KEY POINTS

  • The "New World" closed beta reached over 190,000 concurrent players on Steam
  • The game also garnered massive viewer counts on Twitch
  • Players reported a number of GPU and performance-related issues while playing the game

The long-awaited closed beta for Amazon Games’ “New World” has finally arrived, and it was met by a large wave of eager players who signed up, with the peak player count reaching as high as 190,000 on the first day.

The player population was spotted at SteamDB’s “New World” page. It officially listed the game’s all-time peak player count at 190,811 as of writing, with roughly 120,000 concurrent players still online. This is a huge achievement for Amazon Games as “New World” had gone through a rather turbulent development cycle.

“New World’s” viewership on Twitch also skyrocketed to the top ranks with over 650,000 viewers watching streamers play the game’s closed beta for the first time. In terms of viewership, the game surpassed other popular games on the platform such as “Fortnite” and “Call of Duty: Warzone” by a very large margin, bordering at nearly double the number of viewers.

New World features a fluid, classless system that lets players specialize in different weapon types that fit their preferred playstyles
New World features a fluid, classless system that lets players specialize in different weapon types that fit their preferred playstyles Amazon Games

However, the game’s large population of beta testers also caused congestion problems. Players at the r/newworldgame subreddit complained about extremely long queue times, which was especially bad in South America where queues were estimated to last for up to four days.

“New World” seems to be relatively well-received so far. Players praised the game’s combat system for deviating from the standard tab-target style of games like “World Of Warcraft” in favor of an action-based system similar to “Dark Souls.”

The game incorporates a stamina bar system for attacking, and players can mitigate damage with a shield or avoid it completely by dodge-rolling. The wide variety of weapons that players can choose from provides plenty of options that cater to certain playstyles, whether it be a support-based healer, a ranged musketeer or a melee damage-dealer with two-handed weapons.

However, others noted that combat feels floaty due to the lack of hit feedback and stagger animations.

Some users also reported major technical issues with the game. Players noted that “New World” was putting their GPUs under massive stress, causing temperatures to spike and frames to drop. Several players reported that their EVGA 3090 GPUs got bricked while waiting in the game’s queue.

The “New World” closed beta is due to run until Aug. 2, while the full 1.0 release is scheduled for Aug. 31.

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