Criterion: 50,000 people have played Burnout Paradise online in the past day

Speaking to videogaming247, Criterion's Alex Ward has revealed some fairly startling stats about the current state of online play in smash-racer Burnout Paradise.

"In the past 24 hours we've had 50,000 people play Burnout Paradise online on both systems," said Ward. "If they only stayed online for one hour each on average (and most stayed for more than that), there will be have been over FIVE AND A HALF YEARS of play online in Paradise City in the last 24 hours."

Ward also revealed a new, free car livery for the game tonight, which he described as "coming soon", and hinted at big plans for upcoming downloadable content.

“We’re working on some incredible new content for Paradise, some of which we’ve announced, and some of which we haven’t,” he said.