Now there is a challenger for its crown: Aion, created by the South Korean company NCSoft. The game had already been ordered by more than 400,000 players across Europe and North America before its launch in Britain yesterday.

Like World of Warcraft, Aion gives players the chance to immerse themselves in a fantasy world alongside thousands of other people. Its unique hook is that each character in the world of Atreia is a winged, angelic warrior who can engage in combat with monsters or other players.

Even more dramatic than those battles, however, is the battle between NCSoft itself and its arch rival — Blizzard Entertainment, the creator of World of Warcraft.

With 11.5 million subscribers around the world, World of Warcraft has secured Blizzard as the most profitable and influential company in the rapidly growing online games market.

NCSoft, however, is far from being an upstart challenger to the throne. The Seoul-based company was one of the pioneers of online videogames, launching titles such as Lineage and Lineage II, which, at their peak, boasted more than four million subscribers and helped to create the thriving market for online games across the Far East.

With Aion, NCSoft hopes to regain at least some of its former prestige as the industry’s top dog. The early signs are positive — not only had 400,000 players signed up before Aion had even been launched but they were so keen to get online that they flooded the service, causing queues of more than an hour to access the game.