When it first released on Steam in September 2021,New Worldbroke several concurrent player records, becoming the most played game of 2021 for the PC platform. At its peak,New Worldhad a record of 913,634 concurrent players on Steam, as well as over a million views on Twitch from various streams. During the initial few months,New Worldeven required players to wait in a queue to access the game, which doesn’t often happen formodern day MMOs. However, it’s been a few months, andNew Worldisn’t quite as popular as it once was.
At the time of writing,New Worldnow sits at a 29,360 24-hour peak player count, marking a 96% decrease for the game in just six months. When looking at SteamDB’s charts,New World’s loss in playerswas initially quite sudden, with many players leaving during October 2021. Since then, the game has continued to lose its playerbase gradually, with the game not reaching above 100,000 players since the start of January. In an attempt to draw players back in, and keep those loyal few,New Worldhas revealed its 2022 roadmap, featuring some pretty interesting additions for those looking to give the game another chance.
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What New World’s 2022 Roadmap Tells Us
ThoughNew World’s 2022 roadmap won’t change up the core experience of the game, it should offer players enough to keep coming back every now and then, especially if they enjoy the game’s PvE modes.New World’s 2022 roadmap is split into three distinct segments, detailing the changes coming in the Spring, Summer, and Autumn of this year.
The first round of Spring updates will bring theHeart of Madnessseason to the game. This previously announced update will add a new PvE expedition titled “Tempest’s Heart,” along with a new end-game Blunderbuss weapon that should fit right in with a Strength/Intelligence build.
For fans ofNew World’s PvP mode, arguably the game’s best feature, the Spring series of updates will also bring 3v3 PvP Arenas to the game. A dedicated PvP reward track is also going to be added in the coming weeks, hopefully incentivizing players to spend a little more time with the game.
New World’s Summer set of updatesadds another expeditionto the game, this time being a pirate-themed, swashbuckling adventure titled “Barnacles and Black Powder.” An expedition group finder tool is also being added to the game during the Summer, which should make it easier for solo players to find a temporary group. According to the roadmap, a “Summer Event” will also be coming to the game with during this period, though no details are currently available.
Autumn 2022 seems to be the busiest period forNew World, with a plethora of PvP content heading to the game. A whole new region will be added during the Autumn, titled the “Brimstone Sands Territory,” likely taking on the appearance of a desert-based environment. Another expedition, named “The Ennead,” is heading toNew Worldduring this update period, and anew Greatsword weaponwill also be added. On top of this, leaderboards are going to be added, and the game will receive two separate events, named the “Nightvale Hallow” event, and the “Turkulon 2022” event.
To many fans who are still playingNew World, these updates don’t really seem like enough. While a sizeable amount of content is heading to the game this year, most of it is PvE-based, which many players have expressed their disappointment with. It seems as though Amazon wants toattract new playersby offering a greater selection of PvE activities, but ifNew Worldwants to keep its current player-base happy, then it may need to pivot, and offer some more PvP content in the near-future.
