Reception and Revenue
How Aion 2 was received and what it earned: NC's revenue quarter by quarter since the Korean and Taiwanese launch of Nov 19, 2025, the Game of G-Star award and creators' verdicts, and the global Steam debut, from early access on Sep 30, 2026 to the free launch of Oct 5 and its peak of 397,905 players, with Mixed reviews that slipped to about 58% by Oct 21, press impressions, NC's share price and analysts' forecasts.
Aion 2 has had a mixed reception and strong commercial results since it launched in Korea and Taiwan on Nov 19, 2025. NC reported average daily users above 1.5 million two days after launch and KRW 286.1 billion of revenue from the game in its first three quarters, and the game helped the company to record PC revenue in early 2026; players and creators praised its looks, combat and character creator but criticized its monetization, server problems and bots. Society Of Gaming, with more than 1,000 hours on the Korean and Taiwanese servers, sums up long-term players' views as a list of best and worst things. The global version reached Steam with Founder's Pack Advanced Access on Sep 30, 2026: that day it hit an all-time peak of 171,530 concurrent Steam players and first place in Steam's top sellers, while its user reviews stood at Mixed after mostly negative first hours spent in queues. It opened to everyone, free, on Oct 5, when it peaked at 397,905 concurrent Steam players, and two days later its reviews were still Mixed. The disputes themselves are on Controversies.
Quick facts
| Launch | Nov 19, 2025, Korea and Taiwan, on PC and mobile; worldwide Advanced Access from Sep 30, 2026, free launch Oct 5, 2026 |
| Daily active users | Average above 1.5 million, per NC on Nov 21, 2025 |
| First two days | Over KRW 10 billion (about US$6.8 million), per inews24 as reported by MassivelyOP |
| First 46 days | KRW 100 billion cumulative by Jan 3, 2026 (NC) |
| Q4 2025 | KRW 77.4 billion (NC results) |
| Q1 2026 | KRW 136.8 billion (NC results) |
| Q2 2026 | KRW 71.9 billion (NC results) |
| Memberships | More than 1 million characters by Jan 3, 2026 (NC) |
| Award | Game of G-Star 2025 |
| Launch Scale Test peak | 73,761 concurrent Steam players on Sep 17, 2026 (SteamDB) |
| Steam peak | 397,905 concurrent players on Oct 5, 2026, launch day, the all-time peak as of Oct 7, 2026; 171,530 on Sep 30 in Advanced Access (SteamDB; PURPLE players not counted) |
| Steam reviews | Mixed: 20,869 positive and 15,216 negative of 36,085 on Oct 21, 2026, about 58% (Steam); 65% of 16,195 on the evening of Oct 7; 529 of 929 positive on Sep 30 |
| English reviews | 9,348 positive of 17,485 on Oct 21, 2026, about 53% (Steam) |
| Steam charts | #1 in top sellers on Sep 30, 2026; #4 in top sellers, #5 in daily active users and 122,747 followers on Oct 7, 2026 (SteamDB) |
| Steam players on Oct 7 | 373,854 at the peak of the 24 hours to 21:25 UTC, and 334,842 at that moment (SteamDB) |
| NC's launch figure | Peak concurrent users above 400,000 (NC, Oct 6, 2026; not split by platform) |
Launch reception in Korea and Taiwan
The launch was troubled. Server congestion and a bug affecting players who had reserved character names forced emergency maintenance more than once across the 40 Korean servers, and cash-shop bundles led to an apology livestream within a day (MassivelyOP, Nov 19, 2025; Korea and Taiwan Launch). The game still drew players. NC said on Nov 21 that average daily active users had passed 1.5 million, and Mobile Index ranked it fifth by revenue on Apple's App Store the day before, although NC noted that more than 90% of payments went through its own PC payment system and did not show in app-store rankings (The Asia Business Daily, Nov 21, 2025).
KaidGames2's review after 50 hours, published two days after launch, described community reaction as mixed but leaning towards disappointment: players loved the looks, the atmosphere and the return of Aion, but complained about the interface, stiff combat, an early leveling wall, inconsistent PvP balance and bugs, and felt the game had been rushed.
kets and his games answered his own question, whether to play it, with a no in November 2025. He found the combat, classes, world, bosses and dungeons genuinely fun, but said the constant server issues and pay-to-win sank his rating, and advised waiting for the global release.
