Heartipedia

Aion 2

Aion 2 is a free-to-play MMORPG from the South Korean company NC, the sequel to Aion, built on Unreal Engine 5 around flight and a war between two factions.[^1][^24] It launched in South Korea and Taiwan on November 19, 2025, and worldwide on PC through Steam and PURPLE on October 5, 2026, when it peaked at 397,905 concurrent players on Steam.[^3][^21][^22] Its looks and flight have been praised, while its monetization has drawn complaints in both markets.[^5][^22]

Gladiator combat on the global client Trunx plays a Gladiator in the open world and then in party boss fights, explaining the skill chains, the extra damage of back attacks and the floor telegraphs players dodge mid-chain.

Developer and publisher
NC (called NCSOFT until March 2026)[1][13]
Genre
Free-to-play MMORPG, sequel to Aion[1][24]
Engine
Unreal Engine 5[1]
Korea and Taiwan release
November 19, 2025, on PC and mobile[3]
Global release
October 5, 2026, on PC through Steam and PURPLE[19][22]
Peak concurrent players on Steam
397,905 on October 5, 2026[21]
Steam reviews (English)
Mixed, 50% positive of 21,692[1]
Revenue, Korea and Taiwan
KRW 286.1 billion from launch to June 30, 2026[10]

Overview

Aion 2 is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed and published by the South Korean company NC, and the sequel to its earlier MMORPG Aion.[1][24] It runs on Unreal Engine 5 and is set in a world that its Steam page describes as 36 times the size of the original game's, with flight presented as the center of both exploration and combat.[1] The game was released in South Korea and Taiwan on November 19, 2025, for PC and mobile.[3] A separate global version, for Windows PC only, opened to everyone on Steam and NC's own PURPLE launcher on October 5, 2026, serving North America, South America, Europe and Japan.[1][22] On its launch day it reached 397,905 concurrent players on Steam, a figure that leaves out players on PURPLE.[21] As of November 7, 2026, the global version is out with eight playable classes, while a ninth class and a higher level cap exist only on the Korean and Taiwanese servers.[9][30]

Gladiator combat on the global client Trunx plays a Gladiator in the open world and then in party boss fights, explaining the skill chains, the extra damage of back attacks and the floor telegraphs players dodge mid-chain.

Development

The game was shown at the G-STAR 2025 trade show, after which the Korea Game Media Association and the Korea Game Journalists Club named it Game of G-Star, an award given since 2018 to the show's highest-quality title.[4] Its development producer, Namjoon Kim, accepted the award at NC's research and development center in Pangyo on December 1, 2025.[4] NC announced the global service on Steam on April 21, 2026, setting the story 200 years after the original game, after the fall of the Tower of Eternity, with the Daevas losing their power under the oppression of the Balaur.[2] The announcement listed eight interface languages, among them English, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Russian.[2] The global version is published by NC America, based in Irvine, California.[14] In a June 2026 interview, NC America's director of operations Daniel LaFuente said that player feedback decides which changes the global version receives, and acknowledged that a backlog of Korean content would be waiting for it.[15]

The game NC first imagined On NC America's first global livestream, the senior producer describes Aion 2 as the game the team envisioned when it made the original, now that the technology has caught up.

Gameplay

Players choose one of two factions, the Elyos or the Asmodians, and become Daevas, winged beings who fight both the rival faction and the draconic Balaur.[2][31] The Steam page says flight is not a way of traveling but the way a player fights and explores, and Hardcore Gamer reported that aerial combat takes place in the open world rather than in instanced dungeons.[1][30] NC advertises more than 200 dungeons, from solo challenges to five-player party content and ten-player group dungeons, as well as more than 200 character customization options.[1] The global version launched with eight classes: Gladiator, Templar, Assassin, Ranger, Sorcerer, Spiritmaster, Cleric and Chanter.[30] Combat offers a choice between traditional tab targeting and an action mode, which Massively Overpowered compared to the soft-lock style of The Elder Scrolls Online.[31] Korea and Taiwan received a ninth class, the Brawler, on July 1, 2026, in the update Chapter 1: Land of Sand and Frost; it fights with gauntlets and builds a Fury gauge that triggers a Berserk state.[9] The same update raised the level cap to 50 and added the regions Eltnen and Morheim.[9]

The eight launch classes NC's hosts run through the eight classes of the global version, from the Gladiator and Templar at the front to the Cleric and Chanter in support.

