After months of betas and hype, New World was released on PC last week to scores of new players.
Players trying to get on were hit with lengthy queues as Amazon scrambled to add servers to fit demand.
As the days went on, the player count only climbed - peaking at over 900,000 at the time of writing.
Amazon Game Studio
This isn't the first time in recent memory that a game has blown up on Steam. We're just over the Splitgate craze, and before that gamers were obsessing over Fall Guys, Among Us, and Valheim.
Now, most of those games have petered out. Valheim crashed to around 20,000 concurrent players, Among Us is down to 15,000, and Splitgate fell as well.
New World has some things that these games don't however - especially in the case of Valheim: content.
The new life killer
Valhiem has a fantastic world and can certainly add more content in the future, but there was no end-game to speak of at launch.
New World, on the other hand, doesn't even truly start until you reach level 60, which will take hours upon hours of grinding.
When you combine this with the rich crafting system, PvP optimization, and wealth of content the team have planned, I can't see New World suffering the same fate as some of the other smash hits on Steam.
This isn't a review. There are plenty of those out there and they mostly say the same thing: New World is fun.
If you don't like a grind-intensive MMO, then you might not like New World.
If you're coming from ESO, WoW, Runescape, or any other MMO, then this will be your new life killer.
New World is already fantastic, and will only get better as Amazon continue to support their most valuable gaming asset.
Some players might be reluctant to shell-out $40 for a game that could be dead or dying in six months. At least, for me, it won't be one of them.
