Almost a month after its official rollout in Europe and the US, Lost Ark appears to be slowly losing steam, while Amazon Games recently claimed to have fixed queue issues in Central European regions. What is it really? Quick little analysis!

Lack of players on Lost Ark, what are the reasons?

At the time of writing these lines, early in the morning on Monday March 14th, 2022, no, the lost ark is clearly not dead and it is far from being. Although the pace has decreased significantly in recent times, the decline in “hype” is furthermore illustrated. steam chart And SteamDB which provide graphs showing player density over time.

If at first glance these curves may seem frightening, they should be put in context. It should really be remembered above all that Lost Ark was released at the same time as other games or expansions eagerly awaited by players who are fans of the respective genres. We can specifically mention:

The two fiercest competitors of the Lost Ark on this list are definitely Elden Ring and Horizon: Forbidden West at the moment. However, it’s primarily the first that would have attracted a community where Horizon would have been more or less in the shadow of Lost Ark and its direct competitor. Although the genres of these three games are very different, they are “AAA” games that are highly coveted by the general public (although Elden Ring has surprised a lot in this way), and that is why they have been released around the same time. . The Lost Ark partly explains the decline in players of the Smilegate RPG MMOARPG.

These highly anticipated new games or new updates coupled with the issues that Lost Ark suffered (and still suffers from in some cases) is most likely at the heart of many gamers’ choices to pry the game out of interest. , at least temporarily. However, it should be remembered that this is an MMORPG and it is essentially very time consuming in the way it is approached, for example in World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV. Players regularly get tired of this type of game (rightly or wrongly), deploying content updates, for example, before coming back a few weeks later to do a little spin on it.

legend:

• Blue : Lost Ark (released February 8, 2022 in Early Access, February 11, 2022 in Free-to-Play)
• Green : Elden Ring (Released February 25, 2022)
• Yellow : Apex Legends (Season 12 released on February 8, 2022)

The Lost Ark’s peaks typically occur at 6:00 PM (Paris time), where its pools are its extended maintenance period, during which the servers are completely inactive. Apex Legends doesn’t seem to have had a major impact or even suffered from the MMOAPRG rollout of the Smilegate RPG, but on the other hand the Elden Ring is clearly taking over the Lost Ark, especially Since the weekend of March 11-13, and that’s quite normal because it’s where the most players are available, so everyone rushes to the “new game” in circulation!

What future for the Lost Ark?

That’s good, because it looks like Amazon Games has two new updates planned soon, in addition to the one posted on March 4. Two new classes will also be planned by May 2022! So many players may be disappointed with the state of the game when it was released, especially for those playing on Central European servers, but there is no doubt that some may want to try Destroyer or Arcanist in the near future. Will come back for Furthermore, the Western publisher has been able to be responsive over the past month, even offering a number of free compensations for the inconvenience caused to players. An excellent point, even though we’re sorry for the lack of flexibility on some issues (migration in particular).

Lastly, and this is also a factor to take into account, Lost Ark remains a very special game in its field and is not a must-have for players of traditional Western MMORPGs, despite the improvements introduced by Amazon Games. It is therefore highly likely that some players have abandoned ship due to a lack of interest in the type of game that Lost Ark represents in favor of other MMORPGs that are even more traditional, and this is once again easily understood. To each his own!

But beware of the “threats” to come: Even if April doesn’t expect a major release, some of the announcements may encourage players to weigh anchor in other horizons. We know, for example, that Blizzard is not only planning the long-awaited Overwatch 2 beta for the end of April, but is also announcing the next World of Warcraft expansion in mid-April!

Either way, it is highly unlikely that the Lost Ark will die in the near future. The game is just slowly entering what will be called a “quiet” phase where the loyal player base will remain, while others will occasionally join in as major updates roll out. The classic MMORPG life, indeed!

Due to a minor lapse, Amazon Games accidentally released its roadmap for the planned next three months of content for Lost Ark. We specifically explore the introduction of two new classes, but also Legion Raid, among others!