Revenue
Aion 2's figures come from NC's own announcements and earnings reports; they are company claims for the Korean and Taiwanese service, not independent measurements. NC had reported no revenue from the global version as of Oct 7, 2026.
| Period | Revenue | Source |
|---|---|---|
| First two days | Over KRW 10 billion (about US$6.8 million), PC and mobile | inews24, via MassivelyOP (Nov 22, 2025) |
| To Jan 3, 2026 (46 days) | KRW 100 billion cumulative | NC (Jan 7, 2026) |
| Fourth quarter of 2025 | KRW 77.4 billion | NC results, via The Elec (Sep 30, 2026) |
| First quarter of 2026 | KRW 136.8 billion | NC results, via The Elec (May 15, 2026) |
| Second quarter of 2026 | KRW 71.9 billion | NC results, via The Elec (Aug 28, 2026) |
| Launch to Jun 30, 2026 | KRW 286.1 billion | The Elec's total of NC's results (Sep 30, 2026) |
MassivelyOP reported on Nov 22, 2025 that some global fans considered the two-day figure small, setting it against NCSOFT's US$245 million revenue for the previous quarter, while noting that it was slightly more than the rest of the Aion franchise had earned in that whole quarter (MassivelyOP, Nov 22, 2025). When NC announced KRW 100 billion on Jan 7, 2026 it added that more than a million characters had bought memberships in the same 46 days (NC, Jan 7, 2026).
In the first quarter of 2026 Aion 2's first full quarter helped NC's PC game revenue to a record KRW 318.4 billion, up 210% on a year earlier (The Elec, May 15, 2026). On the earnings call co-CEO Park Byung-moo said traffic had dipped along the expected decline curve, and finance chief Hong Won-jun estimated roughly that Membership brought in about a quarter of Aion 2's revenue, skins another quarter and Quna purchases the other half (Inven Global, May 12, 2026; Business Model).
Second-quarter revenue fell to KRW 71.9 billion, 47% below the first quarter and a little under the launch quarter's 77.4 billion, as The Elec later set out the three quarters (The Elec, Sep 30, 2026). NC's own presentation described revenue as having stabilized (MassivelyOP, Aug 11, 2026), and NC expected sales in Korea and Taiwan to avoid further declines in the second half of 2026, citing rebounds in user numbers and sales in July and August compared with June (The Elec, Aug 28, 2026). On the same results call Park said peak concurrent users were rising and that, after a possible pause in the third quarter, he expected very steep growth in the fourth, the quarter of the global launch (Inven).
Award
Aion 2 was named Game of G-Star 2025 by the Korea Game Media Association and the Korea Game Journalists Club, The Asia Business Daily reported on Dec 2, 2025 (The Asia Business Daily, Dec 2, 2025).
Verdicts after months of play
Longer reviews by Western creators playing on the Taiwanese servers kept returning to the same balance of praise and complaint. Grobs, after 250 hours in December 2025, called the Unreal Engine 5 visuals a real upgrade on other MMORPGs and a big win, and said the bright art style, especially in dungeons, matched his taste.
Despite his complaints about monetization, he still thought the game had a decent foundation and could match Throne and Liberty's success in the West if it improved on a lot of things before the global launch.
Divium Furor, after 500 hours, rated its pay-to-win bad but not tragic: milder than Blade and Soul or Lost Ark, heavier than Throne and Liberty or World of Warcraft.
He nonetheless predicted that the game had no chance of success in Europe or North America, because of the sheer amount of farming it demands.
aselon_eu, three months in, was more positive: despite its monetization shortcomings the game was worth keeping an eye on, with strong visuals, an excellent soundtrack, fast and impactful combat and a large amount of rewarding content, even if monetization, progression systems, class balance and performance in large PvP fights still needed work.
After 1,000 hours, Society Of Gaming's closing summary in August 2026 listed pay-to-win, short rendering distance, an open world that feels empty and the lack of massive sieges as the worst things, and the targeting system, the freedom to choose what to play, class balance, the character creator and the transmog system as the best.
