New World just saw its player base reach its peak with over 100,000 players last weekend, breaking the previous record for concurrent players.
First released back in September 2021, New World had a somewhat strong initial player base, but as the months passed, the server population began to decline steadily. This prompted Amazon to push a resurgence for the game, creating a fresh start for players with a Twitch drop promotion, a half price sale on Steam, and the game’s most recent Brimstone Sands update.
With a server full of experienced max level characters, inflated marketplaces, and a dominant faction imbalance, there are understandable worries about being the odd man out, but it seems the developers have thought of this issue, and tried to address it. Along with the Brimstone Sands update, Amazon disclosed that fresh servers have been launched, allowing you to play at an equal standing with others, there really isn’t a better time to get started.
“The new servers will offer old and new players a chance to completely restart their New World experience as pre-existing high-level characters cannot be transferred in” Amazon commented.
“Following the release of Brimstone Sands (which went live on 18th October) and Fresh Start Worlds, now is the best time to start your adventure in Aeternum,”
Player numbers have been given a significant boost – up from a peak of around 48,000 people logging on each day to more than 130,000 – and still rising, so all in all, it’s great news for the Amazon MMO that can live to see another day, but how long will it last?
It’s not unheard of for a game to make a huge display of rehabilitation only to fall back into the same hole, so whether New World can keep this momentum going remains to be seen. The development team has undoubtedly pressed on long after many had given up on the game, and it’s evident from the improvements they’ve made in recent months that they were aware of at least a considerable portion of the problems players were experiencing, so there is still hope for the future.
“It’s a great opportunity for new and lapsed players to experience all that has changed over the game’s first year,” the team said.
Ultimately, it would be a shame to see this MMO game fade away with the others, but it appears that the developers are working hard to ensure that this one sticks, so overall we’re just eager to see how far this ball can roll.
