AION 2 Player Numbers Are Rising Again, NC Tells Investors

On Tuesday, August 11, 2026, NC published its Q2 2026 results and held the accompanying investor call, with Co-CEO Park Byung-moo, CFO Hong Won-jun and Mobile Casual Center head Annel Cheman attending. The most directly useful thing for AION 2 players came in the Q&A, where Park was asked for the game's second-half outlook. His answer describes a reversal on the live Korea/Taiwan service: after the Chapter 1 update in July, and following earlier membership price cuts and what he called a rationalisation of cosmetic purchases, NC's July and August indicators show higher peak concurrent users and higher revenue than June, with monthly active users "no longer declining" and "slowly rising."

The context matters more than the adjectives. Park said outright that NC had been worried Korean and Taiwanese players would drift away in the run-up to the global launch — the usual pattern when a Western release is weeks out — and that the opposite happened. He credited the development team's communication with players, described AION 2 as "a long-run title," and told investors NC does not expect a downward trend through Q3 and Q4.

Two caveats worth stating plainly. First, all of that is management commentary on a live service in Korea and Taiwan; none of it is a statement about the unreleased global version, and NC gave no global player projections. Second, the transcript circulating in English is Inven Global's translation of the Korean original, which Inven notes was AI-assisted and then edited by a native English-speaking editor — so the numbers and the direction are reliable, but exact phrasing is a translation.

NC's consolidated Q2 2026 revenue was KRW 770.5 billion, up 101% year-on-year and 38% quarter-on-quarter. Operating profit came to KRW 173.9 billion (up 1,053% year-on-year), pre-tax profit KRW 176.7 billion, and net profit KRW 131.2 billion — a return to the black from a loss a year earlier. PC game revenue of KRW 343.8 billion set a record for the second consecutive quarter, and overseas markets accounted for 52% of total revenue, ahead of Korea for the fourth quarter running.

AION 2 is not the reason for those headline figures. The PC record was carried by Lineage Classic, which contributed KRW 185.5 billion in the quarter and had accumulated KRW 269.1 billion in the 140 days since its February launch. NC does not break out a standalone AION 2 revenue line in its English summary, so the AION 2 figures in circulation are outlet readings of NC's IR deck rather than NC's own published number: Massively OP reads the deck as AION 2 revenue down roughly 52% from Q1 and close to level with Q4 2025, the launch quarter, while Mein-MMO estimates the game at around US$51 million for Q2. Treat both as informed estimates, not disclosures.

Read together with the July–August commentary, the shape is straightforward: April–June was the post-launch cooldown quarter, and NC is telling investors the curve turned back up in Q3 — which is the period that actually overlaps the global launch build-up.

Asked about the wider release calendar, Park said NC has roughly ten titles launching between the second half of 2026 and the end of 2027, starting with AION 2 Global, and expects to ship "almost every month." Then came the line that will get quoted most: NC is "adjusting schedules and testing, especially as Aion 2 Global coincides with the November release of GTA6." He also stated that every NC game from here on will be a global simultaneous launch, and that three to four unannounced blockbuster titles are being prepared for 2028–2029. Guild Wars 3 was given an alpha and beta window of next year.

This is a scheduling remark, not a delay announcement. NC did not move any AION 2 date on this call, and nothing has changed on the storefronts since: checked August 14, 2026, the AION 2 Steam page still shows a planned release of "September 2026" and the Founder's Pack listings still carry the "Advance Access — Starts 30 Sep" label, while the official EN-US notice board has published nothing newer than its July 22 entries.

It does, however, add a data point to the launch-day question. AION 2's only officially dated milestone remains Early Access beginning September 30 and running five days, which puts the free-to-play launch in early October by arithmetic — comfortably clear of a November GTA 6, and comfortably before it if NC holds the window. NC still has not named the day itself. Our release date guide tracks the official position as it firms up.

The call also walked back a detail that a lot of coverage — including ours — treated as settled. Asked about China, Park said the Shengqu Games collaboration "is not yet signed": the broad framework is agreed, specific terms are still under negotiation, and if it is signed as early as August, NC will disclose it separately. He described the terms as very favourable and said the package covers an Aion PC publishing contract plus a contract for an AION 2 mobile version built along the lines of Aion Classic. He also explained the timing: NC had originally planned to enter China only after a successful global launch, but fielded enough interest from Chinese companies since the start of the year to move early. We have updated our AION 2 China coverage accordingly.

None of this contradicts the July 30, 2026 signing ceremony in Shanghai, which was widely photographed and reported with NC's own materials — but it does clarify what that ceremony was. A strategic partnership was announced; the definitive publishing contract was still being negotiated eleven days later. There remains no China launch date, no beta date, and no confirmation the Chinese build will match the global or Korean one.

No global launch day. No Western player projections, pre-registration numbers or wishlist figures. No change to Founder's Pack pricing or contents. No new information about the global build's content beyond what the August 7 community livestream already covered. The next scheduled moment where a date could plausibly land is gamescom: NC has confirmed it will present AION 2 alongside Cinder City and Project Bonfire at the show in Cologne, with the Opening Night Live slot on August 25 and the show floor opening August 26.

As of August 14, 2026, the confirmed AION 2 calendar is unchanged: Early Access September 30, full free-to-play launch day unannounced, Steam still reading September 2026.