AION 2's paid Early Access window on Steam pulled a 171,530 concurrent peak and immediately hit number one on the global Top Sellers chart across a dozen countries, including the US, Germany, and Brazil. The free-to-play global launch on October 5 then doubled that to a 397,905 Steam peak, beating NCSoft's own prior record and pushing past Throne and Liberty's all-time high. SteamDB and Inven Global tracked both figures, with NC separately claiming over 400,000 total concurrent across Steam and its PURPLE launcher on shared servers.

The surge came on the back of 1.3 million Steam wishlists before release, Unreal Engine 5 visuals, and heavy emphasis on free flight and aerial combat in a world pitched as 36 times larger than the original AION. Founder's Packs ($24.99–$99.99) funded the five-day head start, after which the game went fully free-to-play with optional membership. Steam reviews sat Mostly Positive during Early Access but have since dropped to Mixed territory amid complaints about monetization and server queues that forced NC to spin up additional European servers on launch day.

Korean servers have run since November 2025 and generated roughly $103 million USD in Q1 2026 alone, giving NC a stabilized base to build on despite earlier backlash over pay-to-win systems. Global servers cover North America, South America, Europe, and Japan in eight languages, with no cross-progression from the KR/TW versions. The numbers are holding strong weeks later, with recent samples still showing over 240,000 concurrent on Steam alone.

This is what a Korean MMO reboot looks like when the wishlist hype and free flight marketing actually deliver on day one.