Batman: Arkham City demo sets daily record for OnLive play

OnLive has announced that the streaming demo of Batman: Arkham City has broken records on both sides of the Atlantic, with the game seeing more trials in the US and UK than any other OnLive-enabled title. The exclusive demo, which enabled US players to playtest the game on launch day, also allowed UK players to try out the game three days before launch – an offer that met with unprecedented popularity, reports OnLive.

Above: OnLive doesn't require fancy hardware or graphics cards, but performance will be affected if your Internet connection is tangled up by masked vigilantes

The demo, which can be sampled here, allows 30 minutes of free-play on Arkham City, after which time players can rent or purchase the title to continue where the demo left off. OnLive hasn't released numbers on just how many players tried out its Arkham City trial, but it beats out other recently-launched demos such as Saints Row: The Third and Lord of the Rings: War in the North.

The Arkham City demo's success, then, serves not just as good news for Batman fans, but for OnLive, whose cloud-gaming platform is a new entrant in the traditionally hardware-fixated gaming world. The crucial test for OnLive will be how many of those demos inspired further play – but if you're looking to see how the platform handles its most popular title, try for yourself.