Castaways

VS

Ark: Survival Evolved

Castaways by Branch.GG is a sandbox adventure game available for web browsers, released in 2022. It has had some viral moments on social media and Twitch since launch, but as a small studio release, its daily player base is likely modest, in the low thousands, and has probably stabilized post-launch. Ongoing development and updates may keep a core community active, but the lack of a major publisher or wide platform presence constrains larger growth.

Ark: Survival Evolved is a popular survival sandbox game released in 2017 and available on nearly all platforms. Its peak was several years ago, but it maintains a stable community thanks to official and community servers, modding, and occasional event content. While numbers have declined since launch, the game still sees tens of thousands of daily players across PC and consoles, especially due to its ongoing updates and active mod scene. However, it is not an MMO as it does not feature a single, large-scale persistent world—servers are capped and players are sharded.