Hardly any top MMORPG has lost as many players on Steam in 2024 as New World from Amazon, even though 2024 was supposed to be the flagship year for the MMORPG, which came to the consoles PS5 and Xbox Series X. However, Amazon paid a much too high price for the console launch. At release, New World peaked at 913,027 players on Steam – in 2024, the game temporarily dropped to 3,285 average players. MeinMMO author Schuhmann explains the mistakes Amazon made here.
These were Amazon’s big mistakes with New World: Amazon made 3 big mistakes with New World in 2024:
- They did not continue to develop the MMORPG throughout the year and also did not reveal what they were planning, but only referred to a “big update in the summer.” In May, they got themselves into a PR nightmare when developers made fun of the fact that nothing was known about the summer update in a video. The developers apparently found that amusing – the players felt ridiculed.
- When they finally announced that the big update included a port for Xbox and PlayStation, the existing players on PC were bitterly disappointed. They had almost a year to imagine what a great update awaited them, only to hear from Amazon: We are mainly focused on console players. The fact that PC players also received a revamp of their MMORPG was lost in the overall frustration.
- Then they managed to announce the console update, the relaunch of New World, at the worst possible time: The launch of New World Aeternum was right after the release of the first AAA MMORPG for consoles in 5 years: Throne and Liberty. And the absurdity: Amazon destroyed the market for themselves because they were the publisher for Throne and Liberty.
Stable player numbers on Steam fall deeply for the first time in 2024
These are the effects of the decisions:
The player numbers of New World were excellent at release on Steam in October 2021, but fell rapidly.
However, since February 2022, New World had established itself as a “stable” MMORPG on Steam:
- The player numbers rose to as high as 67,750 average players during major updates (November 2022)
- In weak phases, when nothing was happening for a long time, they also fell to a low of 11,300 (June 2023)
But they had never fallen below this value until 2024.
However, without any innovations and with no perspective that it would get better, the player numbers of New World plummeted to 3,285 in 2024 – only a third of the previous low.
Hoped-for renaissance of New World did not occur
Was the update worth it? No, unfortunately not – while the relaunch New World: Aeternum managed to bring some players back to Steam, the numbers only temporarily rose to about 22,000 – far less than the peak in 2023.
Was it at least a success on consoles?? No, it doesn’t look like that. Google Trends shows that an upturn in interest did not occur and that there was no real recovery of search relevance in October 2024.
The attention of the gaming public was clearly focused on Throne and Liberty, on Amazon’s own competition.
Players on PS4 and Xbox One wait 5 years for a new MMORPG – get 2 from Amazon within 2 weeks
What was the mistake?? Since the release of Black Desert on PS4 (August 2019) and Xbox One (March 2019), console players have been waiting for a full MMORPG. New World should have hit big.
However, Amazon shot themselves in the foot, as with the release of Throne and Liberty on October 1, they filled exactly the gap that New World Aeternum was supposed to fill only 2 weeks later on October 15.
October 15 was the worst time to release an MMORPG on PS5 and Xbox Series X. Almost any other date within the last 5 years would have been better than October 15.
What’s behind it: 2024 will go down in history as a terrible year for New World: Mistakes were made that cannot be explained with common sense. Apparently, in their efforts to create an artificial hype, they outsmarted themselves:
- But you cannot leave the loyal player base of an MMORPG in the dark for a year and dismiss them with “Trust us, the summer update will be great.”
- The longer you proclaim a “so massive summer update that is worth the wait”, the higher the expectations become, which you will ultimately only disappoint.
- The idea of releasing two MMORPGs for consoles simultaneously within a window of two weeks is truly inexplicable. That cannot have been the plan; something must have gone wrong in the coordination with the South Korean partner NetEase.
That a company like Amazon makes such blunders really raises doubts about whether new projects like the MMORPG for the Lord of the Rings will do better. Let’s see when they release it – perhaps parallel to the release of GTA 6, or so? There is a sign of life from the new MMORPG for Lord of the Rings from Amazon Games
