Although Throne and Liberty is the latest MMORPG from NCsoft, the publisher has completely ignored the game in their quarterly reports since the launch. Only due to a question from an investor were there finally details about the success or failure.
What are these details? In the same financial call with investors where the release timeframe of Aion 2 in the West was discussed, NCsoft officials also briefly mentioned Throne and Liberty. The corresponding section was about the payment model of Aion 2, and the publisher explained:
As for the monetization model for AION 2, we have opted for a less aggressive and more user-friendly model. I believe that revenue is a combination of the gained user base and the payment rate. We are convinced that with a lighter business model we can acquire a larger user base.
You will probably know it within a week once we release our title. But for your information, I would like to mention the case of Throne and Liberty. We assume that revenue has been around 200 million dollars within a year and the payment rate and user base were quite high.
Byung-moo Park, the co-CEO of NCsoft, at the earnings call for Q3 2025
In March 2022, the development costs for Throne and Liberty were estimated at 75 million euros. Back then, no one suspected that the global release would only take place in 2024.
Unloved but surprisingly successful
Why is this special? Take a look at any financial report from NCsoft from the last quarters. Also the current report for Q3 2025. You can find these at corporate.nc.com. At least one slide of the document always talks about the revenues of the most important NCsoft games.
Always included each quarter: Lineage M, Lineage 2M, Lineage W, Blade & Soul 2, Lineage, Lineage 2, Aion, Blade & Soul and Guild Wars 2. Which game is missing every quarter despite having been globally released on October 1, 2024? Exactly, Throne and Liberty.
Concrete, officially confirmed figures from which the success or failure of Throne and Liberty can be inferred have been lacking. At least Amazon Games revealed after the launch that within the first launch week, 3 million players stormed the servers.
On Steam, the MMORPG reached an all-time high of 336,300 concurrent players at that time (source: steamdb.info). However, by December 2024, the number had already dropped to five digits. This year, there were two minor peaks that could briefly interrupt the constant negative trend in player numbers on Steam:
- 50,789 concurrent players in March, thanks to the expansion “Wilds of Talandre”
- 28,353 concurrent players in September, thanks to the extensive September update.
Currently, there are barely 20,000 players on the servers during prime time. Overall, NCsoft seems satisfied with Throne and Liberty. At least so satisfied that they want to use the payment model as a blueprint for upcoming prestige projects like Aion 2.
Aion 2 is expected to be released here between July 1 and December 31, 2026 for PC and mobile, adopting a free-to-play model. In Korea, the hype train is full throttle towards hit city before the launch on November 19, 2025. During the character reservation phase, the turnout was so large that all slots on all servers were filled within 2 minutes.
