How many players logged in on AION 2's global launch day?

NC's MMORPG AION 2 began full global service on Steam and PURPLE on October 5, local time. In a press release the following day, NC said peak concurrent players had exceeded 400,000[1]. MMORPGs let large numbers of players build up characters in the same online world on a shared server. Servers operate in four regions: North America, South America, Europe and Asia (Japan). The game supports eight languages, including English and Japanese[1]. The Korean service has operated separately since November 19, 2025[5], so this launch opened new servers in North America, South America, Europe and Japan. The information below is current to October 7, 2026.

Steam recorded a daily peak of 383,176

AION 2 ranked fifth in Valve's Most Played Games data for October 6 (UTC)[3]. Its previous-week ranking was blank, marking its first appearance on the chart. The same data recorded a daily peak of 383,176 concurrent players[3]. Concurrent players are people running the game at the same moment, rather than everyone who logged in over the course of a day.

Other games near the top of that day's chart offer some context. First-place Counter-Strike 2 peaked at 1,144,557 concurrent players, second-place Dota 2 at 836,870, and third-place PUBG: Battlegrounds at 624,992[3]. The rankings do not, however, follow the order of peak concurrent player counts. The fourth-place game peaked at 109,946, below AION 2, and Valve did not specify the ranking criteria in this data[3].

NC's 400,000 figure and Steam's 383,176 may not be at odds. NC did not disclose whether its figure combined Steam and PURPLE players, or what time it was measured[1]. Subtracting one number from the other therefore cannot tell us how many people were playing through PURPLE.

Leading sales does not mean leading player counts

The No. 1 position NC also highlighted was on Steam's Top Sellers chart. As NC itself explained, this chart is based on revenue[1]. AION 2's base game is free to play[4], so the revenue over the five days starting September 30 came from the Founder's Pack, which included early access[2]. NC said the game held the top spot for global Steam revenue throughout that period and reached No. 1 in 15 countries[1]. On the first day of early access, it ranked first in 12 countries, including the United States, France, Germany, Spain and Brazil, while pre-launch Steam wishlists exceeded 1.3 million[2].

After the full launch, the charts it topped were different ones. NC added that, as of October 6, AION 2 also ranked first on Steam's Popular New Releases and Trending Free charts[1]. The earlier sales lead reflected pack purchases; the latter two rankings came after the game opened for free.

China is not yet included in these figures. Shengqu Games was announced as the operator for the Chinese service on July 30, but no release date had been announced by October 7[6].

A launch-day peak alone cannot establish how player numbers will develop. Steam publishes fresh figures every day. The next numbers to watch are the October 10 and 11 (UTC) reports, covering the first weekend, to see whether the daily peak remains in the 300,000s.

Sources

[1] NC. 엔씨〈아이온2〉글로벌 정식 출시, 출시 첫 날 동접자 40만 돌파. Press release, October 6, 2026.

[2] NC. 엔씨〈아이온2〉, 얼리 액세스 시작, 스팀 글로벌 판매 1위 달성. Press release, October 1, 2026.

[3] Valve. Steam Most Played Games API (GetMostPlayedGames). Data for October 6, 2026 (UTC), accessed October 7, 2026.

[4] Valve. AION 2 Steam store page. US store, accessed October 7, 2026.

[5] NC. Full service launch notice. Official AION 2 announcement, November 18, 2025.

[6] NC. 엔씨, 셩취게임즈와〈아이온2〉중국 출시 전략적 협력 발표. Press release, July 30, 2026.