http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

click the link at bottom that says "view steam players per game"

currently there are 13,561 playing etw right this second.. 17,740 was the peak today.

this includes everyone who is logged into steam, and has etw launched... lets say 90% are playing sp.. that leaves 135 online at the moment... it might be closer to 80% (265)given how easy it is to get an online game: there is a quick battle service, once you have gone through the hassle of setting up steam in the first place why not try the mp, a good bit of the achievement awards can only be gained in mp.. my guess on the % of vets.. id say 60-75% have played some version of tw before..maybe not online though.. of stw vets.. id say less than 1%.. ive run into maybe 5-10 players in the last 2 weeks that played stw.. out of the thousands ive played..

the part about the different servers.. ive spent some time trying to figure them out... i dont have all the answers and i could be wrong... but the usa has 3 main servers.. la, chicago, ny .. from there each server has sub servers.. there is a dc server which i go through.. atlanta, miami, boston, san jose and a few others..

from what i can tell... all usa servers speak to each other.. it doesnt matter which one you are on you will see game from all the other usa servers.. international servers im guessing working in the same way.. im betting hot spots like uk and aussie have a main server and sub servers to the same effect.. when i went to uk i saw many games listed by celti.. which i remember as a spanish clan.. maybe all of europe is linked like usa is.. i really dont know..

you cannot see games listed on the uk servers from usa and vise versa.. however.. you will see games hosted by people in your friends list regardless of which server they are on.. i can goto uk... host a game.. and anyone who is on my friend list will see it.. so for those trying to hook up with old tw friends... i suggest an exchange of steam id's so you will see each others game.. invites also work.. if im on usa server and invite someone on my friend list from the uk they can join. one thing i have noticed.. LAG.. when playing on the uk server i lag terribly.... on usa i can run 4v4 with no lag at all.. there is a green, yellow, red light system when viewing hosted games to show your connection speed to the host.. all of uk's games for me are yellow..

ive been hosting an early era, low fund, no restrictions, unranked, naval battle the last 2 days.. ive been almost unstoppable on land.. so i wanted to spread FEAR to the high seas.. i won 75% of my matches yesterday.. not as high as my land % but ill be working to get it there :)