MMO Lost Ark has lost over 200k of its player count following a bot ban wave earlier this week.
As reported by Lost Ark fan account @lostinarkesia, the game was reaching 323,725 players on January 9 but by January 10, it had dropped to 101,550 - that's just over 200k bots wiped out. This should make the game more enjoyable for actual players who have been dealing with bots and disconnects present in the game for a while now.
Another indicator of this bot ban is the amount of level 1 - 2 gems listed on the game's Auction House. Prior to the ban, as pointed out by the same Twitter account, players were faced with over 62,000 pages of gems, whereas once the player count had dropped, the page count also fell to just 102 pages.
Another indicator is the amount of lvl 1/2 gems listed on the Auction House:BEFORE: 62k pagesAFTER: 102 pages pic.twitter.com/gbiJtjqgDhJanuary 11, 2023
Lost Ark developers Smilegate and Tripod Studio have since addressed the ban themselves, writing on the Lost Ark Forums (opens in new tab): "This week, many players have noticed a drop off in the number of concurrent users displayed in Lost Ark's Steam stats. This change is the direct result of a rollout of a significant number of bot account bans, which utilized new and highly effective tactics to target and remove bots from the game."
The post continues: "Players should expect these bot bans to have a positive impact on gameplay, including improved Market and Auction House experiences, decreased lag in heavily populated areas, and fewer bots present in the game." The developers also note that this won't be the only ban wave expected to roll out in the MMO: "In the coming months, we will continue to deploy large-scale bot ban waves, implementing new methods of identifying and actioning against bots en masse."
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