Editing EverQuest (section)

===Sales and subscriptions===
''EverQuest'' was the most pre-ordered PC title on [[EB Games|EBGames.com]] prior to its release in March 1999.<ref name=milestone>{{cite web |url=http://www.gamershell.com/infosheets/219023.html#a4pZCKoTCuP6BEVp.99 |title=Readme: Everquest Milestones |publisher=GamersHell.com |access-date=October 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181028033700/http://www.gamershell.com/infosheets/219023.html#a4pZCKoTCuP6BEVp.99 |archive-date=October 28, 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The game had 10,000 active subscribers 24 hours after launch, making it the high-selling online role-playing game up until that point.<ref name=milestone/> It achieved 60,000 subscribers by April 1999.<ref name=60k>{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001118015000/http://www.gamecenter.com/News/Item/Textonly/0,78,0-2648,00.html | url=http://www.gamecenter.com/News/Item/Textonly/0,78,0-2648,00.html | title=Game Spin: On an ''EverQuest'' | author=Asher, Mark | date=April 7, 1999 | work=[[CNET Gamecenter]] | archive-date=November 18, 2000 | url-status=dead}}</ref> Six months later, around 225,000 copies of the game had been sold in total, with 150,000 active subscribers.<ref name=milestone/> By early 2000, the game's domestic sales alone reached 231,093 copies, which drew revenues of $10.6 million.<ref name=231k>{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010112165200/http://www.gamecenter.com/News/Item/Textonly/0,78,0-3868,00.html | url=http://www.gamecenter.com/News/Item/Textonly/0,78,0-3868,00.html | title=Game Spin: Daika-X-Box | author=Asher, Mark | date=March 10, 2000 | work=[[CNET Gamecenter]] | archive-date=January 12, 2001 | url-status=dead}}</ref> [[NPD Techworld]], a firm that tracked sales the United States,<ref name=usnpd>{{cite web | url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/gateway-notebook-goes-for-ratings/ | title=Gateway notebook goes for ratings | author=Spooner, John G. | date=June 13, 2003 | work=[[ZDNet]] | access-date=September 20, 2019}}</ref> reported 559,948 units sold of ''EverQuest'' by December 2002.<ref name=controversial>{{cite journal | author=Staff | title=The 10 Most Controversial PC Games of All Time | date=May 2003 | volume=10 | number=5 | journal=[[PC Gamer US]] | pages=50, 51}}</ref> Subscription numbers would rise to over 500,000 active accounts four years after release in 2003.<ref name=mac/> By the end of 2004 the title's lifetime sales exceeded 3 million copies worldwide<ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906165059/https://www.sony.com/en_us/SCA/company-news/press-releases/sony-online-entertainment/2004/satellite-feed-everquest-ii-online-game-hits-the-s.html |url=https://www.sony.com/en_us/SCA/company-news/press-releases/sony-online-entertainment/2004/satellite-feed-everquest-ii-online-game-hits-the-s.html |archive-date=September 6, 2015 |access-date=November 6, 2018 |date=November 5, 2004 |publisher=[[Sony|Sony Corporation of America]] |title=Satellite Feed - EverQuest II Online Game Hits the Stores |author=Sony Online Entertainment}}</ref> and reached an active subscriber peak of 550,000.<ref>{{cite book |title=Virtual Lives: A Reference Handbook |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ek-L3QqtwoYC&pg=PA154 |author=Ivory, James D. |year=2012 |publisher=ABC CLIO, LLC |page=154|isbn = 9781598845853}}</ref> As of September 2020, ''EverQuest'' had 66,000 subscribers and 82,000 monthly active players.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Yin-Poole|first=Wesley|date=2020-12-05|title=EverQuest is bigger than EverQuest 2|url=https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-12-05-everquest-is-bigger-than-everquest-2|access-date=2021-02-06|website=Eurogamer|language=en}}</ref>