Need for Speed World grabs 5 million users

The population of Need for Speed World may not be planet-sized just yet, but it's enough to fill a pretty big city. EA today announced that the free-to-play PC racing game has registered 5 million users.

Need for Speed World launched last summer and quickly tallied 1 million users by early September. The game's registered base then zipped to 3 million in December. Unfortunately, the publisher did not note how many of the new 5 million figure are active registered accounts.

Need for Speed World offers gamers numerous vehicles to zip around in, but now there is a just-announced car featured in the title. The Audi A1 Clubsport Quattro--which was shown for the first time at the Wortherse Tour in Austria today--is now available in Need for Speed World as a free rental through Saturday.

Codeveloped by EA Black Box and EA Singapore, Need for Speed World launched last July. The title sports 150 miles of in-game road to traverse, including NFS: Most Wanted's Rockport locale and NFS: Carbon's Palmont city streets, as well as a full day/night cycle.

Need for Speed World is part of EA's Play4Free label, saddled up next to other games stemming from popular EA franchises like Battlefield and Dragon Age.