Lost Ark, the new MMO from Amazon Games and Smilegate, has had some issues around its launch like any new MMO typically does, but that hasn’t stopped the game from already achieving an incredible milestone. According to concurrent player numbers gathered from Steam, the game has already become the second most-played game on the platform, a milestone reached within just one day of the game’s free-to-play launch. This means that the game has topped other Steam hits like DOTA 2 and has only PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds above it now.
This metric is determined by looking at the highest numbers of peak players active in any one game in the history of Steam. SteamDB does a great job of keeping up with that information, and if you sort all its games by the peak playercounts, you’ll see that Lost Ark has now claimed the No. 2 spot with an all-time peak of 1,325,305 players. It’s bumped Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a Steam staple, down one spot with that game boasting a still impressive peak of 1,308,963 players.
That’s quite the achievement for any game, but it’s especially impressive considering how the launch of the game’s free-to-play version was delayed this weekend. Many players had already been active in the game previously after purchasing one of the game’s Founder’s Packs in order to play early, but plenty more players were waiting to play for free this weekend.
It’s also worth pointing out that this isn’t the only Amazon Games title that’s within Steam’s top 10 in terms of all-time peaks. New World now holds the No. 6 spot with a peak of 913,634 players. Still impressive in its own right, but still far away from the top few games.
Lost Ark being at the No. 2 spot means there’s still one game above it, but it’s hard to imagine the new MMO – or really any other game – beating PUBG’s record anytime soon. The battle royale game that’s often credited with helping to kick off the whole genre craze holds the top spot with a peak of 3,257,248 players.
Milestones like this are always impressive, but Lost Ark players will likely be much more interested in how the game fairs afterwards and how active things are months from now. For now the developers are continuing to work towards alleviating server issues and other problems before detailing plans for future content.
