Free Realms, an MMO developed by Sony Online Entertainment, has surpassed nine million registered players, SOE announced today.

“With Free Realms, we’ve been able to reflect the needs and wants of our players by keenly listening to their suggestions and feedback,” said John Smedley, president of SOE. “We believe the persistent exercise of capturing in-game research inside Free Realms has been a huge contributing factor as to why we’ve attracted over nine million players in less than a year. It truly helps us give our players a game where they can do and be whatever they want.”

One example of a customer-requested feature that has been recently implemented in Free Realms is Rides - which allows players who have purchased a membership to ride on the back of a T-Rex or Dragon and travel anywhere in the Free Realms world at 150% of their normal speed. If you play World of Warcraft, just think of it as an epic mount. While players are able to enjoy the current creatures at hand to take care of their hasty traveling needs, there are other forms of transportation currently being brewed for release, such as horses.

What's been luring such a vast number of people to the fantasy-themed world of Free Realms? For one, the most appealing thing about the game is the continuous development of new features and themed in-game events that are held inside this virtual world created by SOE. Obviously, the fact that the game is also free-to-play has definitely contributed to the consistent growth of Free Realms, along with determined marketing support.

If you're a parent and are looking for a way to give your child the virtual world experience without the over-abundant violence in more mature MMO's, this is definitely something to consider. Plus, it's friggin' free! What's better than free, huh?