Manual combat, chained skills Reviewing the Korean and Taiwanese version in November 2025, kets and his games describes combat built on chaining skills and dodging enemy attacks, with no auto-combat.

Korean and Taiwanese launch

Aion 2 opened at midnight on November 19, 2025, in South Korea and Taiwan.[3] The launch went badly: congestion across the 40 Korean servers and a bug that locked out players who had reserved character names forced emergency maintenance more than once.[5] Players also objected to cash-shop bundles containing gear-enhancement items that the studio had previously said would not be sold for money, a week after NCSOFT had told investors the game's monetization would be lighter.[5] The lead developers held an apology livestream and promised to withdraw the bundles, give their items to every player, make skill resets free and halve the price of shop consumables.[5] NCSOFT's share price fell 15%, during a broader fall in technology stocks.[5] The game still drew a large audience: NCSOFT reported more than 1.5 million daily active users two days after launch, and said over 90% of payments went through its own PC system.[3] More than 2.53 million characters had been created within a week.[4] Season 2 began on January 21, 2026, with new expeditions, raids and a revamped Abyss.[8]

Business model

Aion 2 is free to play, and NC earns from memberships, passes and cosmetics.[1][22] Players on the global version buy a premium currency, Quna, with real money and can exchange it for Kina, the currency earned in play, which buys equipment and materials.[22] Using the in-game market and that exchange requires the paid Special Quai Membership, which applies only to the server where it was bought, so a player with characters on two servers needs two memberships.[22] Progression passes are sold per character.[22] Before the global launch, NC sold three Founder's Packs at $24.99, $49.99 and $99.99, each with five days of early access.[16] After players complained that the packs contained no membership, NC added 30 days of membership to all three.[29] Direct trades between players were turned off after the global test as a measure against bots, leaving the market as the only place to trade.[18] On NC's earnings call, the company credited Aion 2, together with Lineage Classic, for record PC revenue of KRW 318.4 billion in the first quarter of 2026.[12]

Free to play, not free to participate CrusherXGaming grants that the global model drops the worst of Korea's, but argues that putting the whole player economy behind a subscription stretches the meaning of free to play.

Global release

The worldwide version was dated at gamescom's Opening Night Live on August 25, 2026, for October 5 on Steam and PURPLE, with a Launch Scale Test on September 17 and 18 and five days of early access for Founder's Pack buyers from September 30.[17] The open test was held in two six-hour sessions with a level cap of 37 and peaked at 73,761 concurrent players on Steam.[10] Early access peaked at 171,530 on Steam.[21] NC confirmed on the morning of October 5 that the game would open on time at 6:00 a.m. PDT, and later thanked players for reaching 400,000 active users.[19][20] The Steam peak of 397,905 that day was 61,605 higher than the Steam peak of NC's earlier MMORPG Throne and Liberty.[21] Over the following weeks NC announced nine rounds of account restrictions for botting, gold farming and real-money trading, the last on November 4 against 2,423 accounts, and also disciplined players who had bought Kina from third parties.[25][26] The Sanctuary raid Ludra returned on November 4 with an event that runs to November 17.[27] At 05:30 UTC on November 7, 2026, 134,064 people were playing on Steam.[28]

Heirs of the Broken Sky NC's official launch trailer, released as early access opened on September 30, 2026, rises from a sword in cracked earth to the logo in the clouds and follows a winged Daeva into battle.