Looking ahead to the global launch, Anders suggested in July 2026 that Aion 2 would be worth playing for its first two months, with its future after that depending on how NC handles class balance, equalized PvP and the endgame.
Previews of the global version
Hardcore Gamer's preview from Summer Game Fest in June 2026 singled out the seamless world, with no loading screens in the open world and travel on foot, by mount, by swimming or by flight, as the best thing about the game (Hardcore Gamer, Jun 16, 2026). PC Gamer's Aion 2 feature is labeled sponsor content created with NC, so it is not independent coverage (PC Gamer).
The Launch Scale Test
The open Launch Scale Test of Sep 17 and 18, 2026 was the first time most western players could try the global client. It peaked at 73,761 concurrent players on Steam on Sep 17, and the second day nearly matched it at 73,739; both figures count Steam only, since the test also ran on PURPLE and NC published no combined number (SteamDB, read Sep 30, 2026; MMOHuts, Sep 20, 2026). Newspim set the peak against the roughly 60,000 players of NC's Throne and Liberty in its pre-launch test, and quoted Hana Securities analyst Lee Jun-ho reading it as a sign that many global players were waiting for the game (Newspim, Sep 30, 2026). The test's separate Steam app drew reviews too: MMOHuts found them 69% positive on Sep 20, up from under half on the first day, and they stood at Mostly Positive, 132 positive and 55 negative, on Sep 30 (Steam, read Sep 30, 2026).
Society Of Gaming, playing on the European servers, called the first day a major success and showed SteamDB's count of almost 74,000 players on Steam alone. He guessed that PURPLE added at least 10,000 more, though PURPLE publishes no numbers, and said he had expected 30,000 or at most 40,000.
Summing up the reaction abroad, The Elec found the graphics, world design, flight and technical stability praised, and the combat's impact, the interface and the early game criticized (The Elec, Sep 30, 2026). MMOHuts reported that players' complaints centered on a mobile-like interface, auto-navigation, auto-potions, guided questing and a very easy opening, while progression, visuals, mounts, pets and vertical environments drew positive mentions (MMOHuts, Sep 20, 2026).
The press impressions divided along the same lines, and each is its writer's view:
- MassivelyOP (Tyler F.M. Edwards) praised the deep character customization, high production values with full voice acting, a fully open world with flight almost from the start, and above all the world design and the soundtrack. He found both combat modes undercooked, attacks short of impact, the classes too alike, the story hard to follow for newcomers and the questing old-fashioned (MassivelyOP, Sep 22, 2026).
- mein-mmo (Sophia Weiss) enjoyed the hybrid tab-target and action combat even as a newcomer to action combat, and found the German translation natural, though elaborate hairstyles clipped heavily (mein-mmo, Sep 18, 2026).
- S4G (Kevin Link, about 12 hours) said the combat "feels right" and called first flight the highlight of the test, but his biggest complaint was a heavily instanced world split into channels, along with mobile-style auto-travel and leveling so fast that he reached level 30 in about 12 hours (S4G, Sep 24, 2026).
Creators who played the test were mostly encouraged. TheLazyPeon, after about eight hours on the Japanese servers, found the combat far more fun than he had expected and rated it 7 out of 10. He also liked the freedom of the character creator, a main story broken up by rewarding side content such as Sealed Dungeons, the steady sense of progression, the vibrant visuals, the hourly mini-game events and a game that feels massively multiplayer, with hundreds of players in the starting area.
His dislikes were the mobile feel of the camera, movement, interface, text and auto-pathing, flight stamina far too short for the game's most iconic feature, a camera whose zoom narrows the field of view, a weak screenshot mode, and quest bosses that die without any difficulty. He added that he did not trust NC not to turn the game pay-to-win over time.
Spid, who reached the test's level cap and had played the Korean and Taiwanese versions, said the global test made him more excited for the game: not the best MMO ever, but an absolutely solid one, strongest in its boss mechanics and PvE, with optimization a serious concern.
Jolsn, after 10 to 11 hours as a Ranger, was more critical. He judged that Aion 2 is and will remain a pay-to-win MMORPG, through its Membership, battle passes and a shop that sells player power, and called it a passable to middling MMORPG whose endgame would probably feel like a second job.
