Lost Ark

We rate Lost Ark C tier, 6.3 out of 10: 10/10 in Combat but only 2/10 in PvP and 3/10 in Fair pricing, because the best top-down fighting in the genre sits in a game that removed its arena in Feb 2026, sells gold, and lost half its Steam peak during the year.

We rate Lost Ark C tier (6.3 out of 10). It is 10/10 in Combat but only 2/10 in PvP and 3/10 in Fair pricing. We think it has the best fighting of any top-down MMO and has had one of the roughest years of any MMO still running: its ranked arena was deleted on Feb 4, 2026, seven of its twelve NA East and EU Central servers were merged away by September, and its highest Steam peak fell from 17,735 in February to 8,954 in October (Steam Charts, read Nov 12, 2026). TheLazyPeon put it in the tier he calls positive, his B, in his MMORPG Tier List 2026 (Dec 2025). We go one tier lower, because all three of those things happened after he recorded it.

We think Smilegate's first western roadmap after it takes the game over lists no PvP mode, and Proving Grounds stays removed through June 2027.

Confidence: Likely. Check by: Jul 2027.

3:34 What is live is the Arbiter of Death update, out since Oct 21, 2026: the 8-player Shadow Raid Belgardin and a new gear slot, Vambraces. The roadmap for the rest of the year lists Kazeros Raid Act 3: Extreme and the eight-week Vestiges of the End event for November, then the Denouement at Extreme difficulty in December. The game is free on Steam, on PC only, and English only since the October update. Amazon Game Studios still publishes it, but said on Aug 12, 2026 that Smilegate, the developer, takes over publishing, support and the store, with early 2027 as the target. Lost Ark is a top-down action MMORPG from Korea built around weekly boss raids; the clip is from TheLazyPeon's 2023 return and shows the mob-clearing combat that has not changed.

Scores

Category	Score	Why in one line
PvP	2/10	Proving Grounds was removed on Feb 4, 2026; what is left pays no PvP rewards
PvE	9/10	Three raid difficulties, Extreme versions and a no-wipe matching mode, held back by gatekeeping
Solo play	7/10	Solo raids and a guided path to item level 1700, but the story quests drag and solo gold was cut
Combat	10/10	The benchmark for top-down action combat, by every creator we watched
Fair pricing	3/10	Free to start, but boosts, materials and gold are all for sale
Population	7/10	17,735 on Steam in February 2026, the year's high
Overall	6.3/10, C tier	Superb to play, expensive to keep up with, and shrinking

Pros and cons

Pros

Combat that TheLazyPeon, Deathboi523 and ImDefild each rank at or near the top of the genre, in videos from 2023 and 2026.
A new raid with three difficulties every few months: Belgardin asks for item level 1750, 1770 or 1780.
Matching mode: Belgardin can be entered alone or with 2 to 7 players, and the fight scales to the group.
Solo versions of older raids, extended in July 2026 to Kazeros Act 4 and the Denouement.
Base Camp takes a new or returning character to item level 1700 on pre-enhanced gear, with no honing.
Two new classes in 2026: Guardianknight (February) and Dimensionalist (September).
You can try every class before making a character, since the February update.

Cons

No ranked or arena PvP at all since Feb 4, 2026.
Real money buys gold through the currency exchange, and gold feeds honing, the main way to get stronger.
Honing is still a dice roll with stage-by-stage success rates, now on a new gear slot too.
Group raids outside matching mode still ask newcomers for titles and experience they cannot get without a group.
The western population halved during 2026 by Steam's count, and seven servers were merged away.
A publisher handover is coming in early 2027: mail, chat history and friend memos do not transfer, and Spanish is already gone.

PvP: 2/10

13:31 Lost Ark launched with Proving Grounds, an arena with equalized stats that TheLazyPeon listed among its strengths in 2023. On Jan 26, 2026 ImDefild, a Lost Ark guide maker, told a new player in this clip that a PvP player should pick another game. Nine days later the makers agreed with him. The Guardians' Rage release notes for the Feb 4, 2026 update say Proving Grounds has been removed, along with the Book of Coordination, and that the PvP islands no longer give PvP experience or Courage Coins.

That is by design, not neglect: the 2026 roadmap listed the removal in an "Activity Overhaul" beside Tower and Inferno raids. We give 2 and not 1 because the islands still exist to fight on. A returning arena with seasons would lift this to 6 at once; we do not expect one.

PvE: 9/10

4:12 This is what the game is for. In his Jul 24, 2026 video Deathboi523, a Lost Ark creator who played at the 2022 launch, says Smilegate's raids remain some of the most memorable fights in the genre, and that their flaw was demanding perfection from every player in the group. The 2026 raids answer part of that. Belgardin has Normal, Hard and Nightmare, a shared pool of revives per gate, and a matching mode whose rewards match Normal with half the gold bound. Serca, April's 4-player Shadow Raid, got the same mode in July with unlimited revives and no wipe condition.