Reception and revenue

Aion 2 has sold strongly in Asia and divided players in the West.[10][22] Cumulative revenue passed KRW 100 billion in the sixth week after launch, and business head Sohn In-seop said on a January 2026 livestream that the graph had shocked him.[7] The Elec, totaling NC's results, put Aion 2's revenue at KRW 77.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, KRW 136.8 billion in the first quarter of 2026 and KRW 71.9 billion in the second, 47% below the first.[10] NC expected sales in Korea and Taiwan to stop falling in the second half of 2026.[11] Abroad, The Elec found combat, graphics and flight praised, while players criticized the story, an interface resembling a mobile game and the monetization.[22] Testers of the global build singled out the graphics, world design, flight and server stability, and faulted the impact of combat and an overly guided early game.[10] As of November 7, 2026, Steam rates the game Mixed, with 50% of 21,692 English reviews and 51% of 28,856 reviews from the previous 30 days positive.[1]

A 7 out of 10 after the test After about eight hours of the open test, TheLazyPeon finds the combat more fun than he expected and gives the game 7 out of 10, while calling it very mobile-like at times.

Controversies

The money in Aion 2 has been argued over since the Korean launch.[5] NCSOFT said it earned more than KRW 10 billion, about $6.8 million, in the first two days, which some Western fans called small next to the company's $245 million in the previous quarter.[6] Players on the game's subreddit kept complaining about monetization, bots and connection problems in the days after launch.[6] In January 2026 the Korean team announced a CAPTCHA system against macros.[7] The global version's Steam page discloses that some assets were made with the help of AI tools, including the Arcana card designs and some icons, and Massively Overpowered noted in August 2026 that the game had been called out for using generative AI.[1][17] On the global launch, the per-server membership and per-character passes drew the most complaints, according to The Elec.[22] Free players can develop characters and enter quests and dungeons without paying, while critics point out that Kina bought through the exchange turns real money into in-game economic power.[22]

The promise about progression items Kira recalls the game director saying before launch that items with a deep effect on progression could not be bought with the cash-shop currency.

Platforms and future

The Korean and Taiwanese version runs on PC and mobile, while the global version is for Windows PC only.[1][3] Namjoon Kim told Wccftech in September 2026 that a console version is being prepared to follow the global launch, and that it would probably run separately from PC, without cross-play.[23] On July 30, 2026, NC signed Shengqu Games, which has run the original Aion in China since 2009, to publish Aion 2 in China; no Chinese release date had been announced as of November 7, 2026.[24] NC changed its corporate name from NCSOFT to NC at its shareholders' meeting on March 26, 2026.[13] The company, founded in 1997 and based in Pangyo, also publishes the Lineage, Blade and Soul and Guild Wars series.[14]

  1. Aion 2 launches in South Korea and Taiwan on PC and mobile.[3]
  2. Aion 2 receives the Game of G-Star 2025 award.[4]
  3. Season 2 begins in Korea and Taiwan.[8]
  4. NCSOFT renames itself NC.[13]
  5. NC announces the global release on Steam.[2]
  6. Chapter 1 adds the Brawler class and a level cap of 50 in Korea and Taiwan.[9]
  7. NC signs Shengqu Games to publish Aion 2 in China.[24]
  8. NC dates the global launch for October 5 at gamescom.[17]
  9. The two-day Launch Scale Test opens, peaking at 73,761 players on Steam.[10]
  10. Founder's Pack early access begins.[17]
  11. The global version opens free to everyone and peaks at 397,905 players on Steam.[19][21]
  12. The Ludra raid returns.[27]

What we think

This section is Heartipedia’s own opinion, not sourced fact. Each view is reasoned from the facts cited above and from trends we see; it may turn out wrong. A prediction’s words are never changed once made: when the facts are known we add the result under it, right or wrong. Every prediction we have made.

The Brawler arrives worldwide with Chapter 1, not alone

We expect the Brawler to reach Aion 2's global version together with Chapter 1's higher level cap and the regions Eltnen and Morheim, in one update, before the end of July 2027. We think NC will not release the class on its own ahead of that chapter.

Why: Korea got the Brawler, the level cap of 50, Eltnen and Morheim in one update on July 1, 2026, seven and a half months after its launch. NC's global team has said a backlog of Korean content waits for the global version and that player feedback sets the order. A new class is the strongest reason an MMORPG can give lapsed players to come back, and the global audience has fallen from its launch peak of 397,905 on Steam.

Prediction Confidence: Likely Check by: Jul 2027 Made

Global servers are merged within a year

We expect NC to merge or permanently link global Aion 2 servers before the end of September 2027, the first anniversary of the global launch.