Advanced Access on Steam
Advanced Access opened on Sep 30, 2026 an hour late, at 07:00 PDT (14:00 UTC), after two 30-minute delays, and the first hours brought long queues, full servers and login errors (mein-mmo, Sep 30, 2026; Advanced Access, Servers). The game still climbed Steam's charts. SteamDB, read at 20:51 UTC that evening, showed an all-time peak of 171,530 concurrent players reached on Sep 30, 144,524 playing at that moment, first place in Steam's top sellers, 40th in top wishlists and 105,332 followers; the figures count Steam only, not PURPLE (SteamDB, read Sep 30, 2026). SteamDB's Twitch statistics, read at the same time, showed a peak of 254,193 viewers watching Aion 2 streams.
NC said Aion 2 was first on Steam's global top sellers on Sep 30 and first in eight countries (Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Poland, Singapore, Spain and Thailand), with top-ten places in 21; it was second in Germany, Austria, Finland and Turkey, third in Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United States, and fourth in the Czech Republic, Sweden and the United Kingdom, by NC's account. NC pointed out that the chart ranks revenue, so the placing reflects paid early access for a game "built to run for years, not weeks". Merv Lee Kwai of NC America said: "Reaching #1 on Steam ahead of launch is a strong start, but a launch is only part of how we measure success" (NC press release, Sep 30, 2026). The German site wooco.de placed the game 16th on Steam's global weekly chart for Sep 22 to 29 and second on Germany's revenue chart on Sep 30 (wooco.de, Sep 30, 2026).
User reviews started badly. Insider Gaming reported that the earliest reviews were mostly negative, written largely by buyers who could not get in at the advertised time, and quoted reviewers complaining of server capacity, hours-long queues, "AI slop" and microtransactions; it framed the rough start as NC not anticipating the load (Insider Gaming, Sep 30, 2026). By the evening the score had recovered to Mixed: 529 positive and 400 negative of 929 reviews at 20:51 UTC on Sep 30, 2026 (SteamDB). The share moves by the hour.
Press impressions of early access
- mein-mmo (Karsten Scholz, after the first evening) called Aion 2 the biggest themepark MMO in years, with a beautiful world, fast combat and a PvE focus rarely seen today. He criticized remaining pay-to-win elements, the Market and currency exchange tied to the subscription, a heavy grind, mobile heritage in the menus, camera, skills and auto-run, and a weak story; bosses died in seconds, and he expected experienced players to reach the level cap within a few hours. He was disconnected several times during the tutorial, yet judged the launch far better than many MMO starts, and concluded that the game was fun mainly because large PvE themepark MMOs have become so rare (mein-mmo, Sep 30, 2026).
- MassivelyOP, MMORPG.com, MMOHuts, Inven Global and Notebookcheck reported the opening as news on Sep 30, without verdicts (Global Release).
- As of Sep 30, 2026, PC Gamer, GamesRadar and IGN had run no articles of their own on the Launch Scale Test or early access. GamesRadar covered the free launch on Oct 6.
The free launch on Steam
The free-to-play launch on Oct 5, 2026 more than doubled the early access peak. SteamDB recorded an all-time peak of 397,905 concurrent Steam players on Oct 5, against 171,530 on the first day of Advanced Access, and the busiest 24 hours before 09:35 UTC on Oct 7 still peaked at 383,176. That evening, a Wednesday, the peak of the previous 24 hours was 373,854, and 334,842 were playing at 21:25 UTC. Inven Global noted that this beat the 336,300 that NC's Throne and Liberty reached on Steam in October 2024. These counts leave out PURPLE. On Oct 7 SteamDB placed Aion 2 fourth among Steam's top sellers and fifth by daily active users, with 122,747 followers, and it recorded a Twitch peak of 261,602 viewers (Global Release).
NC's own figures go further. On launch day it thanked players for passing 300,000 and then 400,000 "active users" and sent everyone gifts, and its press release of Oct 6 said peak concurrent users had passed 400,000, that Aion 2 had held first place in Steam's global Top Sellers throughout early access and reached first place in 15 countries, and that it was first in Steam's New and Trending and Top Free to Play charts on Oct 6. NC did not say how many of its users played on PURPLE.
