In December 2018, the pirate/survival MMO Atlas was released. The launch was plagued by issues. Now, three-quarters of a year has passed. How is the game doing now?
The launch of Atlas went like this: On December 22, 2018, Atlas was released in Early Access. Prior to that, the release had been postponed three times. Despite this being the fourth release date, the launch was problematic. Many bugs and crashes marred the gaming experience.
A few days after the release, the issues were clearly reflected in the reviews on Steam. Only 20% of reviews for Atlas were positive. And even the positive reviews had a negative tone.
The interesting part: Despite many people cursing Atlas, it sold quite well – on Steam, the game was even a top seller. This was likely because, at the time, few new games were being released, especially in the survival genre. Initially, an average of 40,000 players were playing. At that point, it was already considered a hit.
Atlas after 2 months: On MeinMMO, we looked at Atlas two months after the release. From “Mostly Negative”, the Steam ratings improved to “Mixed”. There was still a lot of criticism:
- Land claims ruined the starting experience for new players
- Official servers provided poor performance and many griefers
Positively, private servers were mentioned in February 2019. Here, players could enjoy the game according to their own rules and have fun. At that time, about 14,000 people played the game simultaneously.
Now, we are looking at how Atlas stands in August 2019. Has the game improved? Did player numbers increase again, remain the same, or fall further?
What major updates have there been?
Restart in April – What changed? In April, Atlas introduced a test server where players could eagerly try out new content before it was released. Along with that came 3 new game modes:
- PvP Colonies (for small groups of players)
- PvE
- PvP Empires (for large groups of players)
This update was accompanied by a wipe. All players had to start over. However, Atlas changed its world, created a new area, added snow as weather, and now offered a secure trading system. At that time, the community was particularly upset about cheaters. After the update, player numbers increased slightly.
Mega-update in May: The big Atlas update in May offered many new contents, such as storage crates on ships and an ice dungeon. Players had been waiting a long time for such new content. However, the mega-update couldn’t get Atlas properly back on track, another idea had to be conceived.
Now there is a single-player mode: Although Atlas is designed for 40,000 players, the announcement of a single-player mode in Atlas came in June. This received a lot of positive feedback from players.
The current player numbers of Atlas
How many players does Atlas have now? According to the Steamcharts database, Atlas has maintained an average of about 3,000 players since June. The trend is downward. While there were still 7,276 players at peak in June, only a maximum of 5,221 players were online at the same time in the past 30 days (as of August 17, 2019).
The embedded graphic clearly shows how low Atlas has fallen. From almost 40,000 average players in December 2018, there are now only 2,685.
It can also be seen that the restart in April brought some players back to Atlas. However, as we moved towards May 2019, the numbers dropped again.
Community feedback
How do the reviews look? The recent reviews, which are 473 votes in the last 30 days, rate Atlas on Steam as “Mixed”. 53% of the submitted reviews are positive.
The total reviews, amounting to 23,766 votes, for Atlas on Steam are 36% positive. This gives the game an overall rating of “Mostly Negative”.
This is what the recent reviews say: We check the reviews from the last 30 days on Steam to see what players are currently bothered by.
- The island claiming makes bases vulnerable for 9 hours, which is way too long, as you have to guard your island from opponents during that time
- PvP servers are frustrating because opposing players can destroy bases overnight
- Still many bugs and performance issues like FPS drops or lags
Positively, it is mentioned that there are now many contents that bring variety to the game. One player states that Atlas has improved significantly since its launch.
“After almost 400 hours of gameplay, I must say that it has developed well after the bad start,” writes Prandolin on Steam.
“My first review. I have been playing the game since December 2018. In the beginning, there were major issues, which were mostly fixed by early January, allowing the game to be playable. I still play it now, it is July 27, 2019, and the game is just great. There is always something to do, and it never gets boring. I play daily as much as my time allows. […].” writes satyrus on Steam.
We will continue to keep an eye on Atlas for you and will inform you if something important happens. If you are looking for a survival game to try something else first, you can find it here.
