Representatives for CCP's MMO EVE Online noted on the game's official blog today that it's reached a new peak concurrent user milestone of 45,186 players.

"While we've made tremendous serverside changes in the EVE Online infrastructure with the EVE64 and StacklessIO initiatives, it is truly a testament to our loyal fans that 5 years into EVE's existence we are still breaking records and more people are flying in New Eden than ever before," commented CCP.

EVE Online is unique in that it features a real in-game economy, overseen by economist Dr. Eyjolfur Gudmundsson, and a democratically-elected representative council of players. Gudmundsson wrote about the impact of a real-world economy on CCP's virtual world in this special My Turn piece.

EVE Online has more than 240,000 active subscriptions.