Fraser Brown
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It can be easy to get a bit down about the state of the MMO genre these days. I’ve been guilty of it myself, and for good reason—big swings and big successes have been increasingly rare. But while the golden age of MMOs, when countless developers were experimenting in what was still a novel space, is long behind us, 2024 ended up being a surprisingly lively year.
So much so that it would be impossible for me to catch you up on everything that’s been going on. Instead, I’ve plucked out some of the biggest moments, good and bad, that reveal a genre that’s still full of energy.
World of Warcraft took us underground
The big ‘un had a busy 12 months, mainly thanks to the launch of The War Within, the first part of a trilogy of expansions. Adventurers spent most of the expansion underground, in some of the most impressive locations that Blizzard’s designed across the MMO’s venerable history. Big stakes, striking maps, hero talents that leaned into each class fantasy, and significant changes to how alts are handled all lead to The War Within feeling like a great step in the right direction—though as a fan of Dragonflight, I feel like WoW’s course correction started happening a while back.
Of course, the year hasn’t been without its drama. Mists of Pandaria Remix got off to a rough start after Blizzard changed how the item that granted players most of their power worked at launch, when it had previously been a lot more effective in the PTR. Then it clamped down on some exploits, leaving some players seriously overpowered while others were stuck in a very long grind. Eventually things evened out, though, and after some more fixes it ended up being one of WoW’s greatest experiments.
2024 also marked WoW’s 20th anniversary, culminating in a big event that was ostensibly meant to celebrate the MMO’s storied history. But, as contributor Heather Newman put it, the event ended up being a disappointing grind. It’s a shame to end the year on such a note, but overall this was undeniably a strong 12 months for the 20-year-old MMO, and there are some very exciting things coming in the future.
Final Fantasy 14 saved Square Enix
Even before Final Fantasy 14’s Dawntrail expansion was taken into account, its success was propping up Square Enix, which has been churning out quite a lot of games that haven’t met the company’s profit expectations—in particular Final Fantasy 16, which had two shots at success, first on PS5, and then on PC a year later, but failed to make a splash. Stalwart Final Fantasy 14, though, has just been going from strength to strength.
On the subject of Dawntrail, launching around the same time as The War Within was a big risk, but that doesn’t seem to have slowed the MMO down. I’m nowhere near hitting that point in the game yet, after only just getting back into A Realm Reborn a few months ago, but in our 80% Dawntrail review contributor Daniel Lucas said “a rich world and amazing dungeon design more than make up for dips in the story”.
Dawntrail also gave us a substantial graphics overhaul, affecting all of Eorzea, allowing FF14 to continue its reign as the prettiest MMO.
But for veterans, the strict update cadence and the often conservative form these updates take has made FF14 a bit predictable. As Harvey put it, FF14 “hasn’t been able to grow its team or up its game because, well, it’s the only thing keeping the rest of Square Enix afloat”. It needs to be able to take some bigger swings, but for that to happen Square Enix is probably going to need to release some games that more people want to play.
New World became New World: Aeternum
In an attempt to try and recapture some of the excitement and massive player numbers New World enjoyed at launch a couple of years ago, Amazon decided to relaunch it as New World: Aeternum, to coincide with its arrival on consoles. Unfortunately, it also confused just about everybody by not being remotely clear in regards to what, exactly, New World: Aeternum actually was.
When Amazon initially briefed me on the relaunch, it described Aeternum as a mix of remaster, remake and spiritual successor that would exist alongside the original game. That was confusing enough, but then it made an official announcement that pitched the game as an ARPG, not once mentioning the word “MMO”, implying an even more dramatic change.
Most of it turned out to be nonsense. New World: Aeternum is simply New World, but with some tweaks. It’s possible to play through the entire campaign solo, but it is no less of an MMO. And the remake/spiritual successor stuff was just not true. It’s at best a remaster, but even that’s pushing it. The Angry Earth expansion brought about far more changes than Aeternum, which ends up feeling more like a decent-sized update. That’s it.
On PC, this not-entirely-accurate portrayal was successful in getting more players back in, but nowhere near the amount it saw at launch the first time around. Instead of a million colonisers running around in the woods, it managed to get up to just over 50k concurrents. Since October, though, the number has fallen back to 20k, which is where it was before Aeternum arrived. Not exactly a victory.
Once Human turned Control into an MMO
Once Human’s relative success is slightly bittersweet. It’s nice to see a brand new MMO finding a playerbase, but at the same time it’s kind of a bummer because it’s also another post-apocalyptic survival game—just one that sticks a lot of people on the same map and gets them to build bases that don’t remotely match the game’s aesthetic. I didn’t find it to be an especially noteworthy survival game, either, as it leans more into the crafting side than anything else, and does so in a way that feels pretty standard, though I did enjoy the Control vibe.
Contributor Heather Newman enjoyed it a lot more, though, calling it a “deep, surprisingly sticky, truly free-to-play mashup of what you like from a bunch of other survival MMOs” in her 84% Once Human review.
Once Human does highlight that it’s probably easier to release an MMO these days if you’re also jumping on existing trends. Despite the fact that a big new survival game seems to come out every couple of months, the appetite for them shows no signs of dwindling, and the mechanics of survival games jive pretty well with MMOs.
Guild Wars 2 made us homeowners
While Guild Wars 2 players have technically been on the real estate ladder for a long time, there’s not much to do with the bog standard, identical homes we all get. It’s a bit like renting. That changed with this year’s Janthir Wilds expansion, which introduced homesteading, an extension of the customisation-heavy guild halls that my guild has been having a lot of fun with over the years.
