Age of Empires Online: Celeste Fan Project

VS

Palworld

Age of Empires Online: Celeste Fan Project is a fan-run revival of the original Age of Empires Online, which was discontinued by Microsoft. As a community project launched in 2017, it maintains a niche but active RTS player base, mostly composed of dedicated fans. While not as popular as mainstream RTS games, its weekend activity peaks and ongoing support likely keep daily active players in the low thousands range. It is not run by major publishers but has support from a dedicated fan community.

Palworld is a survival/adventure sandbox game released in January 2024 by Pocketpair. It experienced an explosive launch with millions of sales and high concurrent player counts on PC. Since launch, player counts have declined from their peak but remain strong for a new multiplayer survival game, thanks to active updates and ongoing community engagement. It's not an MMO, as servers are typically limited to smaller group sizes and don't feature a true persistent, massively multiplayer world.