A year ago, foursquare swarms (50+ users) were pretty rare. By early this year, though, the swarms became more and more frequent so foursquare unleashed the Super Swarm badge. Today, in a sign of just how quickly the service is growing, they’ve taken the next step with the Super Duper and Epic Swarm badges.

With Super Swarms becoming a common sight at major sporting events, festivals, etc. these badges were the logical next addition. The Super Duper Swarm badge unlocks when 500 users check in to the same venue simultaneously, while the Epic Swarm unlocks at 1000. Swarms of 500 or more aren’t all that uncommon, but I don’t think there’ve been any true 1000+ swarms at a real venue in the US.

The badges create a nice visual when they’re unlocked consecutively on a user’s profile. They form a sort of heat scale growing from yellow at 250 to a bright orange at 1000 — and leaving room for a bright red for Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Swarms down the road.

It’s interesting to see the variation in foursquare uptake with these badges. As with Super Swarms, they’ll most likely be unlocked in the largest, most tech-savvy cities first, while cities like Cincinnati have yet to gather enough people for just a Super Swarm.

What do you think of the new badges? Do you have any hope of ever unlocking them in your city?

/Thanks to the, err, swarm of you who sent this in

Related posts:

1. Foursquare’s 2012 SXSW Badges
2. New swarm badges let you commemorate all the biggest events you attend
3. One Matchstick to attempt Africa’s first Super Swarm badge tomorrow