AION 2 Steam Charts and Player Count — How to Read Them
AION 2 Steam charts before launch: the 73,761 Launch Scale Test peak, why Steam undercounts a PURPLE-launcher MMO, and what to watch once October 5 arrives.
FAQ
How many players does AION 2 have on Steam right now?
Is the 73,761 player peak an official NCSOFT number?
Why does AION 2 show zero players on Steam charts?
How many wishlists does AION 2 have?
Do wishlists turn into concurrent players?
Will Steam charts show the real AION 2 player count after launch?
What numbers should I watch after October 5?
AION 2 has no live player count to look at. The only measured number on record is a 73,761 concurrent-player peak during the September 17 Launch Scale Test, recorded by SteamDB on the playtest app. The retail app does not open until October 5, 2026, and even then Steam will capture only part of the population.
What do AION 2 Steam charts show right now?
No live player count, because there is no live game to count. The retail app (AppID 3393110) is unreleased and tracks no players; the playtest app (AppID 4972320) has been closed since September 18 and sits at zero. Everything else on a chart page today is a historical value or a non-player metric.
| Metric | Value | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Retail app live players (3393110) | None — unreleased until Oct 5 | Steam |
| Playtest app live players (4972320) | 0 since Sep 18, 2026 | SteamDB |
| Playtest all-time peak | 73,761 concurrent, Sep 17, 2026 | SteamDB, third-party |
| Retail app followers | About 76,900 | SteamDB, late September 2026 |
| Retail app reviews | None — no user reviews yet | Steam |
| Wishlist total | Not published by Valve or NCSOFT | — |
Where does the 73,761 player peak come from?
From SteamDB, not from NCSOFT. SteamDB published the figure as a news item on the playtest app Steam feed on September 17, 2026 at 14:50 UTC, while the first test window was still running, and its app page for 4972320 lists the same all-time peak for that date.
That distinction matters for how you cite it. It is a third-party tracking figure, produced by monitoring Steam’s public player counts on a single app. NCSOFT has never published a combined figure for the test.
Three limits come with the number:
- It covers Steam only. The test also ran through the PURPLE launcher, and those players were never counted, so the true test population was higher.
- It is a six-hour-window peak, not a steady state — the playtest schedule ran two short windows, so the chart measures a concentrated rush.
- It is a test peak, not a launch forecast. The second window nearly matched the first at 73,739 concurrent players, reported by MMOHuts rather than NCSOFT or SteamDB.
Why will Steam charts undercount AION 2’s population?
Because Steam is one of two launch platforms. AION 2 ships on Steam and on NCSOFT’s own PURPLE launcher, and PURPLE players never appear in Steam’s numbers. The September test already demonstrated the gap: NCSOFT confirmed both platforms were used and published no combined total.
| Steam charts do capture | Steam charts do miss |
|---|---|
| Everyone who launches the game through Steam | Everyone playing through the PURPLE launcher |
| Concurrent sessions for the Steam app | Accounts that own the game but are not logged in |
| Review activity per Steam app | Wishlist adds, followers and Founder’s Pack sales |
| The retail app after October 5 | The separate Korea and Taiwan service, which is not on Steam |
This is the most misread number in AION 2 coverage. A Steam peak that looks modest next to a rival can still mean queues on your world. If you want a crowding signal rather than a chart, watch whether your world queues at peak hours — the server status and maintenance page tracks the queue policy NCSOFT has confirmed.
One related quirk: reviews are attached to the app, not the game, so the playtest app’s reviews will not carry over to the retail app on October 5 and the first retail score starts from zero.
How do you read concurrent players versus peak players?
