by Game of Review Team · published 2026-09-29 · updated 2026-09-29
Sixteen years after the original AION carved out a niche among free-to-play MMORPGs, AION 2 is finally landing on Steam. Advance Access opens September 30, with the full global launch following on October 5, and the free-to-play sequel is already sitting near the top of Steam's top sellers list, which is a strange trick for a game almost nobody outside preview events has actually played yet.
What's actually new here
The headline pitch is aerial combat: AION 2 builds its whole world design around vertical, sky-based fighting, with NCSoft claiming the new map is dramatically bigger than the original game's. Character creation has been expanded down to fiddly details like eye pupils, and the combat system has shifted toward faster, more action-oriented dodging and positioning instead of the old tab-target style longtime AION players remember.
Where the story picks up
The campaign is set two hundred years after the events of the first game and funnels players toward endgame content that includes 1v1 and 4v4 PvP, large-scale realm-versus-realm battles, and raids NCSoft says can involve dozens or even hundreds of players at once. The level cap at launch sits at 45.
Free to play, with founder's packs
AION 2 itself costs nothing to install and play. NCSoft is selling optional Founder's Packs for early access and cosmetic perks at $24.99, $49.99, and $99.99, and those packs are almost certainly what's driving the current top-seller ranking, since the free base game generates no direct revenue on the charts. The game has already been live in Taiwan and South Korea since November 2025, so this global release arrives with roughly a year of live-service iteration already behind it.
- Platform: PC via Steam, Advance Access September 30, full launch October 5, 2026
- Price: Free-to-play, with optional Founder's Packs starting at $24.99
- Genre: MMORPG / action combat, faction-based PvP and PvE
- Storage: roughly 100GB required; minimum specs are modest (GTX 1050 Ti, Ryzen 5 2600 or Core i5-10500)
Who should pay attention
If you've been waiting for a big-budget, free-to-play MMORPG that doesn't ask you to grind through another generic fantasy checklist, AION 2 is worth carving out a download slot for when Advance Access opens this week.
Our take
A free-to-play MMORPG launch topping Steam's sales charts before anyone outside a preview event has played it is really a story about founder's-pack economics, not organic hype -- NCSoft is monetizing anticipation, not access. That said, the aerial-combat pitch is a genuinely different hook than most PvE-treadmill MMOs shipping this year, and a year of live iteration in Korea and Taiwan means the global build probably won't suffer the usual buggy Western launch. The real test is whether that action-combat rework holds up once thousands of players are actually flying at each other at once, rather than in curated preview sessions.
Games mentioned
AION 2
Free