Why: NC opened servers for a launch-day crowd that reached 397,905 on Steam alone, and at 05:30 UTC on Nov 7, 2026, a quiet hour, 134,064 were playing there. The market and the Kina and Quna exchange work per server, and the membership is sold per server, so thin servers hurt the economy first. NC has already run free transfers to spread players out; a merge is the next step MMORPGs take.

Prediction Confidence: Likely Check by: Sep 2027 Made

China gets Aion 2 on mobile as well as PC

We think Aion 2's Chinese version, published by Shengqu Games, opens a public test in mainland China before the end of 2027, and we expect it to include mobile from the start, as the Korean version does, unlike the PC-only global version.

Why: NC signed Shengqu in July 2026, a partner that has run the original Aion in China since 2009 and was already co-developing Aion Mobile for China. The Korean and Taiwanese version is built for PC and mobile with shared accounts, and China's MMORPG market is led by mobile play.

Prediction Confidence: Possible Check by: Dec 2027 Made

The per-server membership is the real mistake

We think the per-server membership hurts Aion 2 in the West more than its cash shop does. Our view is that a single membership for the whole account would do more for its Steam reviews than any skin sale or event.

Why: The Elec found the complaints at the global launch centered on a membership tied to one server and passes sold per character, while the game itself drew praise for combat, graphics and flight. Steam rates it Mixed, with 50% of English reviews positive on Nov 7, 2026. Players who enjoy a free MMORPG are asked to pay again for each server they try, which reads as a toll rather than a convenience.

Opinion Made

What others predict

Predictions made on video by creators, experts or the subject of this page, in their words, each linked at the second it is said. The one line after each is our view. When the facts are known we add the result, right or wrong.

Grobs: as big as Throne and Liberty in the West

Grobs , at 14:45 Check by: Oct 2026

"I still think that this game has a decent foundation to become not the best MMO RPG we will have ever seen, but it could have an equal success as Thrron Liberty in the West." (YouTube's automatic captions)

Our view: We think he was right about the launch and that the lasting half of his call, a Western audience that holds like Throne and Liberty's, is still open.

Result (): Partly right. On its global launch day Aion 2 peaked at 397,905 concurrent players on Steam, 61,605 more than Throne and Liberty's Steam peak (Inven Global), but its Steam reviews stood at Mixed, 50% positive in English, a month later (Steam).

Anders: Hard mode a few weeks after launch

Anders , at 1:44 Check by: Nov 2026

"There's also no hard mode conquest at launch. These should show up a few weeks in once the average player's combat power catches up." (YouTube's automatic captions)

Our view: We think he read NC's global pacing well, and that Korea's dungeons will keep arriving in Korea's order.

Result (): Right. NC's patch notes of Oct 27 (PDT) added Hard mode to the Expeditions Urugugu Canyon and Vakron Sky Island at item level 2,700, three weeks after the launch (NC on Steam).

Moments

  1. Gladiator combat on the global client Trunx plays a Gladiator in the open world and then in party boss fights, explaining the skill chains, the extra damage of back attacks and the floor telegraphs players dodge mid-chain.
  2. The game NC first imagined On NC America's first global livestream, the senior producer describes Aion 2 as the game the team envisioned when it made the original, now that the technology has caught up.
  3. The eight launch classes NC's hosts run through the eight classes of the global version, from the Gladiator and Templar at the front to the Cleric and Chanter in support.
  4. Manual combat, chained skills Reviewing the Korean and Taiwanese version in November 2025, kets and his games describes combat built on chaining skills and dodging enemy attacks, with no auto-combat.
  5. Free to play, not free to participate CrusherXGaming grants that the global model drops the worst of Korea's, but argues that putting the whole player economy behind a subscription stretches the meaning of free to play.
  6. Heirs of the Broken Sky NC's official launch trailer, released as early access opened on September 30, 2026, rises from a sword in cracked earth to the logo in the clouds and follows a winged Daeva into battle.
  7. A 7 out of 10 after the test After about eight hours of the open test, TheLazyPeon finds the combat more fun than he expected and gives the game 7 out of 10, while calling it very mobile-like at times.
  8. The promise about progression items Kira recalls the game director saying before launch that items with a deep effect on progression could not be bought with the cash-shop currency.

