What MMO's are still popular?

[HollyCarp]

Do people still play any MMO, in appreciable numbers? Other than WoW? Or EVEN WoW?

I used to like TSW but when they rebooted and restarted the game, I wasn't willing to restart. I'd already stopped playing when I was completely unable to pass a major solo-only fight in Egypt after some FIFTY tries (yes you read that right); I had no problem with "nightmare" and some "heroic" content being simply too hard for all but the best players, but I was unwilling to play a game where the main story quest was that way. If I was paying to support the game, I expected at least the main story quest to be able to be finished (and NO, Youtube is *NOT* an acceptable substitute).

I notice TSW:L doesn't even have a sub-board here on mmo-champion, so that made me wonder if people still play the game at all, or if people are even aware it still exists. I found my way to the FunCom forum and it appears the answer is no?

I liked RIFT for a while, but I read the latest message thread there and I guess I know what the story is there.

I left WoW just before the 8.0 pre-BFA patch. I missed too much content to go back now. I'd be unequivocally expected to do it all, absolutely alone, without a shred of help lest I be accused of expecting to be catered to (I get that a lot whenever I ask, not for everyone all the time, but just SOME people, SOME of the time, so I'm not COMPLETELY alone for an entire expansion? I've never understood that, but it happens with every game I ever played). And I just won't do that. I just won't do an entire expansion without a shred of company.

Are any other MMO's still popular? I never played any of the single player Elder Scrolls games, and I wasn't that fond of the ESO beta (not to mention, it's supposed to be a pvp-heavy game, and I'm a strict PVE'er). I'm starting to wonder if the "Age of MMO's," as a whole, is winding down.

[The Butt Witch]

WoW > FFXIV > ESO.

Anything else is very niche and not worth mentioning.

[Jamie081]

Sygmar sums it up pretty well. WoW, FFXIV and ESO are the only ones with strong populations. MMOs are definitely less popular now F2P games are so successful in their drop-in drop-out gameplay, and because of their enticing cash shops.

MMOs also update much slower whereas now most games like Fortnite throw cosmetics at you like crazy. The cash shop has new skins every week, the story progresses every week, there are events that give free cosmetics, and the battle pass is ridiculously good value for money since you only have to pay for it once and can earn the value of the battlepass back by leveling one up

[Katchii]

Do people still play any MMO, in appreciable numbers? Other than WoW? Or EVEN WoW?

I used to like TSW but when they rebooted and restarted the game, I wasn't willing to restart. I'd already stopped playing when I was completely unable to pass a major solo-only fight in Egypt after some FIFTY tries (yes you read that right); I had no problem with "nightmare" and some "heroic" content being simply too hard for all but the best players, but I was unwilling to play a game where the main story quest was that way. If I was paying to support the game, I expected at least the main story quest to be able to be finished (and NO, Youtube is *NOT* an acceptable substitute).

I notice TSW:L doesn't even have a sub-board here on mmo-champion, so that made me wonder if people still play the game at all, or if people are even aware it still exists. I found my way to the FunCom forum and it appears the answer is no?

I liked RIFT for a while, but I read the latest message thread there and I guess I know what the story is there.

I left WoW just before the 8.0 pre-BFA patch. I missed too much content to go back now. I'd be unequivocally expected to do it all, absolutely alone, without a shred of help lest I be accused of expecting to be catered to (I get that a lot whenever I ask, not for everyone all the time, but just SOME people, SOME of the time, so I'm not COMPLETELY alone for an entire expansion? I've never understood that, but it happens with every game I ever played). And I just won't do that. I just won't do an entire expansion without a shred of company.

Are any other MMO's still popular? I never played any of the single player Elder Scrolls games, and I wasn't that fond of the ESO beta (not to mention, it's supposed to be a pvp-heavy game, and I'm a strict PVE'er). I'm starting to wonder if the "Age of MMO's," as a whole, is winding down.

WoW, FFXIV, ESO are really the only noteworthy ones with any real end game or MMO elements that can keep you engaged somewhat long term.

SW:ToR is still going but IMO it's nothing more than a online single player game, but it's single player leveling and story experience is pretty amazing.

Guild Wars 2 is also going, but I don't hear much about it and the single player story experience is really all I ever experience or cared about.

The "Age of MMO's" as you call it is definitely winding down, which I think is a good thing. We don't need a huge amount of WoW clones that even do a shitty job at that. The good ones stuck around and the competition culled the bad ones and showed what it takes to run a successful MMO.

