The MMORPG New World had a brief surge at its release in October 2021 but saw a consistent decline for weeks, losing about 80% of its players on Steam within two months. This decline in player numbers was stopped in December 2021. The MMORPG has stabilized since December 6 – and at a high level.
How did the player numbers fluctuate for New World?
- New World had an extremely strong start; in October, there were 913,000 peak players and 410,000 average players. An absolutely fantastic figure for a new MMO on Steam.
- However, already in November, the numbers dropped by 62% – instead of 410,000 players, only 155,000 remained.
- In December, the number seems to have stabilized somewhere between 98,000 and 127,000 average active players.
Saint Nicholas brought stability to New World in player numbers on Steam
What stands out: Looking at the player numbers for New World, it seems that a plateau has been reached in recent weeks. There are no major declines or increases anymore: The curve is relatively flat.
Since around Saint Nicholas Day, December 6, 2021, player numbers have been moving in a relatively narrow corridor:
- New World had its fewest players on December 15 with about 98,000 average players.
- New World had its most players on December 6 with 127,000 average players.
- All days from December 6 to December 29 lie within this relatively narrow band – on many days, around 110,000 players are active simultaneously in New World on average.
Why has the game stabilized now? One can assume that the people who still play New World either really enjoy the game or are progressing very slowly and have not yet reached the maximum level.
It is relatively normal for such a game to retain only a core community. Many stop at the maximum level and wait for “something new” to come.
Server merges (from 485 to 135 servers) and improvements in gameplay likely also contributed to New World stabilizing in December.
Are the player numbers good? At least it is enough for first place on Steam among the “Most Played MMOs” – but it is no longer an outstanding number.
One must consider that other MMOs also have their own clients on top of Steam, run on consoles or mobile, and thus the player numbers are distributed across multiple platforms, whereas New World only has Steam players. Therefore, it is logical that New World ranks high in Steam player numbers.
So 110,000 is already quite decent – but apparently no longer has the potential to be the “biggest MMORPG in the world”. How this will continue will likely be revealed in January 2022, when a major update is expected that many are looking forward to.
Twitch streamer explains why he still plays New World and believes in the MMORPG
