Company behind MMORPGs like Lord of the Rings Online and DC Universe reveals its player numbers

Enad Global 7 bought the MMORPG company Daybreak in 2020. Now they have shared details about finances, but also the number of players, in a presentation. In addition to the two MMORPGs from the title, there were also EverQuest, Dungeons & Dragons Online and Planetside 2.

How many players do each MMORPG have? The MAUs – the monthly active users – were shown in a graphic. Every person who has logged into the respective game at least once counts here:

  • DC Universe Online has just over 300,000 different players.
  • The Lord of the Rings Online lands somewhere around 100,000 players.
  • EverQuest 1 has just under 100,000 players.
  • Dungeons & Dragons Online recently had a small peak with around 60,000 players.
  • EverQuest 2 has around 25,000 players.
  • Planetside 2 reaches around 150,000.
  • The numbers cannot be determined exactly because the corresponding graph contains a lot of lines and was only visible in a small format in the presentation. We have included a screenshot for you:

    Screenshot from the Capital Markets Day video (via YouTube).

    For comparison: Albion Online recently revealed that they have around 300,000 different players per day. Steam data estimates also suggest that Lost Ark has around 300,000 daily active players and New World has around 120,000 daily active players.

    With all these numbers, however, it is clear that more players will log in over the course of a month.

    If you would like to take a closer look at the topic of numbers, you can listen to the podcast by MMO editors Alexander Leitsch and Mark Sellner. They dealt with this:

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    Numbers remain stable compared to before the pandemic, only DC Universe Online is weakening

    What is striking? Daybreak presented its monthly active players back in December 2020. DC Universe Online was also the biggest game back then, but with 419,000 MAUs. Recently, the MMORPG is the only one that has fallen sharply in numbers.

    The presentation said that DC Universe is the most susceptible game to volatility because it is also the most casual-based game. New players should come regularly, but many also leave.

    Other titles like EverQuest or LOTRO, on the other hand, have a very consistent player base with people who remain loyal for decades and keep coming back for major updates. You can see this in the graph of LOTRO when its 15th birthday was celebrated in April 2022. There was a real jump upwards.

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    Overall, the numbers are very stable, especially compared to 2019, i.e. before the pandemic. In addition, every MMO is currently “highly profitable”.

    Next year, developers expect a small increase in EverQuest as the MMORPG celebrates its 25th birthday.

    New EverQuest is scheduled to appear in 2028

    What else was revealed? Daybreak is planning to release a new MMORPG in the EverQuest universe in 2028. The company has set a budget of at least $30 million for this. The game is intended to appeal to the hardcore target group and will probably not be as innovative as EverQuest Next was planned.

    A new title for the H1Z1 universe and Mechwarrior is also planned. Releases for 2026 and 2027 were considered here. The presentation also included a lot of information about finances, the general development of the gaming market and the topic of monetization.

    What do you think about the player numbers? Which MMORPG surprised you, both positively and negatively?

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