Analyst: Up to 1.5 million could be playing SWTOR pre-access

Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz has claimed that up to 1.5 million users could be already playing Star Wars: The Old Republic via pre-access, as the BioWare MMO prepares to launch for all tomorrow.

As of this past weekend, EA has had 140 servers running as part of pre-launch access, up from the 106 operational when early players first logged-in on Wednesday.

In a note, Cruetz said the average player densities had "increased meaningfully."

"Based on the number of servers now in operation, and the relatively high densities thereon, we feel fairly comfortable estimating that the game already has in excess of 1 million players, and potentially could have as many as 1.5 million, with the official launch date of the game yet to come," he said.

"We note that EA gives players the first month free, so 'players' does not yet signify paying subscribers; however, our estimate does at least signify the number of people who have bought the game (and thus far, includes only a subset of those who pre-ordered the title)."

Cruetz said he remained "comfortable" that EA would meet the analyst firm's estimate of reaching 2 million subs by FY2013.

Three years after it was first announced, SWTOR fully launches tomorrow.

Thanks, CVG.