Following the MMO's wide launch in February 11 it hit the record of 1,324,761 peak concurrent players Lost Ark Gold, making it in second place behind PUBG in the history of Steam Leaderboard for concurrents.
These were likely legitimate players who wanted to play the no-cost action RPG that was already well-liked in Korea for several years prior to when Amazon booted up servers across Europe as well as the Americas. But with over 1 million accounts gone it is possible that we will see a decrease in its numbers of concurrent players, which Steam Charts clocks at around 683,509.
One user on Twitter said that they've seen the Lost Ark server queue drop from more than 8,000 to 950, though whether that's due to the bans remains unclear. Earn Money While You Spend It With 2022's Top Cash Back Cards NerdWallet
Botting is a typical MMO characteristic, and refers to the use of software to automatize repetitive tasks, such as, grinding starter zone enemies to make characters level, often with the intent to turn profits from them. New World is another game which has been affected by botting but when we last saw a ban wave in the game that cost $40, the number was 7,700.
Lost Ark being free-to-play makes it a much easier to be a target for bots, who don't lose an investment when they're banned buy Lost Ark Gold. This is a large part of the reason for the size here. PUBG is, too, free to play, was once reported to have received thirteen million bans on cheaters in about a year.