Pearl Abyss and Kakao Games said that Black Desert Online has seen a surge of returning and new users from their Remastered campaign in the past week. Black Desert Online returning users are up 103.6 percent in the past week, and new players are up 24.2 percent in the North American and European markets. That’s a big result for a game that originally launched in 2014, after four years of development at Seoul, South Korea -based Pearl Abyss.
Black Desert Online debuted in North America and Europe in 2016, and the Remastered version of the fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game debuted last week with better visuals and a new orchestral score. Kakao Games serves as the publisher in major regions in Asia, Europe and the U.S., while others handle South America and Russia. It’s another sign of how time-consuming MMORPGs, like World of Warcraft and its launch-day record for its Battle for Azeroth expansion, continue to do well in the age of mobile games and nanosecond attention spans.
“Pearl Abyss has done a fantastic job on Black Desert Remastered,” said Minsung Kim, CEO of Kakao Games Europe, in a statement. “The game was already had the best in-game visuals, but with Black Desert Remastered, the developers have really pushed the envelope. It is no wonder that so many players are returning to the game.”
Earlier this year, the companies said that Black Desert Online had 3 million players in North America and Europe, but they didn’t say this week how many the game now has. Throughout its history, Black Desert Online has had 9.5 million players in 150 countries on the PC.
“We are ecstatic after seeing that our hard work on Black Desert Remastered has been so positively perceived by the community at large. The heart-warming reactions have definitely been a morale booster. We want to thank our players all over the world for playing our game,” said Jae Hee Kim, executive producer at Pearl Abyss, in a statement. “We are highly motivated to keep the game current and up-to-date by continuing to develop exciting new content while striving for continuous improvements and optimizations.”
Pearl Abyss is currently working on a previously announced Drieghan expansion, which is expected to arrive to the Western markets later this year. Mobile and console versions are expected to launch worldwide this year.