User reviews improved without leaving Mixed. Steam counted 9,684 positive and 5,007 negative reviews of 14,691 on the morning of Oct 7, 2026, and 10,511 positive and 5,684 negative of 16,195 that evening; SteamDB put the rating at 65.7% and then 64.9% positive, up from about 57% on Sep 30. English-language reviews ran lower, 4,921 positive of 7,998 (about 62%) that evening. Writing for GamesRadar on Oct 6, Anna Koselke found the reviews dominated by pay-to-win complaints, quoting one that called the shop "extremely predatory monetization", and others with "slop" vibes that she linked to NC's disclosed use of generative AI for Arcana cards and some icons (Controversies). She also reported Aion 2 fourth on Steam's Most Played chart, ahead of Apex Legends and Wardogs, and herself praised the character creation as "wonderful" and the world as "gorgeous". MassivelyOP's report of Oct 6 judged that things appeared to have gone quite well about a day after the launch, citing the chart placings and the 300,000 and 400,000 milestones. The Elec, reporting on Oct 7 that the game drew praise while its monetization drew complaints, pointed out that Membership benefits apply only on the server where they are bought, so a player on several servers needs several Memberships, and that Daeva Passes are sold per character (Membership, Daeva Pass).
Caffeinated Dad Gaming, reviewing the game on launch day for players with little time, enjoyed the action combat and flight but called the free-to-play design's "predatory aspects" a problem, gave it a silver on his own rating scale, and found it too demanding of time and gear checks to recommend fully to a busy working parent, though worth trying because it is free.
Medieval Marty, whose launch-day review was recorded after four or five days of Advanced Access, answered whether to play with "absolutely": he praised the combat, the open world, its unusual systems, the graphics and the character creator, and expected many hours of fun for free. He warned, though, that "all roads lead to the cash shop", a red flag for anyone who wants to be the best in PvP or raids or to have the best gear, and said he had not yet reached the deep endgame.
NC's shares, which had risen with early access, fell back after the launch. They closed at KRW 214,000 on Sep 30, 230,500 on Oct 1 and 244,500 on Oct 2, then at 226,000 on Oct 6, the first trading day after the launch, and 236,000 on Oct 7 (KRX via Naver Finance). ZDNet Korea had linked the rise of Oct 1 and 2 to the Steam figures of early access; no Korean report seen by Oct 7 explained the fall of Oct 6.
The first weeks
Reviews kept sliding after the launch week while staying Mixed. Steam counted 15,716 positive and 11,106 negative reviews on Oct 13, 2026, 59% of 26,822; 18,507 positive of 31,061 on Oct 15, about 60%; and 20,869 positive and 15,216 negative of 36,085 on the morning of Oct 21 (UTC), about 58%, so nearly 20,000 reviews were added in two weeks at a lower rate than the launch week's 65%. English-language reviews ran lowest: 7,236 positive of 13,282 on Oct 13 (54%) and 9,348 of 17,485 on Oct 21 (53%). These are Steam's own totals; the share moves by the hour, and players on PURPLE cannot leave Steam reviews.
What NC published in those weeks was mostly about the economy and the servers. It restricted 58,057 global accounts for bots, gold farming and real-money trading in six rounds between Oct 10 and Oct 20 (PDT), the largest, 15,380, on Oct 20, and limited Market listings of gathering materials by a character's play history (Market and Exchange); it opened free server transfers on Oct 13 (PDT) and warned that busy servers could close to them early (Servers); and it began the global version's first seasonal event, for Halloween, with the weekly patch of the same day (Updates and Seasons).
NC's shares drifted lower after the launch. From KRW 236,000 on Oct 7 they closed at 223,000 on Oct 8, 209,000 on Oct 12 and 199,000 on Oct 15, the lowest close since the global launch and below the 214,000 of Sep 30, before recovering to 208,500 on Oct 16, 215,500 on Oct 19 and 218,500 on Oct 20 (KRX via Naver Finance; the market was closed on Oct 9). No Korean report seen by Oct 21 tied the moves to a single cause.