The barrier for entry, so to speak, has been established now. And it's pretty damn high. Moving forward I think only companies truly invested in making a good MMO are going to try and get into the field, which can only be a good thing, because that means the new MMO's that do come out are going to be higher quality and noteworthy.

We'll have to wait and see though as there will always be companies just trying to make a "quick" buck by jumping on the band wagon.

[Uko]

The latest unofficial sub count is roughly 1 million for FFXIV and they keep announcing breaking their records for concurrent subscriber numbers lately. So it is growing nicely. ESO is also doing really well but I cant stand how much of a wallet drain the game is if you want anything that looks remotely nice because its all on their cash shop.

[Queen of Hamsters]

The age of MMOS was winding down a decade ago. Late to the party, eh?

In order of how often I hear about them:

WoW > FFXIV > ESO > GW2 > Runescape > Rift > Everquest > Archeage

[avitush]

WoW > FFXIV > ESO.

Anything else is very niche and not worth mentioning.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Some other MMO's are still "alive" (as in they're still online, you can still play them, and you might occasionally see other players), but WoW/FF14/ESO are the big 3.

[Orby]

The age of MMOS was winding down a decade ago. Late to the party, eh?

In order of how often I hear about them:

WoW > FFXIV > ESO > GW2 > Runescape > Rift > Everquest > Archeage

I nearly forgot about Rift. How is that game going these days.

[dope_danny]

They are more niche and more spread than ever. You have WoW and FFXIV as the only sub mmo's which have more than a million subscribers, ESO chugs along but isn't really growing and everything else is f2p stuff in the average 250k players or as low as 10k players and chugging along on the bare minimum of updates and profitability. Cheap, quickly produced indie games, games as a service titles and general widespread online multiplayer meant mmo's biggest selling point is no longer a novelty. Look at your average battle royale. Whens the last time you took part in a 100 person pvp match in an mmorpg for example? without the novelty its a genre that only appeals to the core enthusiast and thats a shrinking market, not a growing one so new mmos are made for the smallest serviceable audience rather than chasing WoW circa 2007 numbers.

[Calfredd]

I nearly forgot about Rift. How is that game going these days.

Slipmat no longer posts in the Rift subforum anymore if that says anything.

[dope_danny]

I nearly forgot about Rift. How is that game going these days.

Trion got bought up by Gamigo, lots of server merges, rift legacy servers shuttered and content slowed to a crawl with some dodgy cash shop stuff. Basically in full burn phase by a new owner and people dont expect it to see 2020.

[Witchblade77]

Secret world legends is still kinda stumbling along and even added some new story recently, going more into Morninglight. they also trimmed down the combat and made it level based, so its much easier to get through the story. I stopped playing original becasue I made some mistakes with my points distribution and as a result, couldn't get past story missions, and got tired of grinding for more points. reboot is more forgiving. however, population has been steadily dwinling in part becasue it took them so darn long to add anything new. if you ever wanted to see the rest of the story, its worth picking up just for that, with being f2p and all (and they integrated story packs into the main game, so its pretty seamless and works really well with the story - last train to Cairo is still one of my fave quests because Nassir is <3, even if this one section of getting through the train gave me serious Uncharted 2 deja vu)

[Kallisto]

I nearly forgot about Rift. How is that game going these days.

It went from "We're not in Azeroth anymore." to "No one is in Telara anymore."

[letssee]

OSRS is the only mmo worth playing atm till classic comes

[dacoolist]

I think quality wise: WoW, EVE, FFXIV, Runescape, GW2, ESO are the big ones I hear about

[Rathwirt]

It's like everybody forgets that EVE exists. That's still a pretty big MMO too. Lots of updates. But yeah there's not a lot out there with real numbers anymore.

[toffmcsoft]

Classic is going to beat out FF numbers within 1 month.
So the list will be Retail Wow > Classic Wow > FF

[Puupi]

All I can say is I hope Amazon delivers with the New World.

[Orby]

Slipmat no longer posts in the Rift subforum anymore if that says anything.

It went from "We're not in Azeroth anymore." to "No one is in Telara anymore."

Trion got bought up by Gamigo, lots of server merges, rift legacy servers shuttered and content slowed to a crawl with some dodgy cash shop stuff. Basically in full burn phase by a new owner and people dont expect it to see 2020.

Dayum... I remember getting into Rift beta... feels like so long ago now. Also remember all the hype around that game, I wasn't on that hype train but from what I saw of Rift I thought it was fine. I stopped playing shortly after release though. :P

[McNeil]

I don't think any MMORPG has more than 2 million subs these days. The most popular are still WoW, FFXIV and ESO with the latter 2 still growing while WoW should be stabilising.