Star Wars: The Old Republic is continuing to prove why new downloadable content and title expansions are such a successful formula for the PC gaming platform.

Bioware's massively multiplayer online (MMO) video game has sold over two million copies and has sustained a dedicated base of 1.7 million subscribers worldwide, making it one of the most successful titles in this genre around at the moment.

The game's publisher is of the belief that the secret to this success has been the game's ability to keep players engaged with its story-driven expansions, which have been drip fed strategically to maximise interest.

Rise of Rakghouls was added just 30 days after launch, and another update featuring more content and enhanced in-game features is scheduled to be released early this year.

Of course, there is also the small matter of the Old Republic's superbly maintained servers which, since its release in December, have been online for over 99.5 per cent of the time outside scheduled maintenance.

Although the game is still in its infancy when compared against other established MMO's such as World of Warcraft, the sheer size of the fan base and activity it has managed to attract in its short life so far makes for impressive reading. With over 239 million in-game hours accrued by users, a total of 27,000 years of in-game time have passed already.

During this time, over 20 billion non-player characters have been killed and 148 billion credits spent. BioWare co-founder Dr Ray Muzyka explained: "We're truly honoured and humbled by the incredibly strong support from our players who are enjoying Star Wars: The Old Republic.

"Our entire team worked very hard over the holidays to deliver a smooth experience at launch, and the resulting response to the game from our fans and critics has been exceptionally gratifying."ADNFCR-1220-ID-801284252-ADNFCR