Guild Wars 2 launched on August 28, 2012. Today, August 23, 2022, it turns ten, and it is celebrating by launching on Steam for the first time. Those two things happening on the same week is not an accident. ArenaNet has confirmed over 16 million lifetime players.
16 Million Players and a Decade of Tyria
Sixteen million players is a cumulative number. Everyone who has ever created an account and played, not a concurrent user count or an active monthly figure.
For a ten-year-old MMO that charges no monthly subscription and operates with an expansion-and-gem-store revenue model, 16 million is a real number. It means the game has found its audience repeatedly over a decade through expansions, Living World seasons, and a consistent core of players who never left.
The active player base is obviously smaller than 16 million. But the March 2022 Studio Update told us that the active base had more than doubled over the preceding two years. GW2 at ten is not a game in maintenance mode. It is a game with momentum.
What the Steam Launch Actually Means
Steam’s storefront reach is enormous. Being visible on Steam where tens of millions of players browse for games daily is categorically different from relying on the ArenaNet website and word of mouth for new player acquisition.
Steam players are on the same servers as everyone else. There is no Steam shard or separate instance. A new Steam player who hits Lion’s Arch for the first time walks into the same Lion’s Arch as a veteran player on the ArenaNet launcher. Splitting the community would have been a self-inflicted wound.
The account-linking limitation is real and it is disappointing for veterans who would prefer to manage everything through Steam. Valve takes a 30% cut of revenue from sales made through the Steam platform. ArenaNet accepted those terms for new Steam purchases. But allowing existing ArenaNet players to transfer their accounts to Steam without making any new purchases would generate no Steam revenue and incur Valve’s infrastructure costs. It is not a great outcome for veterans, but it is not a mysterious decision.
Veterans continue using the ArenaNet launcher, which still works fine, and new players come in through Steam. The two populations play together seamlessly.
Anniversary Rewards and Events
The 10th anniversary content is worth running even if you are a veteran who has seen everything before.
New anniversary achievement categories span the breadth of GW2’s content: world bosses, expansions, Living World seasons, PvP, WvW. Completing them earns Proofs of Legend, the new anniversary currency.
Decade armor set: The meta-achievement reward is a full armor set with a distinct, earned aesthetic. These are not throwaway rewards.
Decade’s War cape: A cape skin awarded for completing the meta-achievement. GW2 rarely does capes well. This one is worth having.
Dragon Decade weapons: A full weapon set themed around the elder dragons you have fought over ten years.
Birthday gifts: Characters turning ten years old receive special birthday packages. If you have been playing since 2012, check your oldest characters.
What Ten Years Built
Guild Wars 2 launched with a philosophy that was contrarian for 2012. No trinity. Dynamic events instead of static quests. World vs. World as a large-scale PvP format that let massive communities fight in persistent warfare. Most of it has held up.
The expansion model added something structurally new each time. Gliders changed how you moved. Mounts redefined traversal so fundamentally that going back to old content without them feels strange. The elite specialization system has given every profession multiple meaningful identities over the years.
WvW is still running. Fractals are still one of the best endgame progression systems an MMO has ever built. The Mastery Atlas still has content players are working through for the first time. The Consortium Exchange still tracks an economy that generates real community discourse.
A lot of ten-year-old MMOs are in maintenance mode or shut down. GW2 is launching on Steam with a fourth expansion confirmed.
Who This Matters To
Veterans who have been here since launch: Check your characters’ birthday gifts and run the anniversary achievements. The Decade armor is specifically for you.
Players who came back for End of Dragons: The Steam launch brings fresh energy into the game population. Open-world content will feel more populated in the coming weeks.
New Steam players: Welcome. The free-to-play base game gives you a huge amount of content. Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire are bundled together. End of Dragons is the current expansion. The GW2 Wiki is your best friend.
WvW players: New players on Steam means new WvW recruits. Tag up and show them the ropes.
Ten years. Sixteen million players. A fourth expansion in development.