The long-anticipated Western debut of Lost Ark took place via Steam yesterday with record-breaking numbers.

　　Lost Ark, a fusion between Diablo-like hack and slash gameplay with MMORPG elements and content, is developed by Tripod Studio and Smilegate RPG. Originally unveiled eight years ago, it took a long time to make, eventually launching in South Korea at the very end of 2019 after a year of the open beta phase. The next steps were the Russian and Japanese releases, though Western fans were losing hope before Amazon Games announced a deal with Smilegate RPG.

　　Now, Lost Ark might soon surpass Amazon's own New World, at least when it comes to the concurrent online player peak. According to SteamDB, the game peaked at 532K players sixteen hours ago, which puts it at the sixth place in the all-time chart behind PUBG: Battlegrounds, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and New World, and above Valheim.

　　That said, this is still the early access phase for the game, reserved to owners of Founder's Packs. Lost Ark is officially launching this Friday as a free-to-play game, which means it might very well double or even triple the current peak number of concurrent online players.

　　It also has a far better shot at keeping those users than New World. Amazon's in-house MMORPG is now down to less than 50K concurrent players as of yesterday, largely due to the severe lack of content (not to mention the continued issues such as bugs and exploits). Lost Ark's long gestation, on the other hand, means the MMOARPG now comes with decent polish and a veritable wealth of content and features. So far, user reviews are Overwhelmingly Positive (96% rating).

　　The early access update also introduced DirectX 11 support (which massively improved performance on most PCs), global chat, custom PvP matches and spectating, and Korean voiceovers as an optional DLC pack.

　　NEW FEATURES

　　We are including 15 playable classes.To match the Sorceress release in Korea, we will also include the Sorceress advanced class, replacing the Closed Beta option of the Summoner.The Striker class has also been introduced since Closed Beta.Global Chat has been added to allow players to communicate with others in other worlds of the same server region.Each chat room can hold a maximum of 100 players.Players can see the previous chat logs before they enter the room and chat messages that were sent when they have logged-off.Korean VO has been added as a DLC pack on Steam. Please note this only affects spoken dialogue to allow players to experience the original VO of the game. Text options are restricted to English, French, German or Spanish.For a full list of Accessibility features added, please visit our accessibility options article.Text-to-Speech Accessibility is available for reading chat messages. Additional improvements have been made after Closed Beta Feedback. To use this feature, players have to activate Windows Narrator outside of the game. Once the "TTS" setting is turned on in-game, chat messages or text typed will be read aloud by Narrator.Speech-to-Text Accessibility is available for transcribing voice chat in a Party or a Raid. To use this feature, players must turn on the setting under Game Settings >> Community >> Chat and must participate in a Party voice chat.Added the Room Of Growth, which is accessible after completing the Northern Bern World Quest "Afterimage of the Rift". This feature allows you to experience and learn additional game modes that Lost Ark has to offer, such as mounts, pets, crafting, engraving, disassembling, and refining.Added Procyon's Compass - Adventurers will find a menu accessible through a Widget that showcases the active Field Bosses, Ghost Ships, Chaos Gates, and the current Adventure Islands.Added Adventure Island - This is a new activity that directs users to islands that are only available during certain times. Once on the island, you'll be given a co-op quest and must face a boss in order to receive a variety of rewards.Custom PvP matches and spectating has been added.

　　Amazon Prime subscribers can redeem an exclusive Lost Ark Battle Pack bundle here. It includes the Crystalline Aura, Amethyst Shard Park, Battle Chest Bundle.

　　We'll have a lot more coverage on Lost Ark in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, you can check out our beta hands-on preview.