How is the MMORPG AION doing currently? The game has faced severe criticism after the introduction of an autoplay feature.
What about AION? The MMORPG seems to be in a crisis. Looking at the server load of the EU servers at AionInfo, it can be seen that even the strongest server is only at 32% capacity. This corresponds to a population of about 1500 to 1800 players. On Steam, the MMORPG has only around 478 concurrent players at peak, according to Steamcharts, over the past 30 days.
Furthermore, the financial report from NCSoft indicates that the second quarter of 2020 was the weakest since the release of AION in 2008.
Players want the classic AION back
What is the reason for this? AION introduced a new feature about half a year ago. Update 7.9 allowed players to engage in auto-hunting. This is essentially autoplay, which is common in mobile MMORPGs. This feature allows the following functions:
- You set a specific sequence of skills to be used in automatic combat
- The character independently seeks out monsters to fight
- Your hero automatically consumes potions when your hit points fall below a certain value.
- It is even possible to automatically sell items when the inventory is full.
The feature was quite controversial upon its introduction and has divided the community. A little more than half were upset about the introduction, while the others did not care.
Moreover, AION fans have long been wishing for classic servers. This has caused a significant surge in Korea. The local community is still waiting to indulge in nostalgic memories again.
What is the alternative? There are private servers of AION that offer classic gaming experiences. Without naming names, the player counts on these servers range between 1,000 and 3,000 players. Thus, the most successful one currently seems to have a higher population than the largest European server.
This, however, cannot be confirmed 100%. It is said that the capacity of an official AION server is 5,000. With a utilization of 32% (as mentioned above), that translates to an average of 1,600 players currently.
One must simply rely on the claims of the private servers. Therefore, the information should be taken with caution.
Even if the MMORPG AION currently seems to be struggling, it still belongs to the 13 best free-to-play MMORPGs in comparison.
