Look, let's be honest, this week's Gamemeca popularity ranking features a title that has skyrocketed right upon its launch week. Jumping 25 spots in a single bound, The World of Dokkaebi has landed comfortably at 16th place. Narrowing it down to MMORPGs released this year, it shares 1st place at peak performance alongside Zeus: God of Pride, and even when broadening the scope to the entire genre, it sits right below Arknights: Endfield, which claimed 15th. Considering how the market environment is getting increasingly cramped for newcomers, initial reactions are undeniably quite fiery.

The World of Dokkaebi proudly champions a rather mellow flavour, aggressively ditching the aggressive and harsh monetization models often associated with MMORPGs. Beyond completely scrubbing random-drop items from its paid goods lineup, player-versus-player combat is entirely impossible in normal fields, allowing for peaceful farming. The overall content is also designed loosely enough so that players can slowly nurture characters even while juggling studies or work. The game design is breezy enough that it feels totally fine to keep it spinning as a secondary title during breaks from a main game.

As the race for grabbing audience attention grows fiercely intense in the gaming market, an increasing number of fresh releases are sortieing with the so-called "second game" position in mind. If luring players away from established titles with locked-in fanbases is tough, the trick is to present oneself as another game worth firing up during spare time while maintaining one's longtime favorite. A trend initially spotted in idle and subculture genres is now spilling over into MMORPGs, which historically demanded heavy investments of time and capital.

That said, while a breezy and lightweight gameplay style lowers the initial barrier to entry, it carries the fatal flaw of getting boring rather quickly. Even if the general vibe is kept mild, a game needs a spicy edge that other titles lack to keep gamers around for the long haul and smoothly transition into a stable, long-running phase. The crux of the matter is whether The World of Dokkaebi can flaunt a clear-cut personality capable of hooking players during its launch-hype window.

Among established titles, there is also a game showing a remarkably steep upward trajectory. Lineage 2 has leaped 7 spots to claim 20th place. This marks Lineage 2's highest ranking recorded all year. Celebrating its 23rd anniversary, Lineage 2 is prepping a massive update carrying the title "BASIC." At the core are the new class "Overlord: Bats," introduced as inheriting the spirit of the iconic "Bats Liberation War," and the new server "Gludio," which highlights the joy of slowly leveling up starting from zero-grade equipment.

The update drops on October 28, but anticipation had already started brewing since the Hangeul Day holiday weekend via pre-registrations and related news. Looking at Lineage 2's key metrics, portal search volumes spiked significantly, with the BASIC update being discussed as a major talking point. NC achieved remarkable results this year by introducing a classic approach leaning into the "charm of the roots" for Lineage. It is definitely worth keeping a close eye on whether Lineage 2 can pull off similar results.

At the top of the charts, Overwatch climbed one spot from last week to break into the Top 5. It grabbed eyeballs with Season 5, fronting a collaboration skin with Solo Leveling that amassed massive popularity in South Korea. Particularly, as domestic service transitioned from Blizzard to Nexon, local events like streamer tournaments and esports have become livelier than before, creating a feeling much closer to South Korea. One could say the synergy between Overwatch and Nexon is panning out rather decently.

Down at the bottom, Diablo 3 climbed for two consecutive weeks to reach 33rd place. Its upward momentum was sustained by the favorable reception of Season 40, which kicked off on October 2. This season is built upon the "Shadow Theme Power" first introduced in Season 22, and because all classes feature powerful builds, players can dive in without much overthinking. Just like before, there is no new content added, but old fans missing the tactile thrill of mob-gathering and farming appear to have returned in droves.