NCsoft, the publisher behind the Guild Wars, announced that the fracnhise developed by ArenaNet has sold five million units worldwide.

The franchise includes three stand-alone episodes, the original game released in April 2005, Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall, and the recently released expansion, Guild Wars: Eye of the North.

ArenaNet, located in Bellevue, Washington, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NCsoft, was founded

by key members of the creative teams behind the hit games Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo, and the creators of Battle.net.

Guild Wars, a MMORPG, allows players to explore a rich fantasy game world, acquire skills, build personalized characters and compete in head-to-head guild battles with their friends.

Unlike other similar games, playing Guild Wars does not require any online fees.

“Reaching the five million mark is extremely gratifying for us at ArenaNet because it shows the hard work and dedication we put into our games has resonated with the fans,” said Mike O’Brien, co-founder of ArenaNet.

ArenaNet announced last year that GuildWars 2 is already in works and a beta version will be released this year.

In January, Blizzard announced that its World of Warcraft title has 10 million subscribers. According to Blizzard’s definition a subscriber is anyone who has paid a subscription fee, has an active prepaid card or used an internet game room in the last 30 days. This figure doesn't include free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid card.

Blizzard said that currently there are more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, while in Asia 5.5 million are playing World Of Warcraft.