New World Hits Highest Player Count on Steam Since February – Is It Finally Worth It?
New World is experiencing a bit of a renaissance on Steam. Over 60,000 players were online at the same time shortly after the release of the new update. But where does the influx come from? And is it finally worth going back to the MMORPG?
What is the player count of New World? After a strong start in September and October 2021, the number of players fell continuously until August 2022, to almost 16,000 simultaneous players at the peak. Many have therefore already written off the MMORPG. However, there is currently a clear trend reversal.
On October 18, New World peaked at 65,064 concurrent players, almost three times the number of August. The 60,000 player mark was also broken on October 19 and 20 (via SteamDB).
One reason for this is the new patch that brought Brimstone Sands, the first new area since the release. It also included the new Great Sword weapon, a new dungeon, and a Halloween event. But the update alone is not responsible for the trend reversal. Because as early as August, the number of players and, above all, the reviews on Steam increased noticeably.
Is New World finally good?
Who is speaking here? Alex is the MMORPG expert on MeinMMO and has tested almost every game in the genre himself. He has spent a total of over 800 game hours in New World. Again and again he tests the innovations and takes an active part in what is happening in the game.
New World can hardly be compared to the release version and plays much better
What were the big criticisms? New World had some issues when it was released. The biggest were:
- A boring level phase
- Long distances and high travel costs
- Unclear item progression
- Missing endgame content in PvE
- Missing PvP content outside of wars
- Missing “Quality of Life” aspects
- Technical issues like bugs, gold dupes and lags
Now, a little over a year later, most of those issues have been fixed. A number of new aspects have also been brought into play.
Faster leveling and more enemy variety
What has changed in the leveling process? Right at the start of the game there is the first major innovation. You can now find weapons to try out everywhere in the starting area, so you don’t have to start with a sword and shield, but with your desired weapon.
Interesting for ranged fighters: You no longer need ammunition, but this gives you a slight damage boost.
In addition, the leveling process from level 1 to 25 has been heavily revised. There are fewer walkways, more quests, and the enemies you face have become more diverse. In general, all quests from level 10 also give 50% more experience points than at release.
In the middle levels, the required number of experience points has also been noticeably reduced in order to let the players reach level 60 faster. This happens almost automatically now if you just follow the main quest and your faction quests.
What about the long walks? Some of them still exist, but they are less annoying now. Because already in February, the costs for fast travel were greatly reduced. Weight is also irrelevant and new fast travel points have been introduced, including at every dungeon in the game.
Aside from that, some amenities have also been brought into play: camps are now valid across cities, you walk 10% faster on roads and you can open the inventory while walking.
Clear structures in the endgame – Both for PvE and PvP
What changed in the endgame? New World has a clear item progression. This relies on the value of competence, which you can level up by dropping good equipment or using the plaster system.
The plaster system rewards you with upgrades for your equipment and is connected to the endgame via a kind of daily task list. Plaster is available for dungeons, for the portal events in the open world, for crafting, for faction marks or for PvP. Each type of player can therefore improve their equipment in a targeted manner.
In addition, New World has increased its equipment level to 625. However, this new equipment will not drop, you must upgrade it via shadow shards. Shadow Shards, on the other hand, can also be obtained in the endgame or later via the plaster system once you have leveled out.
What new PvE content is there? Especially in PvE New World has grown a lot:
In addition, new levels beyond 200 have been introduced for crafting, which reward you with loot, and fans of musical instruments have also had their money’s worth since July. At that time, five instruments were implemented, which also distribute buffs to the players.
What about the PvP? The most important change for PvP players was the resolution of lags in wars. It’s still not 100% perfect, but the wars are currently playable. They are complemented by the new 3v3 arenas and the PvP reward track, which brings good gold and good gear.
Three new weapons for more variety
What else is new? Anyone who has already wished for more variety in the weapons for the release will not be disappointed. With the baleful gauntlets (magic), the blunderbuss (firearm) and the greatsword, three new and very different weapons came into play. Each of them looks well thought out and is really fun.
Amazon has also worked on the balance, the animations and the general fluidity of the combat system. Everything now feels much more sensible and smoother than it did at release.
Developers get credit for communication
Are only the new features to blame for the trend reversal? no Because while many blamed Amazon for their poor communication at the time of the release, the developer studio has since improved a lot.
Each month there is a video in which the developers report on the current status of the game and explain what changes they are making and why. They also talk about innovations that are still a long way off, such as mounts and raids, which should come at some point. In addition, a lot is communicated in the forums and updates are tried out several weeks in advance on a test server.
There were still errors after a new update in the recent past, but they were far less serious. The latest update didn’t cause any major scandal – apart from a taunt bug – despite the patch being so large.
Streamers and YouTubers are also returning: The positive communication and the generally positive development of the game surprises many and therefore deserves praise. On October 19, almost 1,000 channels showing the game were online at the same time on Twitch. This was last the case in December 2021.
Among the streamers were bigger names like summit1g, KingGothalion (900,000 followers) and AresLP, one of the biggest German MMO streamers.
Popular YouTuber TheLazyPeon praised New World in September:
Newcomers to New World have the best time in November
Is now the perfect time to get started? It depends. If you already have a high-level character and want to continue playing it, then yes. You can enjoy the many new benefits and soon start into the dungeons or into PvP.
If you would start from scratch, you should wait a few more weeks. Because on November 2nd, new “Fresh Start” servers will be released. There you can only start with new characters and in a completely fresh economy. You are experiencing a second release of New World.
What do you think about the development of the MMORPG? Does New World speak to you now or do you remain sceptical?
Reference-mein-mmo.de