News & Commentary

AION 2's Free Launch Hit 397,905 Players on Steam - 2.3x Its Paid Head Start

AION 2's free-to-play launch more than doubled the Steam peak of its paid early access week. The head start set the tone. It didn't set the ceiling.

NCSoft's AION 2 went free-to-play worldwide on October 5 and peaked at 397,905 concurrent players on Steam, according to Inven Global - over 400,000 counting NCSoft's own PURPLE launcher. Its paid early-access window, sold through Founder's Packs, had peaked at 171,530 on September 30. That's about 2.3 times as many players on the free day.

Paid head starts are the new normal for big launches, and this is the cleanest before-and-after anyone's going to get: the same game, the same week, first with a price of entry and then without one.

Give AION 2 its due - nearly 400,000 people on Steam for a new MMO in 2026 is a big number, on a launch day with paying players already in the queue ahead of them.

But the split is the interesting part. The paid week decided what the game was known for: server queues, a top spot on Steam's revenue chart, and a crowd committed enough to wait in line. The free day decided how big it actually was. The people who pay to be first write the first impression. They are not the audience.

Watch where AION 2's player count sits in two weeks, once both crowds have settled. That's the number that says whether the head start helped.