AION 2 Player Count: Is the Game Still Alive?

Short answer: AION 2 is not dead. When we checked Steam’s official API on October 17, 2026 at 00:48 UTC, 214,451 players were in the game on Steam. That is about 54% of the 397,905 concurrent peak on release day, twelve days earlier, and it does not count anyone playing through NC’s PURPLE launcher. The numbers have dropped, as every MMO launch does; whether they settle or keep falling is the real question.

The numbers, with sources

A few things to keep in mind when reading this table:

• Concurrent is not total. 214,451 is how many people were logged in at that moment, not how many play the game. Daily or weekly players are always several times higher than any single snapshot.
• The time of day matters. 00:48 UTC is Friday evening on the US West Coast, the middle of the night in Europe and Saturday morning in Asia. A snapshot at European prime time would look different.
• Steam is only part of it. Global runs on both Steam and PURPLE. NC’s “400,000 active users” counts players on both, measured differently from SteamDB’s concurrent peak, so the two numbers are not directly comparable.

Why you can’t find AION 2 on SteamCharts

Players keep asking this. When we checked, SteamCharts returned a “not found” page for the game’s Steam app ID (3393110), while SteamDB tracks it. That is a gap in one third-party site’s coverage, not a sign that the game was removed or that nobody plays it. If you want a number, Steam’s own GetNumberOfCurrentPlayers endpoint is the primary source both sites read from.

How many of those players are bots?

Nobody outside NC knows. Guesses on the Steam forums range from “half the server” to around 20,000 bots across the whole game, the second figure based on comparing curves with other MMOs. Players on the European servers say they see fewer bots than others report. None of these guesses come with data.

What is on record: NC has posted account restriction notices on Steam every few days since launch (October 11, 12/13, 14 and 15/16), each naming botting, macros, unauthorized programs and gold-farming patterns. The notices do not give numbers, and they also say normal play, including long grinding sessions, is not affected. One forum thread linked part of the first week’s drop, from about 400,000 to about 300,000 at peak, to banned bots leaving the count. That is plausible, but nobody can measure how much.

What the reviews say (and don’t)

Overall, Steam reviews sit at Mixed. By language, as of October 17:

• English: 15,948 reviews, Mixed
• Russian (2,381), Brazilian Portuguese (2,238) and French (2,062): all Mixed
• Simplified Chinese: 726 reviews, Mostly Positive
• Japanese: 462 reviews, Mostly Negative
• Korean: 72 reviews, Very Positive (a tiny sample, since most Korean players are on the Korean version)

The complaints that come up most are Odyle Energy limits, low drop rates and RNG, and paid access to the Market. A Mixed score tells you people are divided about the design. It does not tell you how many people are playing. Plenty of busy MMOs have sat at Mixed for years.

Signals beyond the Steam counter

The concurrent number is one signal. Others point in both directions.

Signs of a healthy population:

• NC opened new European servers (Nathara and Tassin) on October 8, after adding several during Advanced Access.
• Server transfers came with advance notice of transfer caps per server, refreshed hourly, because demand to move was high enough to need limits. Launch-server transfers have their own window; see our server transfer checklist.
• NC is still shipping weekly patches and a Halloween event that runs into early November.

Signs worth watching:

• A widely shared summary of an interview with NC’s North American lead, posted on Reddit, described server merges as a long-term “necessary evil”, possibly months away. That is a summary, not an official notice, and no merge has been announced.
• On the Korean version, a community-shared mobile analytics screenshot showed weekly active users about 43% below launch week. That is a different market and a different platform, so it is background only.
• The most discussed Reddit thread of the week, with hundreds of comments, is titled along the lines of “the game is good, but I’m worried about its future”. The worry is real, and so is the “good” part.

The case for worry, the case for calm

Pessimists point to: a near-halving of Steam concurrents in under two weeks, energy and Market limits that frustrate new players, and upcoming MMO releases in November that some expect to pull players away.

Optimists point to: every big MMO launch losing a large share of its day-one peak, bot bans shrinking the numbers without hurting real players, and over 200,000 people still online on Steam alone at an off-peak hour. As one forum reply put it, numbers always fall back to a stable level; the only question is where.

Our view: a game with six-figure Steam concurrents twelve days in is not dying. The useful figure will be the concurrent count after the first month, once the launch curiosity and banned accounts are gone. Check back then, and use the official API rather than screenshots.

Should you start or come back now?

If the game appeals to you, the population is not a reason to stay away. Group content works across servers, so a quieter server mainly affects the open world and the Market. If you are choosing a server, a newer one may be less crowded; if you already play, wait for the official transfer rules before moving.

If time, not population, is the problem

For many players, the real fear is falling behind, not an empty server. Aion2 Bot can take over the repetitive part: Daily Activities chains Auto Task, Kinah farming and gathering across your characters, and Auto Quest handles levelling to 45. It supports Steam Global, Korea and Taiwan, and runs in fullscreen if you set your resolution before installing. NC restricts accounts for bots and unauthorized programs, so there is always a risk, and nobody can promise you won’t be banned. Aion.Onl uses advanced anti-detection techniques to protect accounts as far as possible. New users get a free 3-hour trial card at user.aion.onl.

Sources: Steam Web API, GetNumberOfCurrentPlayers (read Oct 17, 2026, 00:48 UTC) · AION 2 peaks at 397k players (SteamDB, via Steam) · Thank you for 400,000 Active Players · New Servers Opening (Europe) · Advance Notice of Server Transfer Limits · Account Restrictions, Oct 15 PDT / Oct 16 CEST. Review counts come from Steam’s reviews API on the same day. Bot estimates and forum opinions are player claims.

Related reading: AION 2 Global Hits 400,000 Active Users · AION 2 Ban Waves Explained · AION 2 Server Transfer Checklist