At first glance, Throne and Liberty faces the fate of all online games: the number of players drops significantly in the months following the launch. Upon closer examination, there are clear reasons for the MMORPG from NCSoft and Amazon Games for the absence of players.
What is the current status of Throne and Liberty? In the first month, 4,527,940 players were said to have played the new online role-playing game for PC and consoles. On Steam, Throne and Liberty reached an all-time high of 336,300 concurrent players at launch.
The current player numbers are significantly lower, with a daily peak of 100,500 concurrent Steam users on December 1, 2024, which would mean a loss of about 70 percent since the launch two months ago (via SteamDB).
While the MMORPG has earned only a “Balanced” rating from Steam users over its entire lifespan (with 69 percent positive reviews), it has earned a “Mostly Positive” rating in the past 30 days (with 74 percent positive reviews).
The talk by GameStar and MeinMMO on Throne and Liberty:
Hope Lies in December
What are the reasons for the declining player numbers? On one hand, it is entirely normal for a new online game to be tried by many interested players at launch, after which the numbers gradually decline. This happens to almost all games and can be observed in particularly drastic form when a free-to-play model is involved, allowing people to try it out without prior commitment.
On the other hand, every individual naturally has one or more very specific reasons for turning their back on a game. In a post on Reddit, a part of the community discusses these very reasons, which in turn allow conclusions to be drawn about the current issues with Throne and Liberty:
- Hardcore players have felt restricted by time gating since launch when it comes to visiting co-op dungeons or farming in the abyss dungeons of the open world.
- In the co-op dungeons, there is often a rough treatment among random groups. The new 2-star dungeons exacerbate the situation with their higher difficulty.
- When it comes to loot distribution, tanks and healers feel disadvantaged.
- Due to the limited options in character creation, the desire to create a twink decreases.
- While there have been regular updates since launch, as well as unlocking fresh bosses, events, and conflict/blessing stones, there is a lack of new content that would relieve the grind of the same content. The new 2-star dungeons are just a drop in the bucket.
- The chance of obtaining meaningful loot from dungeons and raids is too low. If one does get an upgrade, it takes a tremendous amount of investment to max it out. In both cases, looting is only moderately enjoyable.
- The castle sieges are THE highlight of Throne and Liberty. Some players want to participate in one or two of these siege battles and then turn their backs on the MMORPG.
- The combination of real money currency for the auction house and the free-to-play model is already questionable (risk of pay-to-win), but also quickly attracts a large number of bots.
- The MMORPG’s focus on large guilds/alliances has brought many issues in the first two months that have negatively impacted the experiences of players – see the following examples:
How does MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz assess it? Personally, I also notice it: fewer and fewer players are regularly online in the guild, and my last farming runs through the co-op or abyss dungeons are already a few days ago – although I find beating monsters on the island of Saurodoma or in the shadow crypt quite relaxing.
Does my character have the best possible gear? Nope! But he is “full epic”, that’s enough. I have no desire for the 2-star dungeons with random groups after the first attempts anyway. And I have enough lucent to buy the next “Battle Pass” and one or two extras. That’s sufficient for me as well. So I’m currently waiting for real “new content” and therefore playing other games.
How does Amazon Games react? It has been clear since the roadmap from September 2024 that the first major content update is set to come in December. The 2-star dungeons released in November were deliberately brought forward according to Tico from Amazon Games, as it was understood that many players were waiting for new content.
With the patch in December, the spear weapon will be introduced, which will allow for new builds. The dimension trials (even harder versions of the 2-star dungeons, with leaderboards and without time gating) and the rune system are scheduled for December 5, 2024.
Other innovations, such as the class 2 equipment, the substance transformation system, and the trait resonance system, are set to follow at a later date. It is unclear when new regions with fresh quest and story content will arrive in the West. Here is everything known about the December patch: Throne and Liberty brings a massive update with a new weapon that strengthens melee fighters
