On the 20th, ‘Lost Ark’ rolled out Act IV and the Finale of the Kazeros Raid—the capstone of the arc—which helped the game climb two spots to finish the week at No. 7. For ‘Lost Ark’ players, this is arguably the most meaningful raid yet: it’s the final showdown against Kazeros, the archdemon of the game world. Naturally, interest is sky-high. Smilegate RPG is even running a “The FIRST” world-first clear event for the Finale’s highest difficulty. The 10 raid teams that claim the first clears on The FIRST difficulty will receive unprecedented rewards, including an exclusive title, a dedicated trophy, and an Adventurer banner. All eyes are already on which raid will seize that glory.

‘Sudden Attack’ turns 20—celebratory events fuel a two-spot surge

The standout in the Top 5 this week is ‘Sudden Attack.’ Marking its 20th anniversary, the game stacked celebratory events, and on the anniversary day (Sat, Aug 23) ran a one-day free-play promotion at GETO-affiliated PC cafés. On the back of these anniversary beats, it climbed two places to re-enter the Top 5 at No. 5. Ongoing promotions include a Welcome & Settle-In event for new/returning players; a Nikke weapon-skin level-up event that grants a Nikke skin weapon with 100% certainty; a 20th-anniversary Special Exchange Shop where 20th tokens can be traded for 20th-anniversary skin weapons and a trove of rewards; weekly anniversary missions; and a 20th-anniversary showcase coupon (“20th Nikke Coupon”). We’ll be watching to see how long this momentum lasts.

16.79 million hours played nationwide in Week 3 of August—down 8% WoW, down 0.7% MoM

According to the PC café statistics service THE LOG, total hours played nationwide last week came to 16.79 million. That’s an 8% decline week-over-week and down 0.7% month-over-month, roughly 2.4% lower than the same week last year. Average utilization was 14.3% on weekdays and 22.2% on the weekend, for a weekly average of 16.5%.

‘Lost Ark’ weekly PC café hours up a massive 104.7%

‘Lost Ark’ posted a staggering 104.7% WoW increase in usage, landing at No. 9 on THE LOG’s PC café ranking. The jump is tied to the Aug 20 “2025 Summer Roadmap” beat that brought Act IV and the Finale of the Kazeros Raid plus three other content updates, alongside multiple in-game and PC café events. With the Finale capping the arc and the ongoing The FIRST race, expect the heat to continue for a while.

‘Sudden Attack’ also saw a sharp usage rise. Beyond a slate of online/offline anniversary events, its GETO-partner PC café free-play day and café-exclusive perks drew strong response. As a result, it posted a 48.6% WoW uptick and, per THE LOG, reclaimed 4th place—back into the Top 5.

In the lower tier, ‘Black Desert’ added a new region, “Demon Realm: Edania,” on the 20th, nudging weekly hours up 5.6%. It jumped six spots to No. 24. With a second phase of the update slated for September, short-term PC café usage is likely to keep ticking up.

Today’s Steam trend pick — Last Epoch

Topping this week’s trending list is Eleventh Hour Games’ ‘Last Epoch.’ After hovering around a modest few thousand peak concurrents, the game roared back to life with the Aug 22 launch of Season 3, “Beneath Ancient Skies,” surging past 70,000 peak players at prime time on day one. The update’s core is twofold: a new Chapter 10 for the main story, and a new PvE system, Primal Hunt. Players discover rifts scattered across maps, travel through them to the Ancient Era, and clear caves culminating in a boss ‘Rift Beast.’ Defeating it yields Primordial Materials, which can be traded or crafted into ultra-powerful Primordial Items that include effects like +levels to all skills—or even letting you summon a T-Rex. With a fresh campaign chapter plus a replayable endgame loop, ‘Last Epoch’ suddenly offers a lot to do; expect its momentum to stick around for a while.

‘Hollow Knight’ rides the Silksong halo

One of the biggest talking points at this Gamescom has to be ‘Hollow Knight: Silksong.’ After years of silence and missed showings, Team Cherry finally locked in a date—September 4—and brought a hands-on build to the show floor. In the wake of that reveal, the original ‘Hollow Knight’ is enjoying an unexpected resurgence. With just about two weeks to go until ‘Silksong,’ it’s a great time to revisit the first game before diving into the sequel.

‘Deadlock’ rebounds on a meaty update

Valve’s ‘Deadlock’—a closed, limited-access hero-shooter/MOBA hybrid that stunned last year by peaking at 170,000 concurrents—just returned with a genuinely substantial update: six new heroes (rolling out on a staggered schedule), a new pre-match social hub called the Hideout, and a refreshed character-select experience. The drought-breaking patch has tempted lapsed testers back; over the weekend it even pushed past 50,000 concurrent players. There’s still plenty left to polish, but if you’ve been away, now’s an ideal time to hop back in.

‘Mabinogi Mobile’ jumps to No. 6 on Google Play with guild airships and a large-scale update

After briefly slipping out of the Top 10, ‘Mabinogi Mobile’ rocketed back last week on the strength of a major update, landing at No. 6 on Google Play revenue. A new Hero Buff combat effect has been added, class-specialized Assists bolster builds, and the headline feature—Guild Airships—lets guildmates pool resources to build and outfit a ship, in a way that’s quintessentially ‘Mabinogi.’ Early reception has been positive.

This article was translated from the original that appeared on INVEN.