On February 8th, exactly one month ago, the new MMORPG Lost Ark entered Headstart. Three days later, all fans were able to travel to Arkesia. We at MeinMMO take a look at where Lost Ark stands after a month, what it does well, and what problems it has.
What does Lost Ark do well? Lost Ark offers quite a bit of variety for the otherwise long-established MMORPG genre. Many fans find the new game refreshingly different, which is not least due to the iso perspective that is otherwise not very common in MMOs.
Our author Mark Sellner also says that Lost Ark feels to him like his first MMORPG. But the game is not all that new, as Lost Ark was released in Korea back in 2018 and was far from as good as it is today.
Because Lost Ark was polished to a high gloss for four years before it was released in the West, and it clearly shows in the MMORPG. It has significantly fewer gameplay errors than comparable releases like New World. The overall gaming experience just feels rounder:
- It starts with little things like the satisfying sound when you acquire a new item.
- The side quests are well-designed, as they never take you too far from your actual goal and can be done on the side.
- You can really notice it in the entire world, which is designed with so much love and detail that it manages, despite the iso perspective, to captivate people and to completely immerse them in Arkesia.
Currently, there are 15 different classes in Lost Ark, a huge mountain of endgame content, and plenty to do for people who love to complete things. Even after a month, most users have still not played through all available content.
And what is currently in the game is far from all. More than 7 additional classes are still waiting for you that are already available in Korea. It is similar with even more endgame content that we also do not yet have in the West.
The endgame spiral consists of collecting increasingly powerful armor and weapons to further optimize and strengthen your character, so that you can face even harder bosses. Lost Ark has absolutely optimized this concept and made it very fun.
It can therefore be said that Lost Ark is a good game and a great MMORPG, but even Arkesia is not without problems. More on that later.
Long Waiting Times at Launch
This is how the launch of Lost Ark went: The rush to Lost Ark at release was massive. On launch day, 1,324,761 people played the new MMORPG simultaneously. It breaks records of genre colleagues like New World (via SteamDB).
It even surpasses Dota 2 and CSGO with this massive number of concurrent players and is therefore in second place of Steam games with the most users ever online at the same time. Currently, it is only surpassed by PUBG.
However, having so many people wanting to play the new MMORPG simultaneously overwhelmed the publishers and developers. They were expecting approximately 200,000 concurrent fans at launch. Accordingly, the servers were overloaded and there were long waiting times.
Amazon reacted quickly and promptly launched new servers, but even these could not handle the massive influx of new players. For over a week, Lost Ark continued to record over a million concurrent fans daily, which is reflected in the game’s stability.
So, in the first two weeks of Lost Ark, there were waiting times of more than 5 hours, and even when you finally logged in, the game hardly ran smoothly. The matchmaking, which is necessary for dungeons and raids, barely functioned and often didn’t work at all.
The cash shop and the associated Crystal Aura, a kind of paid premium service, faced long problems and simply didn’t work for extended periods.
This led to waiting players watching the MMORPG on Twitch, where it also broke records from WoW and New World. Over a million fans watched on Twitch in the Lost Ark category, over 400,000 of them alone with MMORPG icon Asmongold. Thus, Lost Ark became the largest category on Twitch, ahead of LoL and Just Chatting.
Currently, the matchmaking and shop problems are no longer significant, and the waiting times are not noteworthy long anymore, if they still exist at all. On the unofficial German server Asta, our editorial team has not encountered a queue in the last 7 days.
This is not only due to the slightly declining player numbers but also because Lost Ark recently banned over a million accounts that used a bot.
How many people are currently playing Lost Ark?
This is the current state: As of March 8th, exactly one month after release, the 24-hour peak still shows 828,854 people online in Lost Ark at the same time. Of these, 617,866 are online at 3:00 PM, which does not match any peak of any region.
If we look at the 24-hour peak, Lost Ark has lost about a third of its players from launch in its first month. This is actually a very good figure for an MMORPG. In comparison: New World lost about half of its concurrent players in the same period.
This figure of about 800,000 concurrent players per day has remained very stable for two weeks. So, primarily, people have disappeared right after the start. Furthermore, over a million accounts have now been banned by Amazon.
Currently, Lost Ark is still doing really well. It currently ranks third among games with the most concurrent players on Steam, placing it behind CSGO and Elden Ring but still ahead of Dota 2, GTA 5, or Apex Legends.
Exactly one month after release, Amazon and Smilegate continue to announce that Lost Ark now has 20 million registered accounts worldwide. A number with which the developers only counted on by the end of the year. In December 2021, it was still communicated at an event that 10 million people had registered for Lost Ark in total.
The release in the West caused player numbers worldwide to double in just one month.
What accounts for the current numbers? It is quite normal for a game with such an enormous initial hype to see player numbers fall quickly. But what reasons are there that Lost Ark has lost comparatively few fans after a month?
