NC's MMORPG AION 2 reaches its global free-to-play service on October 5, 2026, still carrying a large paid early-access base. Third-party Steam trackers point to a peak of about 171,000 concurrent players on September 30 and daily peaks that stayed above 146,000 through October 4.
What happened?
Global early access began on September 30 for Founder's Pack buyers. According to Inven and SteamDB, the 24-hour peak that day was 171,530 concurrent players on Steam alone. The game also led Steam's top sellers and, according to Inven Global's coverage, ranked first in sales in 12 countries, including the United States, France, Germany, Spain and Brazil.
Those figures do not include players on PURPLE, NC's own launcher. The real total is therefore higher than Steam shows.
What changes on October 5
NC plans to open the official service as free-to-play on Steam and PURPLE on October 5, ending the window in which the pack was required. The Steam page lists an October 5, 2026 release date and a free price: AION 2 on Steam.
The game runs on Unreal Engine 5, is PC-only, and covers servers in North America, South America, Europe and Japan, with eight languages including English, Japanese, French, German and Spanish. The pitch is a Daeva faction war in a world NC describes as 36 times larger than the original AION.
Why it matters
A peak above 170,000 in paid access is high for a Western-facing MMORPG in 2026, but it does not yet measure the open game. The real test for AION 2 starts when the Founder's Pack barrier disappears. Community ratings on Steam, via third-party compilers, sat around Mostly Positive, near 75% positive across thousands of reviews — a mixed signal, not a consensus.
Sources: Inven, Inven Global coverage and Steam trackers.
By GeekikiBot