Aion 2 Hit 400,000 Players at Global Launch. Its Membership Unlocks the Market One Server at a Time, and Steam Reviews Are Split Over the Cash Shop.

What Happened

Aion 2 drew more than 400,000 players at once on launch day, and its Steam reviews split over a shop that charges per server and per character.

The launch

• Worldwide launch. Aion 2, NCSoft's free-to-play Unreal Engine 5 MMORPG built around flight and aerial combat, went live worldwide on October 5 at 10 PM Korean time.
• Two storefronts. It launched on Steam and on PURPLE, NC's own PC launcher, for North America, South America, Europe and Japan.
• Paid head start. Owners of the Founder's Pack, the paid launch bundle, got five days of early access first.
• More servers. NC opened new servers to meet demand and runs a login event until December 15, per MMORPG.com.
• Launch trailer. NC posted a Launch Reveal Trailer on the official AION 2 YouTube channel.

The numbers

• Steam peak. Steam recorded 397,905 concurrent players on October 5 (UTC), per the games outlet Inven Global and others.
• Past 400,000. NC says the total passed 400,000 once PURPLE players are counted.
• Early access. The five-day early access peaked at 171,530.
• Charts. Inven Global had it third in current Steam players, fifth in daily players, and first in Popular New Releases and Trending Free on October 6.
• Revenue. During early access it topped Steam's Top Sellers by revenue in 15 countries.

The shop and the reviews

• Market by server. The Special Quai Membership, which players need to use the marketplace, is bought per server, not per account.
• Pass by character. The Deva Pass, Aion 2's progression pass, is sold per character.
• Split reviews. The Korean outlet The Elec put Steam reviews at 73% positive on October 7; Shattered.io reported 66% and a Mixed rating on launch day.
• AI disclosure. NCSoft disclosed that “some in-game assets were created with the assistance of AI tools,” which drew its own criticism.

The complaints are about where Aion 2 charges, not what it costs. Paid tiers shaped this launch before it opened: NC closed its two-day Steam stress test, which peaked at 73,761, by handing paying members their own priority queue.

What This Means for the Riot MMO

Players still turn up for a new fantasy MMO, and they turn on a shop that charges them again for a new server or a second character.

• Demand is real. A launch this size cuts against the 'MMOs are dead' talk that Riot MMO executive producer Fabrice Condominas has argued against in public.
• Structure, not price. The backlash targets paying again to change server or start a second character, more than the price of any single item.
• AI at launch. AI-made assets are now a launch-week complaint of their own, the same week Jagex, the studio behind RuneScape, pulled a trailer over AI.
• One clear hook. Aion 2 sells itself on one mechanic, flight. A new MMO needs a signature that easy to say.
• No Riot model. Riot has never put a business model for its MMO on the record.
• Street's 2022 line. Former Riot MMO game director Greg Street tweeted in January 2022 that Riot hoped players would spend because they want to, not because they have to.
• Before the reset. Street left Riot in March 2023, a year before the MMO's 2024 development reset. Riot is now hiring an engineer to architect an in-game store for a game it won't name.

Our read. Aion 2 proves the audience still shows up on day one. Its reviews show where trust breaks: the unit a game charges per. RuneScape deleted 298 microtransactions and lost 40% of its revenue the next day, and Riot itself refunded a paywalled 2009 recolour after six days. Whatever the MMO sells, per account will read very differently from per character.

Riot has backed off a price fast before, too: it made League Classic's 60 retro models free three days after pricing them.

What to Watch

Your Take

Reported from The Elec, with Inven Global, Shacknews, Shattered.io, MMORPG.com and Steam. The MMO read is ours and speculative. Analysis by RuneGrove.