Lost Ark has become the second most played game of all time on Steam, surpassing CS:GO and Dota 2. Are you in the game?
Lost Ark has become the second most played game of all time on Steam, surpassing Valve's Dota 2 and CS:GO.
As of press time, Lost Ark has 1,324,000 active players. This is nearly 20,000 more than CS:GO's peak concurrent player count, and about 30,000 higher than Dota 2's peak.
According to Steam Charts, the game has been on a wild upward trajectory. This is thanks to the game having a successful early access period of three days, in addition to going Free to Play yesterday. Lost Ark debuted in South Korea in 2019 and finally made its western debut thanks to Amazon Games in the past week.
Unlike New World, which launched to massive hype but has seriously fallen off in the waning months, it seems that Lost Ark is only on an upward trajectory. Featuring ARPG combat and MMO sensibilities, it seems to have hit on an intersection of extremely popular game types. The combat also feels very heavy and crunchy, allowing for visceral combos that contrast heavily with the more light feeling hits of things like Path of Exile and Diablo.
It's also helped that Twitch has been running a massive campaign to award drops in the game. Given Amazon's ownership of Twitch, this makes sense - a sort of self-contained loop, if you will. Lost Ark is available on Steam for free, alongside several founder's packs. The game had almost guaranteed sales of those packs as before Friday, that was how you gained access to Lost Ark.
Dota 2 and CS:GO have not had poor months themselves. CS:GO recently hit a 12 month high in terms of its concurrent playerbase, and Dota 2 has been on the rebound as well. However, the hype for this Lost Ark seems to be surpassing genres and attracting players of all stripes. For comparison's sake, Final Fantasy 14 has never hit this high on Steam. Worth noting, though, that game has other ways of accessing it, with Steam being the least ideal.
Lost Ark is free to play, but there are mechanics that do cost money, or at the very least, offer a purchasable option as a sort of shortcut. For example, the game's Celestial Aura subscription offers free Triports (or teleports) to various towns throughout the game. The game also has a few gacha mechanics for end-game gear and bonuses, such as card packs, gem chests, and rapport chests.
If you want to download Lost Ark and get in on the fun yourself, check out our guide to the game's various purchase options.
Keep it locked here to Esports.gg for all the latest on Lost Ark as the game continues to build up hype.