Throne and Liberty Kicks Off Pre-Order Early Access And Immediately Gets Swamped

The gates of Throne and Liberty swung open yesterday, and players who pre-ordered the MMORPG are already storming in. Early access began on September 26 for those who dropped $40 or more on a pre-order pack, while the rest of the world waits for the free-to-play launch on October 1. And it’s safe to say, Throne and Liberty isn’t sneaking in quietly—according to SteamDB, the game peaked at 53,884 concurrent players on launch night and has been holding steady ever since.

Throne and Liberty has had quite the journey. Developed by NCSoft, the game has been in the works for years, evolving from its initial roots as Lineage Eternal. After launching in South Korea earlier this year to decent success, the game has finally made its way to the global stage, where it’s already making waves.

But as with most MMORPG launches, things didn’t go entirely smoothly. Some Steam players found themselves locked out of the game, with its global publisher Amazon Games citing issues on Steam’s end. Console players weren’t exempt from the chaos either, with Xbox users facing bizarre errors preventing them from accessing multiplayer—a slight inconvenience for an MMO, to say the least.

Despite the hiccups, Throne and Liberty’s popularity is undeniable. The devs have already added new servers to keep up with demand, including the NA East Magna server and EU Central Ezekiel server. With these early access numbers, it’ll be interesting to see how things skyrocket once the game goes fully free-to-play next week.