AI-Heavy MMO Aion 2 Officially Becomes One Of 2026’s Most-Played Games

AI-Heavy MMO Hits Almost 400,000 Concurrent Players On Steam Published Oct 6, 2026, 3:05 AM EDT Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 3,000 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, provided context on some AI drama, and revealed that Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on three occasions. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. Aion 2, a game that openly uses generative AI to create in-game assets, has swiftly become one of 2026's most-played games. With its full release yesterday, NCSoft's anime-inspired MMORPG leapfrogged games like Resident Evil Requiem and Meccha Chameleon, reaching almost 400,000 concurrent players on Steam. Aion 2 Hits Staggering Steam Player Count, But Its Reviews Do Not Look Great Aion 2 was always set to do big numbers. It launched yesterday as a free-to-play title, but even its paid early-access version achieved a concurrent player count of over 170,000. That more than doubled as the free version hit Steam. Within a few hours of launch, Aion 2 hit an all-time peak concurrent player count of 397,905. This saw it eclipse some of 2026's biggest titles, including Resident Evil Requiem, Meccha Chameleon, and Forza Horizon 6 to become the fourth most-played title of the year. Only Task Bar Hero, Subnautica 2, and Wardogs have been released this year and enjoyed a higher concurrent player count. Developer NCSoft has integrated its proprietary VARCO AI framework into Aion 2, sparking controversy around the title. The VARCO framework allows its developers to generate text, assets, and audio using generative AI, as well as create code and run QA checks. Although the developers haven't revealed exactly how much they used it in Aion 2's development, its Steam disclosure says, "Some in-game assets were created with the assistance of AI tools," and "Arcana card designs and some icons use AI-generated assets." The game's key art is also quite clearly AI-generated. Aion 2's early reviews have evidently reflected this sentiment, scoring a 66 percent "Mixed" rating on the Valve-owned platform. However, AI doesn't seem to be the main sticking point; instead, its monetization is. "Again, a game designed and built around its Monetization, not the Player," began one review, which later went into great detail about Aion 2's monetization strategy. A second frustrated reviewer added, "As a veteran player of Aion 1 who played the game for years on both retail and private servers, I can tell you that this has absolutely nothing to do with the first game anymore; it’s a typical mobile-style title designed as a massive cash grab; soon it will become P2W, I guarantee." Systems Released October 5, 2026 Developer(s) NCSoft Publisher(s) NCSoft Multiplayer Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op Prequel(s) Aion Genre(s) MMORPG, Adventure, Action, Open-World