Place 9 – Black Desert Online
Genre: MMORPG | Developer: Pearl Abyss | Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S | Release Date: March 3, 2016 | Model: Buy2Play
What is Black Desert? The sandbox MMORPG Black Desert offers you many freedoms. Classic theme park content like quests and a clear storyline play a rather subordinate role.
Instead, the focus is on:
- The player-defined economy
- Various lifeskills that you can learn and continuously improve
- The establishment of your own network of workers to earn gold
- Farming and leveling up gear
- Housing
- Ships that you can sail across the great sea.
- Open-world PvP and battles for outposts.
Additionally, Black Desert is often highlighted for its very detailed and complex character editor and its action combat system.
The MMORPG first launched in Korea, and in the West, we have caught up well with the content on PC. In 2019, versions for Xbox One and PS4, which offer crossplay, were also released. However, both versions lag significantly behind the PC.
How many players does Black Desert have on Steam: Black Desert had an average of 17,043 players per day in the last 30 days. At peak, the MMORPG reached 23,211 concurrent players.
After a peak in March 2020, the numbers steadily and quickly declined. They only stabilized again in November. Since then, they have started to rise again, likely due to the Winter season and the new class Nova.
What do players say? On Steam, Black Desert received very good ratings in the last 30 days: Out of 796 reviews, 85 % were positive. However, opinions about the MMORPG are divided:
- davidnguyen_: “One of the best-looking MMORPGs I’ve experienced. The character customization and combat system are unrivaled, and you can get lost in these little details for countless hours. Sadly, this is likely the only positive comment I can give the game. The storyline is so bad that you find yourself skimming through every dialogue without real interest in the events. There are very few co-op aspects when trying to play with friends, and almost all classes can be played without the help of a support class.”
- Qwens!: “Good characters and classes, beautiful landscapes, and good controls. However, the PvP part quickly becomes exhausting, the microtransactions are very present and expensive, and there is endless grind.”
For whom is Black Desert suitable? Those who enjoy sandbox MMORPGs and value freedom and an action-packed combat system should definitely check out Black Desert.
However, you should have no problem with PvP and grind. Both are abundant in the game. The effort it can take was revealed to us by the first European player who reached level 66 in an interview.
