The MMORPG Maplestory in South Korea is what is WoW here. But in contrast to WoW there was “Maplestory 2”, that even came to the west and was a hit on Steam. But in 2025 Nexon closes the last servers to the MMORPG in the home country of South Korea.
So it went for Maplestory 2 on Steam: The MMORPG Maplestory 2 was released in South Korea in 2016 and even made it to the west in October 2018.
The game appeared in a free version on Steam and even triggered a hype. In October 2018, the game at the top reached 42,467 players. We presented the “then largest MMORPG on Steam”.
But the joy didn’t last long. Already in February 2019 there were a maximum of 2,300 people online at Maplestory. Finally, from October 2019, the number of players settled in a maximum to only 1,000 players. It was over in 2020 and the game withdrew from Steam.
Maplestory is an extremely successful MMORPG in South Korea:
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MMORPG Maplestory 2 now also closes in South Korea
How did it go in Asia? Maplestory was also unable to meet expectations in Asia either: the Chinese version of Maplestory 2 Castle in China in 2022.
Now even the lights go out in the home country itself, Maplestory2 will go off the net on May 29 and then there is no more version (via mmorpg.org).
Maplestory is still a huge hit in South Korea after 22 years
What was the problem? Maplestory 1 from 2003 is still extremely popular more than 20 years after the release.
Apparently Maplestory 2 could never be able to replace the predecessor, even if there were some scandals.
In contrast to Maplestory 1, part 2 relied on a third-person movement and a look that is reminiscent of Minecraft. Just like Maplestory 1, part 2 also showed a penchant for microtransactions.
Maplestory 2 was too greedy for data for the west, too greedy for data
Why did the MMORPG fail in the west? In German -language reviews on Steam, it was criticized that Maplestory 2 treats itself to comprehensive rights to connect with tens of websites and to take data. With the right to privacy, as German users maintain it, this was not compatible.
Others criticized an extremely low drop rate. You had to invest a lot of time to achieve the goals that had been set in the MMORPG.
Even players with 1,000 hours in Maplestory 2 found reasons to write a bad review. For example, they were annoyed by developers Nexon and the unfair and frustrating progression system. There is similar criticism of Maplestory 1, but you have already invested so much time in the MMORPG that you can no longer get away.
In May 2024 we reported on a streamer who did something great in Maplestory, but then used the stound of his triumph to practice open criticism of developers Nexon: Twitch streamer explains how he feels like Boss-Move in the MMORPG: “Runs bad for me”