Why does lost Ark become the most popular game on Steam in 2022?

On February 12, the peak online free-to-play action RPG Lost Ark surpassed 1.3 million gamers. This is the second-largest number in the history of Steam - only more people were playing P.U.B.G. at the same time. But what is the secret of the game's sudden popularity, which was released back in 2019? Let's say now! Should you rate it?

What is the Lost Ark?

Lost Ark is a free-action RPG in the spirit of Diablo, which was released in South Korea in 2019. At the same time, the developers were inspired by well-known MMOs: gamers can participate in open events, fight with each other, drive raids together, chat and grind a lot - in general, all the chips of multiplayer games are available.

First of all, connoisseurs of the genre chose a Lost Ark class, each of which traditionally had its gameplay. Someone preferred to cut in close combat, someone relied on interaction with the team and buffs of allies, and someone kept their distance and fired from cannons. At the same time, the heroes had three subclasses: for example, the shooter could focus all the weapon's power on one enemy or, on the contrary, attack in an area.

Curiously, each character type had its intro with a unique setting, backstory, and approach to learning. Many appreciated this feature - it's a pity that the tutorial has been deliberately made the same for everyone.

Another advantage of Lost Ark was story missions. The authors tried to throw in exciting episodes with large-scale battles and fun like shooting at the crowd with siege weapons. At the same time, the camera effectively flew across the battlefield, and for the sake of variety, powerful N.P.C.s were given control. Get more Lost Ark Gold to better experience this game!

In the end, the game looked good. The picture was bright, the effects were pretty, the textures were crisp, and the work of the designers was often impressive. The color and light story made the Korean RPG stand out from its rival Path of Exile.

Otherwise, we are talking about a typical MMORPG with a million of the same type of activities, a lot of grinds, and an endless massacre of enemies.

The plot of Lost Ark turned out to be large-scale, albeit typical of the fantasy genre. One day, a mighty god created the beautiful world of Akrasia, which was filled with living beings. In contrast to solar Acrasia, the world of Fetraniya appeared, where the Red Moon shone instead of the Sun, and there were solid demons among the population.

The worlds were not interconnected until the inhabitants of a prosperous planet began to fight among themselves. A portal opened because of the massacre, from which hordes of demons poured into Acrasia. As soon as the heroes fought back and stopped the hostility, the passage was closed - sometimes, the Creator helped with this.

The problem is that the opening of a portal accompanied each new civil strife, and the attacks of the Fetranians became more and more powerful. The last time the demons were united by the mighty villain Caseros, and only a miracle managed to stop him.

According to the prophecies, Caseros will return one day and kill everyone - only the main character can stop the villain. And so the big adventure begins.

Despite the abundance of grind and not the fanciest plot, Lost Ark found success in its homeland. Korean gamers preferred to cut into it, not into World of Warcraft or the shoveled Final Fantasy 14. But for those who did not live in the East, the game was not available. Although someone was lucky: for example, in Russia, Lost Ark published My.Games (the former Mail.ru Games). Western gamers until now could only envy.

Why did Lost Ark become popular three years later?

The developers of Lost Ark are very hardworking. They regularly released content, added new activities, confronted gamers with powerful bosses, offered new classes to choose from, introduced excellent skills and weapons - every month, the MMO became more and more complex.

For example, in the latest update, two continents appeared, each of which has its plot, new classes, and subclasses like the Enchantress and the S.K.A.U.T. Agent, and the global history has taken a step forward.

As a result, by 2022, Lost Ark has become a large-scale, polished, and most sticky game. At this point, the authors decided to enter the Western market.

Probably, Western gamers are hungry for dynamic MMOs, and competitors like World of Warcraft: Shadowlands have had time to pall. In addition, recently, Blizzard employees have spent more time on scandals and not on supporting the project.

Only Path of Exile could compete with a Korean game, but its entry threshold is an order of magnitude higher. You can only level up normally by following guides, and the color palette and general mood are gloomy.

It turns out that the shareware Lost Ark flew into the market, where there was practically no competition. It is not surprising that gamers rushed to play it and collected such a high online.

In the West, the MMO was released on February 11, and the very next day, one-time online exceeded 1.3 million gamers. For comparison, in CS : GO. and DOTA 2, there were about 20 thousand fewer players at the peak. The only project ahead of Lost Ark in this indicator is PUBG. The royal battle brought together more than three million online players four years ago.

As in any other MMORPG, Lost Ark at first surprises with sticky gameplay, tasks with a good setting, and many activities. However, pure fun is replaced by the need to grind over time. The grind itself is not terrible, just the mechanics will tire someone, and the game will be deleted from the hard drive. Most likely, over time, online will fall.

However, one should not expect a colossal drop in online. After all, there is a lot of content in the game, and the authors do not sit idly by.

Should you play Lost Ark?

Lost Ark might be worth the fun if you love hack and slash. Do not forget that lately, developers have rarely released sensible games of this genre, and suitable Diablo 2: Resurrected is quickly passed and cannot boast of server stability. Well, if you don't turn up your nose when you hear the words "MMO" and "grind," the Korean game can drag on for a long time.

You shouldn't expect revelations from Lost Ark, but experimenting with classes, chopping demons into cabbages, going through story quests, and flying into open events is fun. Especially when they are not yet a routine.

Over time, everything will slide into grinding a specific resource for sharpening a blade and running around to a raid boss, but such is the specifics of the genre. It would help if you did not forget about tasks in the spirit of "run to the far end of the map and kill 20 boars". Some people like it, some don't.

Five months ago, Amazon's MMOs had 900,000 gamers, and now there are only 38,000. We can only say with certainty that in terms of technical condition, quality of quests, and sticky gameplay, Lost Ark is noticeably superior to the recent New World, in which interest quickly faded. It is unlikely that the Korean game is waiting for something similar.

If you love hack and slash and don't hate MMOs and grind, pay attention to Lost Ark. To run, at least the plot will be fun. But for gamers who avoid monotony, the game can be frustrating.