Black Desert Online recently shifted publishing rights from Kakao Games to Pearl Abyss – and the payoff couldn't have been more immediate. In the days following the server transfer, Black Desert on PC has seen an increase of over 200% in its daily players.

Pearl Abyss America CEO, Jeonghee Jin, announced the staggering number during our recent interview.

"Since the transfer, we’ve seen a significant increase of over 200% in our daily players and a huge increase in our new users as well," Jin said. "The title has also been ranked as one of the 'Top Sellers' and 'What's Popular' in the MMORPG genre on Steam. It’s a great time to play Black Desert Online, and we couldn’t be prouder."

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A quick look at Black Desert's Steam Chart confirms the news. The game went offline for several hours on February 25 for the server transfer to take place. Before that, the game was averaging around 15,000 concurrent players. Fast-forward to the days following the downtime – with Pearl Abyss now self-publishing – and the average on Steam alone is hovering around 30,000.

While Pearl Abyss jumping into the publishing role likely had something to do with the influx of players, there's no doubt the free-to-play Steam promotion helped boost those numbers. Between February 26 and March 10, Black Desert was available for free – download it once, and it's yours forever.

Whatever the cause, it's clear Black Desert has a booming population, with a player count higher than it's been in a very long time. Jin also confirmed the upcoming Crimson Desert has no impact on the development of Black Desert, so you can sleep easy knowing it'll be supported for years to come.

Tomorrow is promising to be a big day for Black Desert, as the recently revealed Sage class makes its way to PC. If you happen to play on Xbox or PlayStation, you'll be able to roll the new class on March 31.

Black Desert is available on PC, Xbox One, PS4, and mobile.

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