Lost Ark surpasses 500k concurrent players in three hours - and it's not even properly out yet

gamesradar.com:

Lost Ark has sailed past 500,000 concurrent players in less than three hours since it launched.

Yesterday, Lost Ark finally launched in the West for North American and European audiences, and it's fair to say it's been a big hit. In less than three hours since it first launched on Steam, the SteamDB database shows Smilegate's new MMORPG surpassed 500,000 concurrent players on the platform.

That's a pretty astounding figure for a brand new MMO. It's also worth noting that yesterday's launch was the paid-for debut of Lost Ark in the West, as the free-to-play launch is actually taking place in roughly 48 hours from now on February 11. It's quite possible we could easily see this concurrent player record shoot up once the free-to-play launch goes live later this week.

If you're unfamiliar with Lost Ark, it's the new MMORPG from Smilegate RPG, Smilegate's RPG-focused development subsidiary. The MMO actually launched all the way back in 2019, but was available exclusively to Korea. Now though, nearly three years later, it's finally available in the West, with Amazon Game Studios on publishing duties.

It's a little strange that this is the second MMO Amazon has helped debut in less than two years. You might recall that last year in mid-2021, New World debuted to a similarly staggering player count on PC, so much so that queue times lasted hours, and Amazon introduced expanded sever capacities for each world later in the year. If this early launch is anything to go by, Lost Ark could be another such hit.

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