To say New World was highly anticipated is an understatement. Launching this morning, New World has seen the normal MMO launch day woes of long log-in queues and server instability, thanks in part to over 700K players trying to hit Amazon's servers conccurently right now.
Since launching in waves over the last 24 hours globally, players have been met with server queues, sometimes in the thousands. (For instance: I've now been sitting in a server queue for over two and a half hours since the West Coast launch this morning.) Server queues and log-in woes are nothing new for MMO players, and to say demand has been high would be an understatement. The current mad rush to get into New World has seen Amazon's MMO reach over 700K players concurrently on Steam, and that number doesn't seem to be slowing.
In the wake of the demand, as well as the fact that servers are just being hammered, Amazon released a statement this morning thanking fans for the rabid response, while promising to spin up more servers to meed the demand.
"All regions are now live! It has been an unbelievable 24 hours and the supper for New World that we've seen so far has been incredible," the statement reads. It continues:
"We understand that some players are experiencing legnthy queue times and we are working hard on a few things to help address these issues. We are continuing to stand up additional servers and will expand the capacity of our existing servers once we have properly tested these changes. Our sole focus right now is to get everyone logging in and playing quickly. To ensure everyone can find an open world now, while also finding a home in Aeternum with their community long-term, we'll offer an opportunity in the next two weeks for all players to relocate their characters to a server of their choice at no cost. We appreciate your patience as the New World community grows and encourage you to solidify your long-term server plans for you and your company."
Read an update regarding New World Launch #NWstatus?? https://t.co/KklxZUYlzf pic.twitter.com/5czKf72Tbw
— New World (@playnewworld) September 28, 2021
Since launching globally today, New World has seen peak concurrent player counts upwards of 700K, topping out at the time of this writing at 704,674 players rushing into Aeternum. This type of demand was to be expected, especially considering over one million players joined the open beta earlier this month. As a result of the queue times, some players are taking to Steam reviews to show some displeasure, giving the MMO mixed reviews since launch due to the queue times.
New World is Amazon Games' first major title to release since it launched Crucible, a shooter by the company that was pulled within a few months of its release. Set during the twilight years of the Age of Exploration, the MMO takes players to the supernatural island of Aeternum, where players will contend with the denizens of the island, as well as each other to carve their place out in the world. If you're stuck in the queue and are new to New World, check out our 5 ways to get started in New World while you wait.
