The game has been reported by mainstream media sources such as The Washington Post, Time Magazine, BBC News and National Public Radio. In an early September 2006 interview, Ruiz stated that it is difficult to determine success for a game with a social goal, but stated that more than 800,000 people had played 1.7 million times since its release, of which tens of thousands had forwarded on the game to friends or sent a letter to an elected representative.[2] As of April 2007, the game has been played more than 2.4 million times by over 1.2 million people worldwide. Critics have noted that despite the number of players, the actual crisis was unaffected, and the sole outcome of the game was to give publicity to the game's creators.[3]