New World had a lot of hype when it was released in Sep. 2021. People thought it would be the game that finally dethroned World of Warcraft as the number one MMO, and for a while, it was on track to do that.
Instead, it had a lot of issues, such as game-breaking bugs, a lack of end-game content, and more, that caused it to fall from grace, and it wasn’t long before its player count plummeted. It had an average of 400,000 players in its first month, with a peak of more than 900,000.
Eventually, it fell to as low as 13,000 average players less than a year later.
Still, developers Amazon Game Studios didn’t abandon it. They’ve improved it to the point where the community is happy with it, and it’s expected to get even better in the upcoming Brimstone Sands update.
Lots of players have been returning in the lead-up to its release, including top Twitch MMO streamer Asmongold, who tried the update in the Public Test Realm, and he thinks it has the potential to make New World explode again.
“My thoughts on the new update based on what we have seen so far? I think this is promising. In general, it is promising,” he said.
“It is a tremendous amount of improvement. I’m glad to see it. Hopefully, we see more.”
The PTR doesn’t include everything the update will bring yet. However, he was able to test the revamped starting experience, which includes better quest flow and more story integration, and he was impressed.
“The main story being improved and made better is very important,” he said. People felt it was a little all-over-the-place and repetitive before, but the changes improved it.
He then added: “Overall, I think this is a positive.”
“The game is moving in a good direction and it seems like there are a lot of people who are feeling that way. If you go and look at the amount of people playing the game, it’s quite high. It has certainly revitalized a tremendous amount of people’s excitement and people’s interest in the game.”
New World’s population is still a shadow of what it once was. However, as Asmongold pointed out on stream, it’s on a slow and steady rise and could boom once the patch releases in Oct.
The MMO veteran predicted its comeback in March 2022, claiming the fact it doesn’t have subscription fees means people can return whenever new content drops, and that’s what’s happening here.
As for how much New World will actually climb, we’ll find out next month.
