Players travel the "Maple World", defeating monsters and developing their characters' skills and abilities as is typical in role-playing video games.
Groups of players can band together in parties to hunt monsters and share rewards, and can also form guilds to interact more easily with each other.
Players additionally have the option to visit the in-game "Cash Shop" to purchase a variety of character appearances or gameplay enhancements with real money.
As of 2020, MapleStory has reached over 180 million registered users worldwide and grossed over $3 billion in lifetime revenue.
After the Black Mage broke free of his seal, Cygnus created the Maple Alliance, which banded together the free-spirited Explorers, the Cygnus Knights, the Resistance against the Black Wings, the six Heroes of Maple, and several brave adventurers from other worlds.
Soon after, the Black Mage created a dimension called the Arcane River in an attempt to destroy the world and recreate it in his image.
The antagonist of Grandis, Gerand Darmoor, believed that his race, the High Flora, was superior to all others, and so he sought to remake all life in his image.
The players combat monsters and complete quests, in the process acquiring in-game currency called "Mesos", experience points, and various items.
[27] Players have a variety of options when interacting with others online: they can form parties where loot and experience are distributed from a monster;[28] in-game marriages where the game will recognize the two players as a heterosexual couple;[29] guilds which is indicated with a guild's name listed under their character name;[30] or families, an architecture gathering of juniors and seniors.
Recently, Korea Maple Story (KMS)'s artifact update was completed and is receiving a lot of attention.
The ability to transfer entire characters between worlds was added in December 2007 to Global MapleStory, with restrictions placed on items.
The Hero classes are characters with background stories related to the antagonist of the game, the Black Mage.
[49] The characters created under the Resistance branch begin as Citizens and have four available job advancements: Battle Mage, Wild Hunter, Blaster and Mechanic.
A Battle Mage uses a staff for physical attacks, a Wild Hunter rides a jaguar while wielding a crossbow, a Blaster uses an arm cannon and a Mechanic uses a robotic suit to fight.
Xenon, another separate resistance character, is a human-turned-cyborg who escaped from the Black Wings' laboratories who uses Whip Blades in combat.
Ossyria features seven distinct regions with varying environments: El Nath Mountains, Ludus Lake, Aqua Road, Minar Forest, Mu Lung Garden, Nihal Desert, and Temple of Time.
[citation needed] The music from 2006 to 2015 was composed by Studio EIM, and since 2014, official sound sources began to be released starting with FriendStory and Blockbuster: Black Heaven.
[73] S.I.D-Sound composed some music such as MapleStory 8th anniversary event in 2011, the RED theme song in 2013, and the OST for FriendStory in 2014.
[75] MapleStory was originally developed and released in South Korea and was localized to ten different regions as of 2003.
[78] An update entitled Big Bang was released in Korean MapleStory in July 2010 with other regional servers following suit soon after.
[82] An update for Master's North American server was released on March 11, 2015, entitled Black Heaven.
[84][85] In July 2022, Nexon released the Destiny: Remastered update for its North American server.
[86] Nexon released an update named 6th Job Advancement in October and November 2023, featuring new skills for all classes.
[87][88] In Global MapleStory (GMS), more than a million players bought items in the Cash Shop, by 2010.
[99] In 2024, Nexon was fined US$8.9 million for a violation of South Korea's Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce Act, allegedly for changing the appearance rate of certain items in MapleStory without notifying players.
[102] MapleStory M is a mobile game released for iOS and Android, in South Korea during October 2016 and then overseas on May 28, 2018.
The Japanese anime entitled MapleStory (メイプルストーリー, Meipuru Sutōrī) was adapted of the game and produced by Madhouse.
The North American publisher of Nexon released a MapleStory trading card game on November 6, 2007.
Nexon released a public beta of a MapleStory Adventures on July 27, 2011 as an adaptation for Facebook gaming format.