During its peak, Lost Ark was among the top 3 on Steam regarding the most simultaneous active players. Since then, almost the entire community has been lost. Now the developers are explaining how they intend to finally reverse the negative trend.
When was the heyday of Lost Ark? Thanks to impressive trailers and enthusiastic reports from the already released versions, the MMORPG from Smilegate and Amazon Games unleashed the biggest launch hype of the last decade for its release in the West in February 2022 – when it comes to the MMORPG genre.
The numbers reflect this: After a month, 10 million Western players had tried Lost Ark (20 million players worldwide). At times, there were 1.325 million players simultaneously on the servers on Steam. That was enough for 3rd place in the all-time charts, behind Valve’s Counter-Strike and the still very popular battle royale shooter PUBG.
How historically significant this launch was can also be seen from the fact that only three games have managed to surpass Lost Ark since February 2022: Palworld, Black Myth: Wukong, and most recently Monster Hunter Wilds (via steamdb.info). Other hits like Elden Ring or Cyberpunk 2077 are behind the Asia MMORPG.
The most important points about Lost Ark at a glance:
How do you stop a free fall?
What is the current status? The player count of Lost Ark has – not surprisingly – declined over the years. While many other service games on Steam can still report five or even six-figure player counts even after years, the MMORPG currently has a daily peak of 13,029 simultaneous active players (via steamdb.info). So, 98% of the players from the launch are gone.
There have been hardly any positive spikes lately. The last noticeable peak was in May 2024 (96,684 simultaneous active players). The last time a six-figure number of MMORPG enthusiasts were simultaneously on the servers was in April 2023.
Amazon Games has been trying for years to address the criticism of the time-consuming endgame, luck-dependent progression, or the numerous bots. For example, through restart servers, features like solo raids, regular ban waves, or events that allow efficient character equipping. However, nothing has worked sustainably so far.
What are the new plans? On the official website of the MMORPG, the developers recently commented on the current feedback from the community and what measures they derive from it for upcoming updates (via playlostark.com) to attract more players back to the servers. The main insights:
- They want to reduce the gold costs for new and returning players significantly by weakening the costs of Transcendence and Advanced Strengthening – this will come with the April update.
- The developers plan adjustments to the gem system, so players can use the class and playstyle they enjoy as flexibly and freely as possible. However, it is still unclear what exactly these changes will look like, as it apparently is tricky to find an optimal middle ground.
- Further balance adjustments for the classes are planned with the April update.
- As they are getting closer to the Korean version in terms of content, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ensure the localization for all supported languages quickly enough. They have therefore decided to stop supporting German and French from May 2025.
- When experienced, well-equipped players pull others through content for money while they are “afk,” this is referred to in the context of the MMORPG as “Bussing.” Advertising for such activities is prohibited, even if one tries to disguise this creatively. The developers want to punish such actions more harshly in the future.
- In character progression, the range from item level 1,580 to 1,620 is currently particularly tedious. The developers are currently working on a solution to alleviate this section. Until then, additional materials, books, and events should reduce the effort.
Is that enough to bring back at least some of the 98% of lost players? What would Amazon Games need to do for you to log into Lost Ark for the first time or again? Let us know in the comments! Besides the newly announced measures, there is also a content plan for Lost Ark: One of the big MMORPGs on Steam shows its roadmap until summer