Concurrent players is a snapshot; peak is the highest snapshot in a period. Current players answers what is happening right now, and daily peak answers how busy the busiest moment was. For a launch, the pair that matters is the launch peak and the level the game settles at afterwards.
| Term | What it means | How it misleads |
|---|---|---|
| Current players | Sessions open at this instant | Time of day — a low count at 06:00 UTC means nothing |
| Daily peak | Highest concurrent count that day | Test windows and launch rushes inflate it |
| All-time peak | The highest count ever recorded | Set once, rarely beaten, quoted forever |
| Twitch viewers | People watching streams | A different audience entirely — never read it as players |
| Review count | Volume of reviews on that app | Measures sentiment and reach, not play time |
That Twitch row is worth spelling out, because SteamDB’s sidebar tracks it next to player data. Its Twitch panel for AION 2 has shown roughly 4,700 peak viewers recently alongside an all-time viewer peak above 80,000 — a figure that lines up with the November 2025 Korea and Taiwan launch, not with any Steam player count.
Are wishlists the same as sales or player counts?
No — they are three different numbers measuring three different things. A wishlist add is a bookmark, a follow is an app subscription, a sale is a purchase, and a concurrent player is a session open right now. Only the last one says anything about who is actually playing.
| Number | What it counts | Published? |
|---|---|---|
| Wishlist adds | Steam accounts that saved the game | No — Valve does not publish totals |
| Followers | Accounts following the app page | Tracked by third parties, about 76,900 |
| Sales | Copies sold — irrelevant here, the game is free to play | No |
| Founder’s Pack purchases | The only paid entry before launch | No |
| Concurrent players | Sessions open at once on Steam | Yes, Steam only |
Third-party wishlist estimates have ranged widely — one creator put AION 2 near 416,000 in July 2026 and projected up to 800,000 by release. Those are estimates, not Valve figures, and the conversion rate from wishlist to login varies enough between games that neither predicts a player count.
What should I watch after October 5?
Watch the shape rather than the record. A launch peak tells you how many people arrived; the weeks after tell you how many stayed. Steam charts are the only free public measurement, so use them as a trend line and pair them with queue reports for the fuller picture.
- Day one, October 5: the retail app’s first Steam peak, plus whether worlds queue at peak hours. Queues are the population signal charts cannot give you. Launch timing is still unannounced — the release date and launch time guide tracks that.
- First weekend: usually the highest sustained count of the launch period, and the figure most outlets will quote afterwards.
- Week two: how far the count falls from the peak. A shallow decline suggests players stayed; a steep one is the more common pattern after a launch spike.
- Reviews on the retail app: the playtest score does not transfer, so the retail review percentage is a fresh signal.
- Like-for-like comparisons: the 73,761 test peak came from a six-hour window with no other way to play the global build. Treat it as a floor for demand, and check the server list and regions guide and the preload and download guide for what changes before launch day.
Sources and verification
- SteamDB news item, “AION 2 Playtest peaks at 73k players”, published September 17, 2026 at 14:50 UTC on the AppID 4972320 news feed and read through the Steam news API — text: “AION 2 Playtest has peaked at 73,761 concurrent players on 17 September 2026”
- SteamDB app page for AppID 4972320, checked September 22, 2026 — all-time peak 73761 on 17 September 2026, current players 0
- SteamDB app pages for AppID 3393110 and its most-wishlisted tracker, checked September 22, 2026 — about 76,888 followers, Twitch panel tracked separately
- Steam store appdetails API for both AppIDs, checked September 22, 2026 — retail app unreleased with no user reviews; playtest app released August 26, 2026
- MMOHuts, “AION 2 Playtest Ends With Mixed Steam Reviews and a 73,761 Player Peak” — second window at 73,739, PURPLE excluded
- Steam announcement, “Launch Scale Test Comes to a Close”, September 19, 2026 — platforms used and the Steam uninstall step
- SullyGnome and StreamsCharts Aion 2 Twitch statistics — the November 2025 viewer peak near 82,000
Evidence level: Third-party tracked, checked against the official feed. The 73,761 figure is SteamDB’s, not an NCSOFT number, and is labelled that way throughout; platform, date and policy claims come from NCSOFT announcements. Wishlist estimates are attributed to their creators, and the Twitch panel is flagged as viewers rather than players.
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