MMORPG Lost Ark has made it back to the top of the most played online role-playing games on Steam in September 2023. Developer Smilegate says the number of new players has increased by 225% in the last week, and the number of returning users by as much as 321%. It is believed that a new update is behind the upswing in player numbers.
How are Lost Ark’s player numbers developing?
- Lost Ark was released on Steam in February 2022 and, as a Free2Play title, had a peak of 1.3 million concurrent players at release.
- The number remained relatively high for an MMORPG, in the range of up to 350,000 simultaneously active players, until December 2022. However, Lost Ark was under constant suspicion of being infested with bots. Therefore, the high player numbers on Steam were to be taken with a grain of salt.
- After December 2022, player numbers dropped steadily for 7 months, until by July 2023 there were only about 24,300 average players online. In the 2 months, however, these goals have risen again somewhat: from 24,390 it has now gone up to 32,401.
Lost Ark shows its latest boss gloomy and impressive cinematic trailer
More videos
Lost Ark cheers about increasing player numbers
This is what Smilegate says: The developers said on Sept. 22 they saw a 225% increase in new players and a 321% increase in returning players. (via game.mk).
Lost Ark believes it’s because of “The Eclipse” update, which was released on September 13. Smilegate says with the patch also came easier for players to get to item level 1580. This change is believed to have significantly contributed to the increase in player numbers.
The remarkable increase in the number of players was measured in the week following the update.
While Steam Charts figures show the upswing, they also reveal that player numbers are increasing at a relatively low level:
Lost Ark rises again on Twitch
What additionally stands out?On Twitch, Lost Ark was able to reach a strong value with over 191,000 concurrent viewers at the launch of the patch, on September 13 and 14, Lost Ark hasn’t been this high in months.
This is apparently due to the new raid, which brought end-game content to Lost Ark and attracted many players.
Small upswing, but far from glory days
This is what’s behind it: With the rise, Lost Ark has moved back ahead of Mir4 (#2) and Black Desert (#3 on Steam).
It should be noted that Lost Ark is also so big on Steam because it only runs on Steam, while MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XIV (#4) or The Elder Scrolls Online (#6) also work on other platforms and other launchers. New World, which is also only available on Steam, is currently the number 5 MMORPG on Steam.
Lost Ark is far from the “highs” at release, despite the increase in the last 2 months.
More on MMORPGs:
The 10 biggest MMORPGs in Germany in 2023, according to Google.