Player numbers for the MMORPG New World continue to climb, new record on Steam for 2024, although the PC camp is dissatisfied

On the first weekend after the launch of New World Aeternum, Amazon Games can look forward to a new record for the number of players on Steam, at least for the gaming year 2024.

How many players are playing New World Aeternum? On Saturday, October 19, 2024, 56,769 Steam users were online at the same time in the MMORPG from Amazon Games (via steamdb.info). On launch day (October 15, 2024), there were “only” 52,580 simultaneously active Steam players at the peak.

This last happened about a year ago, in October 2023, when the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion was released. At the time, the online role-playing game on Valve’s distribution platform reached the end of the game at the same time.

Where is New World’s all-time high? When New World was originally launched in September 2021, 913,634 players were online on Steam at the same time. Of course, the current numbers are still a long way from that.

At the same time, it is unclear how many players were added to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series with the launch of Aeternum – New World was not available on the consoles in 2021. Accordingly, there was a clear focus on the PC community.

The New World Aeternum launch trailer:

New World Aeternum: Well-staged gameplay trailer for launch

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New focus leaves PC gamers frustrated

Why isn’t New World taking off again on Steam? MeinMMO recently analyzed the reasons for the MMORPG’s at times very high player numbers, although the article was more about comparing the player numbers of Throne and Liberty and Lost Ark. The most important factors:

  • First new, ambitious MMORPG from a well-known western studio since 2014.
  • Exciting, fresh setting that was sold strongly through the first trailers.
  • Due to the corona pandemic, many online games benefited from unusually high numbers of players in 2021.
  • Through streamers and Twitch synergies, Amazon Games managed to build up noticeable hype in the run-up to the release.
  • For New World Aeternum, the initial situation will noticeably change in October 2024.

  • Instead of benefiting from a pandemic, the gaming industry has been in crisis for almost two years. Many service games get off to disappointing starts.
  • Anyone who wanted to try out New World and owns a PC has already been able to do so extensively over the past three years.
  • The Aeternum version offers PC veterans few reasons to return – a 10-player raid, solo challenges and an open PvP zone. All other adjustments are aimed primarily at the new console community (and even annoy many PC enthusiasts).
  • If you want to try out the Aeternum innovations, you absolutely need the main game AND the expansion on the PC. This will certainly stop some people from simply trying out the new version of the MMORPG.
  • There is currently competition from within the company with Throne and Liberty (Amazon Games is the publisher). In addition, all major MMORPGs received extensive expansions this year.
  • What does the community say about the current numbers? Many players on Reddit are sure that the player record for New World Aeternum will be set this Sunday (October 20, 2024). After that, the trend is likely to gradually point downwards again, according to the forecast in several posts.

    Some PC players are using this to reiterate their disappointment. shamesticks writes on Reddit: “All they really care about is the number of console copies sold. This is PC only and most of these people probably already owned everything, so it cost them nothing to come back and try it out.”

    MeinMMO had already reported that there is currently beef between the PC and console camps in the Amazon MMORPG. One of the two sides in particular is currently not showing its best side: the “PC Elite” from New World Aeternum is misbehaving and greeting console newcomers with toxic behavior

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