Analysts' expectations
Korean securities analysts treated the global launch as a test of NC's overseas business; their numbers are forecasts, not results. KB Securities estimated on Sep 21, 2026 that the global version would earn KRW 120 billion in the fourth quarter of 2026, about KRW 1.3 billion a day, which it called conservative and 30% below the Korean launch; Mirae Asset had assumed KRW 1.5 billion a day in August (The Elec, Sep 30, 2026; Newspim, Sep 30, 2026). Korea Investment & Securities called the launch a possible turning point for NC and kept a Buy rating with a target price of KRW 390,000 (Mediawatch, Sep 21, 2026).
NC's shares rose from KRW 205,000 on Sep 17 to 223,500 on Sep 22 and closed at 214,000 on Sep 30, about seven and a half hours before early access opened (15:30 KST against 23:00 KST), so no market reaction to the launch was in the data as of Sep 30, 2026 (KRX prices via Naver Finance, read Sep 30, 2026).
Frequently asked questions
How much money has Aion 2 made? By NC's own figures, KRW 100 billion in its first 46 days, then KRW 77.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, 136.8 billion in the first quarter of 2026 and 71.9 billion in the second: KRW 286.1 billion in all to the end of June 2026. These are company-reported figures for the Korean and Taiwanese version; NC had reported nothing for the global version as of Sep 30, 2026.
How many people play Aion 2? NC said average daily active users passed 1.5 million shortly after the Korean and Taiwanese launch in November 2025. On Steam, the global version reached an all-time peak of 397,905 concurrent players on Oct 5, 2026, the day of its free launch, after 171,530 on Sep 30, its first day of Advanced Access, and still had 334,842 playing on the evening of Oct 7 (SteamDB); NC said its own peak passed 400,000; players on NC's PURPLE launcher are not counted.
What are Aion 2's Steam reviews? Mixed: 20,869 positive and 15,216 negative of 36,085 on Oct 21, 2026, about 58% positive, down from 65% on the evening of Oct 7 and close to the 57% of Sep 30; English-language reviews stood at about 53%. The first hours of early access were mostly negative, as buyers stuck in queues reviewed the game (Insider Gaming), and after the launch GamesRadar found pay-to-win the main complaint. The separate Launch Scale Test app was Mostly Positive.
Was Aion 2 number one on Steam? Yes: SteamDB showed it first in Steam's top sellers on Sep 30, 2026, and NC said it was first worldwide and in eight countries. The chart ranks revenue, which on that day came from Founder's Packs sold for early access.
What did the press think of the global version? Opinions split along the same lines as in Korea. Reviewers of the test and of early access praised the world, flight, visuals and character creator, and criticized the mobile-style interface and auto-travel, easy and fast early leveling, combat that lacked impact for some, and a Market tied to the paid Membership.
Has Aion 2 won any awards? It was named Game of G-Star 2025 by the Korea Game Media Association and the Korea Game Journalists Club.
What do players criticize most? Monetization, above all the route from paid Quna to Kina and gear, along with server trouble at both launches, bots and the interface. The combat, visuals and character creator draw the most praise.
