AION 2 Launches Worldwide Today: Free to Play on Steam and PURPLE

AION 2 launches worldwide today, October 5, 2026. NCSoft’s free-to-play MMORPG opens on PC through Steam and the PURPLE launcher after a very loud five days of early access: 171,000 concurrent players, the top spot on Steam’s global revenue chart, and an NCSoft stock jump of more than 12% in a single morning. There is a catch, though: when OtaHub opened Steam from Vietnam, the store page said the game was unavailable in this region.

Quick facts

Five days of early access: records and headaches

The global version of AION 2 actually opened on September 30 at 6:30 a.m. PDT for Founder’s Pack owners, 30 minutes later than planned. Within hours it peaked at 171,530 concurrent players on Steam. According to Korean media, AION 2 was No. 1 on Steam’s global revenue chart on day one and topped revenue in 12 countries, including the US, France, Germany, Spain and Brazil. On the morning of October 1, NCSoft shares rose more than 12%, to about 234,500 won.

Success came with the usual MMORPG launch pains. Login queues grew long enough that NC added 7 more server pairs in the first three days. Some players were not recognized as early access owners, ran into purchase errors or had account-linking problems. The biggest controversy was that Founder’s Pack outfits only worked on one character. After player pushback, NC committed to unlocking them on every character and every server, and to letting players upgrade or refund a lower-tier pack if they want to switch.

What is AION 2?

AION 2 is NCSoft’s MMORPG successor to Aion, built in Unreal Engine 5. NC pitches it as the only MMORPG built around a world where the sky is the battlefield. You pick a faction, ascend as a winged Daeva, and fight in the war between the Elyos and the Asmodians across Atreia, a world 36 times larger than the original’s.

The game launched in Korea and Taiwan on November 19, 2025, on both PC and mobile. The global version launching today is separate: PC only, with no progress carried over from the Korean or Taiwanese service. Content is identical on Steam and PURPLE, players from both share the same servers, and accounts can be linked to use the same characters.

Servers, factions and pre-assigned enemies

When you start the game, you choose a region, then a faction, then a server. Each server holds only one faction. Every Elyos server is paired with an Asmodian server, and in the Abyss or Spacetime Rifts, the enemies you meet come from that paired server. NC says pairings will change periodically to keep the factions balanced.

• Europe: 18 server pairs, the most of any region.
• NA East: 8 pairs. Latin America: 6 pairs. NA West and Asia: 5 pairs each.
• Server transfers: open from October 14, free at first, within the same faction only. Early access servers and launch servers cannot transfer between each other.

Dungeons and other instanced content are cross-server, so you can still run them with friends on different servers.

Free to play, so where is the money?

AION 2 has no mandatory subscription. According to NC’s FAQ, it makes money from cosmetics, a Battle Pass and a monthly membership. The detail to watch is that the membership unlocks the player-driven economy and currency exchanges. In other words, you can play for free, but trading with other players realistically means budgeting for a monthly fee.

NC also warned it will act harshly, up to account termination, against anyone buying Kinah or Quna (in-game currencies) from third parties.

AION 2 PC requirements

NC notes that at Full HD, minimum-spec PCs should use the Very Low preset and recommended-spec PCs the Low preset. Controllers work but are not officially supported; the same goes for Linux and Steam Deck.

Can players in Vietnam play?

This is the question OtaHub hears most, and the answer is not a happy one yet. When we checked from Vietnam on October 5, the Steam page for the global version said the game was unavailable in this region. Steam store data shows it is sold in Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Japan, while Korea and Taiwan are excluded because they have their own version. Vietnam sits in the same “unavailable” group as those two markets.

NC has not explained why or announced a separate plan for Vietnam, and the game has no Vietnamese language option. Some players may try changing account regions or using a VPN, but that can break Steam’s and NC’s terms and put accounts at risk. OtaHub does not recommend it and will update as soon as there is official news for Vietnam.

Launch rewards

Every player who creates an account and logs in before the December 1 maintenance receives the pre-registration and Steam wishlist rewards by in-game mail: a pet chest, resurrection stones, potions and a stack of buff scrolls. A global Twitch Drops campaign also runs until October 16 for viewers of AION 2 streams.

OtaHub’s take

AION 2 has had the kind of start most MMORPGs only dream of: 171,000 concurrent players while access still cost money. But early access numbers are only the qualifying round. The real test starts today, when the doors open for free and hundreds of thousands of new players pour in. The last time NC brought a big MMORPG to a global audience, Throne and Liberty in 2024, it also launched strongly before its player count gradually fell.

What worries OtaHub more is tying the player economy to a membership. In an MMORPG, the player market is the heart of the experience, and putting it behind a monthly fee risks making “free to play” a label rather than a reality. For players in Vietnam, the disappointment is simpler: one of the year’s biggest MMORPGs launches worldwide, and on Steam, Vietnam is left outside.

FAQ about AION 2

Sources: AION 2’s Steam page and NC’s official Steam announcements (maintenance schedule, server list, launch FAQ, launch rewards), regional Steam store data (checked October 5, 2026), The Asia Business Daily, The Elec, PCGamesN, Asia Economy.