MapleStory World, a platform that allows creators to build various games using assets from the MapleStory IP, has a new classic server that is currently gaining significant attention: 'Maple Planet'.

Maple Planet began its public beta test on MapleStory World on April 24th. The project focuses on recreating the early MapleStory era, specifically the 'KMS1.2.95~98' version from before the 2010 Big Bang update. It has garnered attention for mitigating various inconveniences of the original early version by implementing permanent boosts to EXP gain, item drop rates, and meso acquisition, as well as introducing an auction house.

As a result of these combined factors, the patch notes released on the 4th featured a graph showing a massive surge in the player base. With over 700 channels created—each capable of holding up to 80 players, and considering the typical 20% buffer maintained for stable channel management—it is estimated that the game reached approximately 40,000 concurrent users at the time.

The stagnation of updates for Mapleland also appears to have influenced this growth in concurrent users. Mapleland, which also aimed to recreate the early MapleStory experience, announced 'Mapleland 2.0' on October 31st. While Mapleland 2.0 promised various content and convenience improvements, such as an environment identical to the original and a tenfold increase in capacity per channel, the internal development required for this led to a relative decline in the quality of updates for the existing Mapleland.

Due to this explosive popularity driven by various factors, the Maple Planet management team stated that they are constantly working on optimizing the world network communication servers. They also announced that patch schedules are experiencing some delays due to these optimization efforts. The fact that the Maple Planet management team consists of only two people has also contributed to this situation.

Meanwhile, the Maple Planet management team released their Q2 and Q3 update roadmap, announcing plans to add new job classes and boss raids such as Chaos Zakum and Chaos Horntail. Additionally, they plan to improve the mobile UI to provide a more convenient gameplay experience.