References

  1. AION 2 on Steam, NC on Steam, 2026-11-07primary
  2. Announcing AION 2's Global Release, NC on Steam, 2026-04-21primary
  3. 1.5 Million Users Enjoy NCSoft's 'Aion 2' Daily, The Asia Business Daily, 2025-11-21press
  4. NCSoft's "Aion 2" Named This Year's "Game of G-Star", The Asia Business Daily, 2025-12-02press
  5. Aion 2's chaotic and overmonetized Korean release causes NCsoft stock to dip and devs to apologize, Massively Overpowered, 2025-11-19press
  6. Players continue to revolt over Aion 2's Korean release as NCsoft says it earned $6.8M in two days, Massively Overpowered, 2025-11-22press
  7. AION2 Hits KRW 100 Billion Revenue in 6 Weeks, Inven Global, 2026-01-06press
  8. NCSoft's Aion2 unveils 2026 Season 2 update roadmap, DigitalToday, 2026-01-07press
  9. NC Launches Major Aion 2 Update: 'Chapter 1. Land of Sand and Frost', Inven Global, 2026-06-30press
  10. AION 2 Draws 70,000 Players in Global Test Ahead of Launch, The Elec, 2026-09-30press
  11. NC to Launch Aion 2 Overseas on Oct. 5, Unveils New FPS, The Elec, 2026-08-28press
  12. 'Aion 2 & Lineage Classic' Success Drives Record Quarterly PC Performance for NC, Inven Global, 2026-05-12press
  13. NCSOFT rebrands as NC in corporate name change, The Korea Times, 2026-03-26press
  14. NC promotes Aion 2 during Gamescom Opening Night Live ahead of Western early access launch, GamesBeat, 2026-08-25press
  15. NC Talks Content Rollout, Global Changes to Aion 2, Hardcore Gamer, 2026-06-16press
  16. Aion 2 Founder's Packs Revealed: Early Access, Skins, and Prices, Hardcore Gamer, 2026-07-23press
  17. Gamescom 2026: Aion 2 makes its global debut October 5 following stress test and headstart, Massively Overpowered, 2026-08-25press
  18. Launch Scale Test Comes to a Close: What's Next?, NC on Steam, 2026-09-19primary
  19. AION 2 Will Launch On Time, NC on Steam, 2026-10-05primary
  20. Thank you for 400.000 Active Players, NC on Steam, 2026-10-05primary
  21. AION 2 hits peak concurrent player count of 397,905 on Steam, Inven Global, 2026-10-05press
  22. Aion 2 Tops 400,000 Global Concurrent Players as Game Wins Praise but Monetization Draws Complaints, The Elec, 2026-10-07press
  23. Aion 2 Q&A: NVIDIA DLSS 5, console and cross-play, Wccftech, 2026-09-07press
  24. NC to Target Chinese Market with Aion 2 in Partnership with Shengqu Games, Inven Global, 2026-07-30press
  25. Account Restrictions | 4 Nov, NC on Steam, 2026-11-04primary
  26. AION 2 news (account restriction notices, Oct 11 to Nov 4, 2026), NC on Steam, 2026-11-07primary
  27. Ludra Awakens Event, NC on Steam, 2026-11-04primary
  28. Current players of app 3393110 (Steam Web API), Valve, 2026-11-07primary
  29. 30-Day Membership Added to Founder's Packs, NC on Steam, 2026-08-21primary
  30. Aion 2 Preview: The Future of MMORPGs, Hardcore Gamer, 2026-06-16press
  31. First impressions: Aion 2 feels surprisingly familiar, Massively Overpowered, 2026-09-22press

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About this page

Drafted by
claude-opus-5-5 on 2026-11-07T12:00:00Z
Checked by
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Reviewed by
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Status
Published and revised continuously; this version is the one described here.
Published
7 November 2026
Last updated
7 November 2026, see what changed
Sources
No Wikipedia source; the sources are listed above.
License
Text CC BY-SA 4.0; embedded videos and thumbnails remain their uploaders’ property, shown under YouTube’s Terms of Service; quotations excluded. Details

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