Lost Ark
Lost Ark is an action MMORPG developed by Smilegate and Tripod Studios. Lost Ark (LOA) was first released on December 9, 2019 in South Korea and later in Russia and Japan. In North America, Europe, and South America Lost Ark was released on February 11, 2022. These regions have a unique version of Lost Ark that is published by Amazon Games Studios (AGS).
Lost Ark is free to play in all regions. For NA, EU, and SA it is exclusively playable on Steam. Lost Ark reached the second highest concurrent player count any game had on Steam at its release.
Lost Ark News & Patch Notes
Lost Ark has scheduled maintenance every Wednesday. Usually, the maintenance starts at 8 a.m. UTC and involves a patch. The patch notes are published the day before or shortly before the maintenance.
Additionally, there are regular content updates for Lost Ark. Amazon Games and Smilegate tries to bring one big content update each month. You can check our Lost Ark News overview to stay up-to-date. Big content updates are published at the usual maintenance time on Wednesday.
These are the latest news on Lost Ark:
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To be able to plan ahead we created the Lost Ark Roadmap document. The roadmap lists all the planned future updates. You can find a history of past content updates in this roadmap as well.
Lost Ark Classes
Players often quote the combat system and the class design as their favorite things in Lost Ark. The classes are very unique and distinctive in their play style. The class system is an important factor that makes Lost Ark as popular as it is.
Lost Ark classes are actually called “Advanced Class” in-game. The term “Class” is used by Smilegate to refer to a group of Advanced Classes. On character creation, the player chooses a Class and then one of the Advanced Classes for the previously selected Class.
The table below shows all Advanced Classes, their relation to Lost Ark’s Class concept, and their release date for the western version of Lost Ark.
| Class | Advanced Class | Original Name * | Gender | Release |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warrior | Berserker | Berserker | Male | February 11, 2022 |
| Paladin | Holy Knight | Male | February 11, 2022 | |
| Gunlancer | Warlord | Male | February 11, 2022 | |
| Destroyer | Destroyer | Male | May 19, 2022 | |
| Martial Artist | Striker | Striker | Male | February 11, 2022 |
| Wardancer | Battle Master | Female | February 11, 2022 | |
| Scrapper | Infighter | Female | February 11, 2022 | |
| Soulfist | Soul Master | Female | February 11, 2022 | |
| Glaivier | Lance Master | Female | April 21, 2022 | |
| Gunner | Gunslinger | Gunslinger | Female | February 11, 2022 |
| Artillerist | Blaster | Male | February 11, 2022 | |
| Deadeye | Devil Hunter | Male | February 11, 2022 | |
| Sharpshooter | Hawk Eye | Male | February 11, 2022 | |
| Machinist | Scouter | Male | September 28, 2022 | |
| Mage | Bard | Bard | Female | February 11, 2022 |
| Sorceress | Sorceress | Female | February 11, 2022 | |
| Arcanist | Arcana | Female | July 20, 2022 | |
| Summoner | Summoner | Female | December 14, 2022 | |
| Assassin | Shadowhunter | Demonic | Female | February 11, 2022 |
| Deathblade | Blade | Female | February 11, 2022 | |
| Reaper | Reaper | Female | November 16, 2022 | |
| Specialist | Aeromancer | Female | TBA | |
| Artist | Female | TBA |
* Original Name is the class name Smilegate used in the South Korean version of Lost Ark.
Lost Ark Steam Charts
Lost Ark is only playable on Steam. Zockify is using the official Steam API to collect data about the concurrent player count of Lost Ark on Steam. On the Lost Ark Steam Charts document, you can find current and historical data about the player count of Lost Ark.
Please take the player count for Lost Ark with a grain of salt for the reasons below.
- Lost Ark has a bot problem. As a free 2 play game with a strong focus on resource management and the in-game economy, Lost Ark attracted bot developers and real money trading (RMT). Smilegate and AGS are working very actively to mitigate the bot problem. Certain drops in the player counts for Lost Ark are actually bot ban waves.
- The charts show the concurrent player count. “Concurrent players” means players that are playing at the same time. Due to timezone differences between Europe and North America the “prime times” are distributed. So the total (unique) player count is way higher but not measurable by using the concurrent player count.
Why Is Lost Ark So Popular?
Lost Ark was a huge success and became really popular on Steam. The reasons for Lost Ark’s popularity are the unique approach of combining traditional MMORPG elements with action RPG elements and interesting boss fights.
- Lost Ark has a huge world called Arkesia, with a lot of quests and stories to explore. This enables multiple horizontal progressions to improve your characters and experience the world of Lost Ark.
- The loot and combat system have more similarities to ARPGs. LOA does a great job with its combat system and class design. Each class feels very unique and the combat system is very satisfying and enjoyable.
- The Legion Raids are seen as the main endgame activity in Lost Ark (similar to raiding in traditional MMORPGs). Legion Raids are single-boss fights with unique and intense mechanics all players participating have to learn and master. The first Legion Raid was Valtan, followed by Vykas, and Kalkul-Saydon.
Is Lost Ark A Good Game?
Lost Ark has a lot of repetitive and grind-y elements. For fans of the game, the repetitive nature of Lost Ark is one of the reasons why they enjoy Lost Ark so much. At the same time, for others, this repetitiveness can be very off-putting.
So, is it a good game?
Lost Ark is a very good game if you like games with action-focused combat, lots of horizontal progression systems, and a focus on repetitive daily and weekly tasks.
Who develops and publishes Lost Ark?
Lost Ark was developed by Smilegate RPG. The development started already in 2011. The game was primarily developed for the South Korean audience since Smilegate is based in Seoul, South Korea. Lost Ark officially launched in 2019.
After a few troublesome years and iterations, Smilegate found the solution to make Lost Ark a highly successful game. Lost Ark was growing the player base year to year in South Korea.
In 2022 the game was released for the “western audience” with the regions below.
- North America
- Europe
- South America
There is a specific version for these regions with its own progression and content release schedule. In these regions, Amazon Games Studios (AGS) is the publisher of Lost Ark. Amazon Games is also providing the official Lost Ark website, playlostark.com, and providing everything related to community management.