World of Warcraft Classic

VS

Ark: Survival Evolved

World of Warcraft Classic, released in 2019 by Blizzard Entertainment, is a major MMORPG revival of the original WoW experience. The game continues to have a robust, though markedly smaller, player base than at launch, thanks to a steady cycle of classic content and expansions (like Wrath of the Lich King Classic). As an MMORPG developed and maintained by a top-tier publisher, it sees strong retention, but is several years past launch and shares its community with retail WoW. Given this, an estimate in the 200,000–250,000 daily player range is reasonable as of 2024.

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.