub Games
  8. Duke Nukem 3D
  9. Bionic Commando: Rearmed
  10. Worms
  11. SOULCALIBUR
  12. Portal: Still Alive
  13. DOOM
  14. 1942: Joint Strike
  15. Bomberman Live
  16. MEGA MAN 9
  17. N+
  18. Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3
  19. Marble Blast Ultra
  20. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Filed under: New Xbox Experience
73 Comments
Genoon Jan. 6, 2009 at 11:36 a.m.
Xbox live can't handle 1.5M concurrent users? Microsoft? Come on.
Lunarbunnyon Jan. 6, 2009 at 11:40 a.m.
Hey, at least it sounds like XBL stayed up the entire time... what's worse, slow XBL or none at all?
JoelTGMon Jan. 6, 2009 at 11:42 a.m.
COD4 >>>> COD:WAW

:)
ParadoxControlon Jan. 6, 2009 at 11:44 a.m.
@Geno, 
I don't know too many things that can handel that many people on at once. And don't say WoW, because theres no fucking way there servers have anywhere near a million people on any given one, at any given time. 
Jeffsekaion Jan. 6, 2009 at 11:46 a.m.
My XBL has been fine, your internet might be fucked
WEGGLESon Jan. 6, 2009 at 11:49 a.m.
I've been having the same Guide issues. It'll hang for a bit while sending a message, or doing what ever. It's rather annoying. Good to see that it's not just me (as it seemed to have started when I got my new 120GB hard drive. )
BranDongon Jan. 6, 2009 at 11:51 a.m.
I've noticed the dash board working slow a lot lately..  So this is why.. hah..  I have been scoffing at how this dashboard was supposed to be faster than the previous dash board.. and it has been so much slower for me... it even locks up sometimes.
darkjester74on Jan. 6, 2009 at 12:01 p.m.
Yeah I noticed the slow downs as well.  Its rather stupid that it should hit the network just to bring up the guide, tho.
skrutopon Jan. 6, 2009 at 12:02 p.m.
It's definitely taking an extra 10-20 seconds for my NXE dashboard to show since Christmas, and I sometimes have difficulty pulling up the list of XBLA games when I want to play one of them.  While I have had a few hiccups streaming 30 Rock in HD via Netflix, it hasn't been noticeably worse than any other time, and it's still much better than when the service first launched.

I'm really surprised to see Castle Crashers at #17 on the XBL list and #1 on XBLA list.  I stayed far, far, away from multiplayer until the patch was released, which was only a week ago.
daniel_beck_90on Jan. 6, 2009 at 12:02 p.m.
it is wierd that Forza Motorsport 2 is number 19  .
Gizmoon Jan. 6, 2009 at 12:03 p.m.
Well apart from the E74 error message, my Xbox has been fine for the most part recently, it's frozen about 4 times in the guide though.
Daz0608on Jan. 6, 2009 at 12:04 p.m.
Live was alright for me over christmas, a massive improvement on what happend last year
bombHillson Jan. 6, 2009 at 12:04 p.m.
I have noticed sometimes accessing your friends list can be really slow.  It's funny though not suprising to see COD4 topping COD5
Genoon Jan. 6, 2009 at 12:05 p.m.
@Paradox, WoW has close to 12 million subscribers, a large part of which play several hours a day. It's not unreasonable to assume 10% of the player pop is on at any given time (and remember, this is under the condition that the servers are mostly lag free too). Games like Runescape are way smaller than WoW yet they have about 150k-200k concurrent users on average.
bwooduhson Jan. 6, 2009 at 12:10 p.m.
im suprised GTAIV is above Gears 2. I didn't think many people actually playedd online anymore.
RHCPfan24on Jan. 6, 2009 at 12:18 p.m.
My Xbox has been a bit laggy I must say, and the guide has taken a while to just pop up similar to Brad. I also notice it takes awhile to sign in occasionally. 
For the charts, I don't realize why the XBLA arcade games are on both lists. I know the second list is BOUGHT games, not played, but why structure it like that? Its strange, and Left 4 Dead isn't on the list.
crunchUKon Jan. 6, 2009 at 12:24 p.m.
i believe i speak for everyone when i say xbox live ftw
ParanoidFreakon Jan. 6, 2009 at 12:26 p.m.
bombHills said:
"I have noticed sometimes accessing your friends list can be really slow."
I noticed my friends list was slow too, I just assumed it was NXE lagging, I'm glad to know it should speed up soon.
crunchUKon Jan. 6, 2009 at 12:26 p.m.
bwooduhs said:
"im suprised GTAIV is above Gears 2. I didn't think many people actually playedd online anymore."
It's unique users for the whole of 2008 so it doesn't matter much wether there are many people online NOW

also @ they guy commenting on forza 2 being at #19 forza actually has quite a few people online
jhosaphaton Jan. 6, 2009 at 12:28 p.m.
I would get kicked off of Live for no apparent reason....but that was it. It happened enough to annoy me, but since Christmas it's been fine.

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