From Launch To Life Support: Throne And Liberty Lost 95% Of Its Players

Throne and Liberty launched on October 1, 2024. The free-to-play MMORPG co-produced by NCSoft and Amazon Games immediately grabbed attention with striking visuals, large-scale battles, and the promise of an expansive, ever-changing world. Over 300,000 players logged in concurrently on Steam alone during its launch window, and over three million players worldwide created characters during its first week. 

That excitement did not last. Just under a year later, the game has experienced a massive collapse in its population. Today, Throne and Liberty hovers around 13,000 concurrent players at peak hours on Steam. That means a staggering 95% drop from its launch numbers. What went wrong?

The trouble started from the start. It is common for MMOs to experience long queues and server congestion during their debut, but Throne and Liberty’s issues were particularly disruptive. Players reported connection errors, character creation failures, and login problems that persisted beyond the first few days. Although NCSoft and Amazon eventually stabilized the servers, the damage was already done. First impressions are everything, after all.

For those who actually got to play, they noticed that the progression systems were quite the obstacle. Throne and Liberty marketed itself as a fairer free-to-play experience compared to NCSoft’s past offerings. It introduced a cheaper battle pass and removed the controversial subscription-like Blessing of Solisium. However, the underlying design still slowed player advancement to a crawl. Gear requirements for group content were tight, upgrade materials were scarce, and farming them became an exhausting routine. While technically free-to-play, the game pushed players too hard toward spending money on progression boosts if they wanted to keep pace with others. 

By February 2025, population numbers had fallen enough that NCSoft was forced to consolidate servers. That kind of decision does not usually happen so early on in an MMO’s lifespan. The number of servers dropped dramatically from 107 down to 25 in order to maintain a healthy population density. These kinds of moves make the world feel more alive, but also lead to overcrowding in certain zones. Some players were frustrated about losing their original server communities too. 

Community sentiment turned increasingly negative as the months passed. Players voiced their concerns on Reddit, Discord, and the official forums, complaining about content pacing, monetization, and the lack of meaningful social systems. Throne and Liberty promised dynamic large-scale events and epic cooperative battles, but in practice, much of the game boiled down to instanced dungeons, gear score requirements, and repetitive world events that rewarded grinding more than creativity. 

The developers have not been idle though. NCSoft and Amazon launched the Wilds of Talandre expansion in March 2025, adding a brand-new zone, additional dungeons, and a refreshed progression path. Performance improvements, balance adjustments, and quality-of-life changes have rolled out steadily. The upcoming Solisium’s Awakening update is positioned as a major turning point, promising open-field PvP battles, a 24-versus-24 battleground, a fully featured housing system, new dungeons, higher gear tiers, and expanded language support for global audiences. These updates will hopefully reignite interest and convince lapsed players to return.

Throne and Liberty is not necessarily dead yet. A dedicated core player base continues on. Maybe the game can recover. The pieces for a comeback are in place, but Throne and Libertry needs solid updates, consistent communication, and a renewed focus on player trust to truly revive itself.