ARK: Survival Evolved has been one of the most popular survival games on the market for years and still entertains numerous players in 2022. While fans await the release of the sequel, the player numbers of the dino adventure are skyrocketing. But why is ARK so popular in general?
What are the current player numbers? ARK Survival Evolved recently set a new record for player numbers on Steam. The previous highest value was 157,000 and came from March 2020.
On June 14, 222,500 players (as of June 15, 2022, via SteamCharts.com) were playing the survival title from Studio Wildcard. This is an enormous jump compared to the previous month of May, when player numbers on Steam peaked at 76,000 concurrent players.
Why is ARK being played more right now? There are three possible answers to this question:
- Free promotion after the Xbox & Bethesda Showcase: The main reason for the current increase in player numbers is likely that ARK: Survival Evolved can be acquired for free on Steam until June 19, 2022 and can be retained even after this date.
- New map and creatures: ARK recently received a new map called Fjördur and 4 new creatures, which is extremely popular among fans. The Fjördur release is especially an incentive for console players to return to the survival title. The map was already available on Steam as a mod version for months.
- Delay of the ARK 2 release: The delay of ARK 2 has certainly had a small effect on player numbers, as players now know that they cannot expect an alternative to the game in the coming months.
“You can spend so much time in this game”
What makes ARK stand out? ARK offers survival fans a large selection of content in which they can invest time. Overall, ARK has 5 maps that must be purchased as DLC as well as 7 additional maps that have been officially released by Studio Wildcard but are available for free.
Additionally, the survival game impresses with a large and constantly growing selection of mystical creatures, dinosaurs, and other prehistoric animals. These can be tamed and bred, fought with or against, and ridden on.
Moreover, ARK is divided into PvP and PvE servers where you can either fight against other players or gigantic boss creatures. So there is more than enough to do, all within typical survival elements: you need to farm a lot of resources and craft almost everything you need to survive.
Additionally, there is support for mods created and provided by the community. This allows you to have a significantly larger number of maps, items, buildings, and creatures on Steam than the base game offers. In ARK 2, mods will even be available on consoles.
What do the positive reviews say: Anyone who has played ARK knows that the game has its problems. Nevertheless, player reviews are very good. Out of over 530,000 reviews on Steam, 82% are positive.
- BamBam49 via Steam: “I can only recommend it. My grandson had ‘convinced’ me to play it, and now I play it with my daughter on a rented server. Although we are hundreds of kilometers apart, we meet daily on the island, hunt, tame, breed dinos, build, and have fun.”
- Fate via Steam: “You can spend so much time in this game. Sure, it has its flaws, but which game doesn’t nowadays? There are also so many mods with which you can customize the game as you like.”
- Sckorpiuss via Steam: “Ark is a great game since you have many options and there is a wide variety of creatures, most of which can also be tamed. […] There are also many free and paid DLCs that add more fun to the game. Unfortunately, it takes up a lot of disk space and requires good PC performance. Still, I can only recommend it if you are a fan of open-world survival craft games.”
- blue-15 via Steam: “Dinosaurs are not really my thing. I played the game with my boyfriend and I really enjoy the joint hunting and building a base.”
If you are now starting ARK: Survival Evolved with the free offer on Steam and are looking for some tips, feel free to check out MeinMMO.
We have some helpful guides to the survival game from Studio Wildcard on the site, and we show you for example the 10 best dinos in ARK.
