660,000 vs 33,000 - What lessons do Lost Ark and New World's contrasting numbers have for Amazon Games?

Lost Ark and New World have two similarities: the genre and the publishers. Both games have been published by Amazon Games, although Lost Ark has existed since 2019 in a separate form.

While the two games have similar elements, they also have distinct features that set them apart. Currently, the biggest differentiator is the contrasting concurrent player count of the two games.

New World was launched amidst much fanfare, and its release was a success. However, the success wasn't sustainable, and five months since its release, the player count has fallen from the massive high it once had.

Amazon Games should learn valuable lessons from the decline in order to stop a similar happenstance with Lost Ark.

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New World and Lost Ark have had two contrasting fortunes

Both releases enjoyed significant success in player counts after their release. The western version of Smilegate RPG's MMORPG has just completed a whole month, whereas New World has been out since September 2021.

Player counts decreasing for games isn't a new phenomenon. However, if the numbers are tracked, this will be a standard feature for almost any game as new games take the place of the older ones.

As of now, Lost Ark enjoys a significantly higher number than New World. The South Korean MMO has a 24-hour peak of 660,000 players. Over the last couple of weeks, there has been a decline, but it could be due to the release of the hotly anticipated Elden Ring.

In comparison, New World's numbers are shocking compared to the launch-highs it once enjoyed. It has a 24-hour peak of 33,000 players, behind older titles like Witcher 3 and Left 4 Dead 2.

The surprising part has been the fact that developers have consistently worked with the game. There have been regular patches and updates, but something remains amiss. It's a clear indication that players haven't been convinced by whatever changes have been made.

With Lost Ark, Amazon Games is much more sheltered due to the simple fact that the game has established a strong base. The game originated in South Korea, where it dominated the market and launched in Russia and Japan.

Making New World a similar success is much more arduous. There's no prior knowledge of this game, and it has been trial and error from the developers. These errors are significantly more apparent, explaining the drop in numbers.

Nothing alludes to the fact that the fate of one game will be repeated with another. This holds true even if the two games belong to the same genre. But there are still lessons to be learnt for Amazon Games over the performance of the two games.

For one, just content addition isn't enough, as New World hasn't been short of it. The most important area to focus on is the area of this new content that is being added. Player feedback remains an integral part of this, as adding unwanted items over requested ones never fares well.

Secondly, Amazon Games should foresee the future and not get too ahead with the current numbers. Lost Ark has a healthy rate of players at the moment, but so did New World once. Lost Ark's free-to-play approach will always encourage the involvement of more players. The onus for Amazon Games will be to prevent the sharp decline that has happened to its older MMO.

The third and most important thing that Amazon Games can learn from these two games. If Lost Ark retains most of its players, Amazon Games can critically analyze which things worked more for Western audiences. This will be extremely helpful for them and their plans for game development.