With over 1.3 million people at release, there were also many people who just wanted to try the free-to-play game and quickly realized that they were not enjoying it. A million banned bots and further users who no longer enjoyed the game have then fallen away, resulting in the current figure of about 800,000 concurrent players.
However, Lost Ark does not have one critical problem that other MMORPGs like Swords of Legends Online and New World faced after a month. Because Lost Ark offers enough endgame content to keep players entertained. Even if you play actively, after a month, you have still not experienced everything Lost Ark has to offer.
At this point, there are still not even players who have reached the maximum level of 60, let alone have people already seen all the content. This ensures that users who enjoy Lost Ark currently have no reason to leave the MMORPG.
This also explains the still very high player count of Lost Ark, which has decreased but remains above average high for an MMORPG after one month.
But Lost Ark is not perfect
What problems still exist? Due to the fact that Lost Ark has been around for several years already and the major server issues have now been fixed, the game runs relatively smoothly overall. However, one major problem at the moment is the bots that have been mentioned several times.
Especially in the starting areas, Lost Ark is overrun by automated characters. Currently, when you create a new character and level them up slowly, you see more bots than real players in the initial areas.
It gets even worse when you open the chat. There, the bots spam their dubious gold offers. Although Amazon has already reacted, they currently seem not to have control of the situation.
They seemingly catch the majority of bots before they reach endgame, but the experience for new players suffers enormously due to the automated characters. Especially in quests where you have to kill certain monsters, you are practically forced to race against the bots.
Amazon is currently considering a transition concept that envisions new accounts being able to chat only after level 35. While this idea would relieve the chat, the “new player experience” would not be improved by it.
Aside from that, Lost Ark has few technical issues. Weekly, Amazon releases updates in balance and other fixes that usually resolve the smaller issues. So far, there have been no serious bugs.
Another major topic in the Western community is the Lost Ark shop. In addition to the Crystal Aura, tangible bonuses and upgrade materials can be purchased for real money. However, these can also be earned with in-game currency, which means you are never forced to spend money.
Nevertheless, some fans label the shop as pay-to-win, while others believe it is at most pay-to-progress. So, the definition lies more in your personal perception of pay-to-win.
What do the players say about it? The Lost Ark reddit is large and well-frequented. Various topics are discussed that deal with the MMORPG. Many of them are speculations on new content and the wish for new skins.
We have picked out some comments that represent the current state of the Lost Ark community fairly well.
- AlexanderLEE27 writes: “I am having such a hard time even getting to level 50. You all say endgame is great, but how am I supposed to get there? I’m currently at level 32 and want to bang my head against the wall. The whole leveling process is just so annoying, and I have to hold myself back from falling asleep.” (via reddit)
- Whittaker finds bots annoying: “I tabbed out for a second to look something up. I stood in one of the starting areas, and in just a few minutes I saw at least 200 bots. The fact that they use speed and teleport hacks makes it even more obvious. And that’s just one channel on one server in one region. The number of bots is really crazy.” (via reddit)
- Kenna2 is simply thrilled: “Have you seen the cutscenes in Lost Ark? This MMORPG is a masterpiece. I watch every single cutscene, and the feeling is just epic. I am deeply impressed by Lost Ark and its staging.” (via reddit)
Lost Ark – Conclusion after one month
If you are currently in Lost Ark and dealing with the game, a very clear picture of the MMORPG emerges. Even a month later, the success is still great and the content is manifold. Whether Lost Ark can continue to be so successful once the content from Korea no longer comes quickly enough is hard to say at this point.
The preliminary conclusion is as follows:
In conclusion, we can say that Lost Ark is still doing very well a month after release. The servers are adequately filled, and you never have to wait for players for content, but there are not so many people that you have to stand in queues. Overall, the player numbers look really strong.
Many of the problems that the game had at launch are now a thing of the past. Amazon has done a great job here and has resolved many of the toughest issues. Nevertheless, there are still problems with cheaters and bots that developers and publishers need to address.
The overall player experience of Lost Ark currently has problems primarily at the beginning. The game takes a while to pick up speed, and the bots that populate the starter areas do not make it better. However, once you reach a certain level, you can have a lot of fun with Lost Ark in the long term.
Lost Ark had a phenomenally good start on Steam and still stands out above average a month later. Amazon must now react and continue delivering content, as well as get the problem with bots under control. Also, a roadmap is still pending, although players are slowly becoming impatient.
This roadmap should, however, come soon; if we keep an eye on Lost Ark’s tweets, we should learn in March how it will move forward in the MMORPG.
For those who are not bothered by the Asian aesthetics and grind, Lost Ark definitely has the potential to become a new favorite game that can accompany you for several thousand hours and provide you with lots of content.
What do you think? Have you played Lost Ark or are you still playing it? What level are you at and what is your favorite activity in endgame? Feel free to let us know in the comments here at MeinMMO.
We spoke to an expert who has been following Lost Ark for years: “I was afraid of the West release.”