Sources
- Aion 2 Unveils Season 2 Roadmap for 2026, NC, Jan 7, 2026
- Aion 2's chaotic and overmonetized Korean release causes NCsoft stock to dip and devs to apologize, MassivelyOP, Nov 19, 2025
- 1.5 Million Users Enjoy NCSoft's 'Aion 2' Daily, The Asia Business Daily, Nov 21, 2025
- Players continue to revolt over Aion 2's Korean release as NCsoft says it earned $6.8M in two days, MassivelyOP, Nov 22, 2025
- NCSoft's 'Aion 2' Named This Year's 'Game of G-Star', The Asia Business Daily, Dec 2, 2025
- 'Aion 2 & Lineage Classic' Success Drives Record Quarterly PC Performance for NC, Inven Global, May 12, 2026
- NCSoft Posts Record PC Game Sales on Aion 2, Lineage Classic Success, The Elec, May 15, 2026
- Aion 2 Preview: The Future of MMORPGs, Hardcore Gamer, Jun 16, 2026
- NCsoft Q2 2026: Lineage Classic is booming as NCsoft pours money into Guild Wars 3, MassivelyOP, Aug 11, 2026
- NC second-quarter 2026 conference call report, Inven, Aug 2026
- NC to Launch Aion 2 Overseas on Oct. 5, Unveils New FPS, The Elec, Aug 28, 2026
- Aion 2 is soaring to Steam, bringing with it a breathtaking faction war where the sky's the limit, PC Gamer (sponsor content created with NC), undated
- Aion 2 stress test hands-on, mein-mmo (Sophia Weiss), Sep 18, 2026
- Aion 2 playtest ends with mixed Steam reviews and a 73,761 player peak, MMOHuts, Sep 20, 2026
- Korea Investment & Securities on NC and Aion 2 Global, Mediawatch, Sep 21, 2026
- First impressions: Aion 2 feels surprisingly familiar, MassivelyOP (Tyler F.M. Edwards), Sep 22, 2026
- Aion 2 hands-on, S4G (Kevin Link), Sep 24, 2026
- Aion 2 global launch: reception, revenue and analyst estimates, The Elec, Sep 30, 2026
- Aion 2 global launch preview, Newspim (Jung Seung-won), Sep 30, 2026
- Aion 2 reaches #1 on Steam Top Sellers chart ahead of global launch, NC America press release on Games Press, Sep 30, 2026
- Aion 2 tops Steam charts but reviews not encouraging, Insider Gaming, Sep 30, 2026
- Aion 2 early access storms Steam, servers cause trouble, wooco.de, Sep 30, 2026
- Aion 2 Advanced Access live ticker, mein-mmo, Sep 30, 2026
- Aion 2 early access played: first impressions, mein-mmo (Karsten Scholz), Sep 30, 2026
- Aion 2 charts and Aion 2 Playtest charts, SteamDB, read Sep 30, 2026; Aion 2 charts, SteamDB, read Oct 7, 2026
- Aion 2 user reviews, Steam, read Oct 7, Oct 13, Oct 15 and Oct 21, 2026, and in English, read Oct 13 and Oct 21, 2026
- NC share prices, Oct 1 to 20, 2026, KRX via Naver Finance, read Oct 21, 2026
- Account Restrictions | 20 Oct (PDT) / 21 Oct (CEST), NC, Steam news, Oct 21, 2026
- "Thank you for 400.000 Active Players", NC on Steam, Oct 5, 2026
- Aion 2 Global Launch: Strong Steam Performance Boosts NC Stock, ZDNet Korea (in Korean), Oct 3, 2026
- NC's Aion 2 launches globally, peak concurrent users pass 400,000, Newspim (in Korean), Oct 6, 2026
- Aion 2 hits peak concurrent player count of 397,905 on Steam, Inven Global, Oct 6, 2026
- New MMO Aion 2 soars on Steam with nearly 400,000 concurrent players despite "Mixed" reviews grilling AI slop and pay-to-win shop, GamesRadar+ (Anna Koselke), Oct 6, 2026
- Aion 2 Tops 400,000 Global Concurrent Players as Game Wins Praise but Monetization Draws Complaints, The Elec, Oct 7, 2026
- Aion 2 celebrates over 400K Steam users and opens multiple new servers in its first day of release, MassivelyOP, Oct 6, 2026
- Aion 2 Playtest user reviews, Steam, read Sep 30, 2026
- NC (036570) daily prices, KRX via Naver Finance, read Sep 30, 2026, and again, read Oct 7, 2026
- Is Aion 2 Worth Your Time? - A Working Dad's Review, Caffeinated Dad Gaming, Oct 5, 2026 (video)
- Aion 2 Honest Review: Should You Play Aion 2 - New Action Combat MMORPG, Medieval Marty, Oct 5, 2026 (video)
- Aion 2 Day 1 Playtest Review - I Was NOT Ready For This..., Society Of Gaming, Sep 18, 2026 (video)
- Aion 2 Global First Impressions - The Good, Bad & Ugly, Spid, Sep 19, 2026 (video)