It is not a 10 because the top difficulties are where the gear materials drop: Vambraces can only reach Ancient grade with Deathly Hand from Hard or Nightmare. The hardest content is still the gated content.

Solo play: 7/10

10:22 Deathboi523 says here that almost all content now has a solo mode, and describes matching mode as flexible raiding for a party of any size. That is a real change from the 2023 game TheLazyPeon returned to, where he found that one player's mistake could wipe the whole group. A solo player in November 2026 can use Base Camp to reach item level 1700, clear solo raids, and queue alone for Belgardin from 1750.

Two things hold it at 7. The story quests between raids are slow; TheLazyPeon called early questing mind-numbing in 2023 and nothing we read says it was rebuilt. And the Sep 16, 2026 update cut solo raid gold: Kazeros Act 4 solo Gate 1 went from 12,500 to 10,000.

Combat: 10/10

23:32 Every creator we watched agrees, across three years. TheLazyPeon's 2023 verdict in this clip is that the effects, sound, animation and flow are S tier and beat every other action RPG. In his Jun 28, 2026 video on a rival, Embers of the Uncrowned, he still calls Lost Ark "the gold standard of isometric MMO combat". ImDefild said the same in January 2026, and Deathboi523 in July called it some of the best in the whole genre. The makers still add to it: Belgardin brought a held guard on the G key for certain boss patterns. We found no one arguing for a lower score.

Fair pricing: 3/10

1:20 The game costs nothing to download. Money buys Royal Crystals, and the official shop page lists packs holding up to 8,050 of them with honing material chests and Crystalline Aura, though Amazon pulled those packs from Steam on Aug 26, 2026 ahead of the handover and the Aura is now sold in game. The page shows no dollar prices, so we give none. One Powerpass is on sale and sets a character to item level 1660. November's Vestiges of the End event has paid packages of its own.

Deathboi523 says plainly in this clip that he considers the game pay to win, and that gold touches almost every progression system. By our rule that is power sold. It is not a 1 because the newest upgrade materials come only from weekly raid clears, which slows a spender down.

Population: 7/10

1:28 The highest monthly peak of 2026 on Steam Charts is 17,735 players, in February, which is a 7 by this viki's rule. The western version runs only through Steam, so nothing is added. The trend is down since April: 13,973, then 12,154, 11,748, 11,340 and 9,303, a rise to 10,436 in September with the new class, and 8,954 in October. The all-time peak was 1,324,761 in February 2022. In this clip from a 2026 video on upcoming MMOs, TheLazyPeon names it among recent releases whose player numbers do not look good.

Amazon's stated reason for merging servers was to improve matchmaking and party finding; the second phase ran on Sep 9, 2026. The number cannot see Korea or other regions, which are not on Steam, and it cannot tell bots from people: ImDefild said in January 2026 that there were still quite a lot of bots.

What creators say

12:45 TheLazyPeon, in his MMORPG Tier List 2026 (Dec 2025), rates Lost Ark positive overall purely for its combat, says he quit because the daily tasks felt like a job, and wants to revisit it in 2026. His full review, Lost Ark In 2023, is three years old and ended more positive than negative. We agree on the combat and think his tier is now too kind: the equalized PvP he praised no longer exists.

Deathboi523 (Jul 24, 2026) argues the game never lacked quality, only accessibility, and that Smilegate simplified its stacked systems too late. We agree, and the Steam chart supports the "too late".

ImDefild (Jan 26, 2026) recommends it to new players but warns that catching up takes a lot of money or a lot of time. Deathboi523 thinks the direction is finally right; ImDefild's warning explains why that has not brought players back. We side with the warning.

Who should play it, and who should not

Play it if you want boss fights with real mechanics and can raid weekly, if you like mastering one class deeply, or if you left before solo and matching modes existed. Skip it if you want PvP, or if paid shortcuts in a ranked-by-gear game bother you.

For action combat with open-world PvP, Black Desert Online is the nearest thing. For hard raids with nothing sold for power, Final Fantasy XIV is the safer home. Throne and Liberty is the other MMO Amazon is handing back to its developer, so it shares the same uncertainty.

Sources

Moments

Lost Ark In 2023

TheLazyPeon

3:34 What is live is the Arbiter of Death update, out since Oct 21, 2026: the 8-player Shadow Raid Belgardin and a new gear…
23:32 Every creator we watched agrees, across three years. TheLazyPeon's 2023 verdict in this clip is that the effects…

Is Lost Ark Worth Playing In 2026? New & Returning Player Q&A

ImDefild

13:31 Lost Ark launched with Proving Grounds, an arena with equalized stats that TheLazyPeon listed among its strengths in…

What Happened to Lost Ark? | The State of the Game in 2026

Deathboi523

4:12 This is what the game is for. In his Jul 24, 2026 video Deathboi523, a Lost Ark creator who played at the 2022 launch…
10:22 Deathboi523 says here that almost all content now has a solo mode, and describes matching mode as flexible raiding for…
1:20 The game costs nothing to download. Money buys Royal Crystals, and the official shop page lists packs holding up to…