Since last year’s Secrets of the Obscure, ArenaNet has been feeding us with more regularity, swapping the sporadic expansion cycle for regular expansions every year, which it then fleshes out through smaller regular updates. The result is a smaller amount of new things per drop, but at a cadence that’s a lot more frequent. Secrets of the Obscure saw ArenaNet making some missteps as it adapted to the new routine, but Janthir Wilds has been a lot more smooth.
November’s update also included the first new raid in five years, rather than doing the traditional thing of just expanding the already-gargantuan world map. This move was a bit of a risk, given that Guild Wars 2’s playerbase is not exactly full of raiders. But it also showed that ArenaNet was keen to explore the different sides of the game and move outside of its comfort zone. To make it slightly less of a gamble, the raid map and the enemies are also used outside of the raid itself, in both a 50-player event and the update’s story, so even the more casual players were able to get something new to nibble on.
Star Wars: The Old Republic adapted to life under a new developer
Despite my fear that BioWare handing over the reins to Broadsword heralded the beginning of SWTOR’s march into maintenance mode, the developer switch hasn’t really changed much about the MMO. This is not to say that it hasn’t been growing, it’s just been doing so in a way that it probably would have if BioWare hadn’t left the game to instead focus on Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
Broadsword has continued working on the ongoing story of a Mandalorian maniac, and it’s now started a modernisation project. Several worlds have been given subtle graphical upgrades and dynamic quests—not unlike Guild Wars 2’s—and character models have similarly been tweaked. The latter hasn’t gone off without a hitch, though, introducing some weird quirks that make characters look a bit weird, sometimes to the point where they resemble walking corpses.
Fixes are underway, at least, and there’s good reason to be positive about the direction. Broadsword is clearly not content with just keeping things running and maintaining the flow of MTX and subscription fees. It’s making an effort not just to add to the game, but to dust off some of the cobwebs too. I’ve been playing off and on since launch, and while I’m not as enthusiastic about the MMO as I once was, I’ve resubbed and still feel like I’m getting my money’s worth.
Throne and Liberty finally launched after 13 years
It’s strange to imagine that plenty of folk have been waiting for Throne and Liberty for over a decade. Initially billed as a sequel to NCSoft’s Lineage, and originally known as Lineage Eternal, it suffered a slew of delays, changes in the development team, and multiple rebrandings, before finally launching in South Korea in 2023, and globally in 2024. I’m not convinced that anything is worth that wait, but certainly not Throne and Liberty.
Look, it’s fine. I’m not really a big F2P Korean MMO guy, but even with that in mind I find the grind and business model to be gratuitously awful here. Oh yeah, and it’s a localisation disaster. Which is a shame, because boy is it fun to murder monsters. The fast-paced, flashy combat system lets you seamlessly switch between two weapons, dramatically changing your abilities, and the whole thing just feels so wonderfully effortless.
But this wasn’t enough to bring me back after launch, which was a nightmare thanks to the insurmountable lag. Things have improved since then, granted, but performance continues to be an issue. Still, it’s remained reasonably popular on Steam, where it manages to bring in 70k concurrents.
While Lineage was of course one of the most important early MMOs—especially in Korea—Throne and Liberty still feels like a pretty niche proposition, given the massive grind and the focus on PvP. So for it to be doing pretty well is a reminder that there’s still a hunger for MMOs—even the ones that aren’t very good.
City of Heroes was officially resurrected
This is wild, honestly. City of Heroes, the greatest of the admittedly small number of superhero MMOs, was tragically killed off by NCSoft back in 2012. That should have been the end of the story, but thanks to diligent fans it was given a new chapter.
In 2019, the distribution of the source code allowed various teams to unofficially resurrect the MMO, keeping it alive for those players who still remembered it. I recall following some of them and considered jumping back in, but the unofficial status stopped me from returning to my old stomping grounds. I didn’t want to get invested again only for them to die a second death.
But this year, something unprecedented happened: NCSoft granted the official license to one group of fan developers, making City of Heroes: Homecoming the unambiguous, completely-above-board, official City of Heroes. This inspired me to return, and oh boy, the nostalgia. The team has proved itself as a fantastic custodian over the years, and while it’s lacking in a lot of modern conveniences, it’s still a game bursting with flavour and creativity.
And the rest
This year also saw The Elder Scrolls Online get a (poorly received) expansion, Gold Road. I’ve actually started dabbling in it again for the first time in years, but I’ve not touched the new expansion yet, which judging by the player reception has been a bit of a dud. Meanwhile, Bethesda’s other MMO (I’d personally argue that it isn’t really an MMO, but the consensus seems to be that it is) Fallout 76 has been enjoying a boost in popularity thanks to the Fallout TV show, and is poised for a very exciting 2025, featuring playable ghouls.
Amazon-published MMOARPG Lost Ark has been having a rough time of things, unfortunately. After a strong launch in 2022, and a few population bumps since then, its popularity has been trending downwards, culminating in a significant dip in player numbers this summer, which it’s yet to recover from.
RuneScape designer Andrew Gower released his new F2P MMO in early access this year, Brighter Shores. Lincoln found it to be “obsessively devoted” to grinding, “with little interest in the world surrounding it”, but it’s been fairly well received on Steam, though only has a small number of players. It’s going to have an uphill struggle convincing the RuneScape vets to leave either RS or OSRS behind for something so similar.
So there have been plenty of ups, as well as some downs, but broadly it feels like MMOs are just in a really strong place, even as they face steep competition from the growing number of alternative live service games. Pity me, though, as a man who seems to be incapable of only playing one of them. I’m never going to be able to escape my MMO-shaped prison, it seems.