- Aion 2 First Impressions - Is It Worth Playing?, Jolsn, Sep 20, 2026 (video)
- Aion 2 First Impressions "Is It Worth Playing?", TheLazyPeon, Sep 28, 2026 (video)
- Aion 2 REVIEW After 50 HOURS! How Is P2W, PVE, PVP & What Are Players Saying?, KaidGames2, Nov 21, 2025 (video)
- Aion 2 Full Review - SO Much Potential, But You Shouldn't Play It, kets and his games, Nov 24, 2025 (video)
- I played Aion 2 for 250 hours… (Final Review), Grobs, Dec 20, 2025 (video)
- This game is Doomed. 500H Aion 2 Review, Divium Furor, Jan 2, 2026 (video)
- Aion 2: Better or Worse? State of the Game (3 Months Later), aselon_eu, Feb 19, 2026 (video)
- Is Aion 2 Global Pay 2 Win? NC's Official Business Model - Complete Overview, Anders, Jul 9, 2026 (video)
- I Played Aion 2 for 1000+ Hours - Best & Worst (Honest Review), Society Of Gaming, Aug 18, 2026 (video)
Moments
I Played Aion 2 for 1000+ Hours - Best & Worst (Honest Review)
Society Of Gaming
Aion 2 REVIEW After 50 HOURS! How Is P2W, PVE, PVP & What Are Players Saying?
KaidGames2
Aion 2 Full Review - SO Much Potential, But You Shouldn’t Play It
kets and his games
I played Aion 2 for 250 hours… (Final Review)
Grobs
This game is Doomed. 500H Aion 2 Review
Divium Furor
Aion 2: Better or Worse? State of the Game (3 Months Later)
aselon_eu
Is Aion 2 Global Pay 2 Win? NC's Official Business Model - Complete Overview
Anders
Aion 2 Day 1 Playtest Review - I Was NOT Ready For This…
Society Of Gaming
Aion 2 First Impressions "Is It Worth Playing?"
TheLazyPeon
Aion 2 Global First Impressions - The Good, Bad & Ugly
Spid
Aion 2 First Impressions - Is It Worth Playing?
Jolsn
Is Aion 2 Worth Your Time? - A Working Dad's Review
Caffeinated Dad Gaming
Aion 2 Honest Review: Should You Play Aion 2 - New Action Combat MMORPG
Medieval Marty
See also
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Aion 2Aion 2 is NC's free-to-play MMORPG sequel to Aion, built on Unreal Engine 5 around flight and the war between Elyos and Asmodians. It launched in Korea and Taiwan on Nov 19, 2025, opened to Founder's Pack owners worldwide on Sep 30, 2026, and has been free for everyone on PC since Oct 5, 2026. -
NCNC Corporation, called NCSOFT until Mar 26, 2026, is the South Korean company that develops and publishes Aion 2. NC America in Irvine, California publishes the global version, which opened for early access on Sep 30, 2026; Aion 2 drove NC to record PC revenue in early 2026, and Shengqu Games is to publish it in China.
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Advanced AccessAdvanced Access is the Founder's Pack early access to Aion 2's global version, from Sep 30 to Oct 4, 2026, before the free launch on Oct 5: the delayed opening, launch-day errors, queues and new servers, Steam figures, the shop, the fixes and gifts of its five days, and how it ended.
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ControversiesDisputes around Aion 2 since its Korean and Taiwanese launch: the November 2025 cash-shop backlash, apology and share-price fall, server trouble, bots, the pay-to-win argument, the global Membership paywall, Founder's Pack changes and the end of direct trade, the Steam AI disclosure, the delayed, queue-bound start of global Advanced Access on Sep 30, 2026, and the rule changes of launch week.
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Korea and Taiwan LaunchAion 2 launched in Korea and Taiwan at 00:00 KST on Nov 19, 2025, on PC and mobile. Launch week brought server congestion, a cash-shop backlash, a share-price fall and an apology livestream, alongside NC-reported figures of 1.5 million daily users.
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Business ModelHow Aion 2 makes money: free to play everywhere, with a Membership, per-character Daeva Passes, a shop of cosmetics and consumables, Quna and a player-run Kina and Quna exchange, and Founder's Packs; the global shop opened with Advanced Access on Sep 30, 2026.