The success of Lost Ark was never in question, but the size of it has seemingly taken everyone – including Western publisher Amazon Games, and developer Smilegate – by surprise.
Through its pre-sale and early access launch, Lost Ark attracted over half-a-million players in a day. The pressure to have a good public launch on Friday was mounting, and Amazon had to delay it by a few hours to ensure it can accommodate the expected surge of new players.
But it wasn’t enough. Lost Ark peaked at a staggering 1,325,305 players over the weekend, enough for queues to be increasingly long, with thousands of players stuck waiting their turn to play. Queues could last several hours.
Nowhere is this more prevalent than Europe, where Lost Ark appears to be much more popular than North America and other regions. To help deal with this, Amazon is not just adding a new batch of servers, it’s adding an entirely new region within Europe.
The news comes by way of the game’s official site, where Amazon confirmed that the new region will be separate from Central Europe – the only existing collection of servers in the continent.
“Due to the game’s architecture this is the only way to accommodate more players in Europe so it’s a joint effort between Amazon Games and Smilegate RPG,” the post explains.
While this is great news for players who have yet to actually create a character and join the fun, it unfortunately means that those who do will not be able to enjoy cross-region gameplay with their friends on Central Europe servers. This also goes for other region-wide features, since the new cluster will effectively be its own region. Things like Royal Crystal, and Silver balance will not be shared with the existing European cluster.
Amazon did not say when we can expect this new region to launch, only that it’s working 24/7 to get it up and running.
If you’re anxious to start your own journey in Arkesia, or you managed to get in and enjoy the game – we’ve got a solid batch of guides that will help you in a multitude of ways. Our very popular Lost Ark classes guide is an essential read that’ll guide you through this very crucial step, whether on your first character or alts.
For more mechanic-specific guides, such as those for Lost Ark’s Trade Skills, Rapport, Card Decks, and getting those Twitch drops – check the links.
