13-year-old MMORPG benefits from the discontinuation of its successor, has never had so many players on Steam

It’s time for our MeinMMO format “MMORPG news in two minutes.” We summarize the most important news about the best genre in the world. Look forward to WoW: MoP Classic, a sign of life from Bellatores, a new player record, and much more.

The highlights of the week:

Comprehensive layoffs and cutbacks are imminent at Microsoft and Team Xbox. Zenimax is also affected: Hundreds of employees are impacted there. The new MMORPG, which was worked on for 7 years, has been canceled. And also studio head Matt Firor is leaving.
On July 2nd, the preliminary patch for WoW: Mists of Pandaria Classic went live. Included: Monks, Pandaren, the new talent system, pet battles, and more. You can find the details at blizzard.com. By the way: When Chris Metzen announced the Mists of Pandaria expansion for World of Warcraft at BlizzCon 2011, many MMORPG fans were stunned. One of the reasons: the Pandaren.
Also on July 2nd, the event “A greedy envoy” started in modern WoW, where you can expect a special buff among other things. You can find all important information at blizzard.com.
The developers of Black Desert have introduced the new class of the MMORPG. The first speculations from the community hit the mark: the Wukong is based on the Monkey King from “Journey to the West” and is available now. The update from July 2 had even more to offer. You can find the German patch notes on playblackdesert.com.
After the shutdown of MapleStory 2, the 13-year-old predecessor can celebrate a new all-time high on Steam, with 16,855 concurrent players, via steamcharts.com. As a result, the MMORPG has secured its place in our Top 10 MMORPGs with the most players on Steam.

What else has happened? MeinMMO met the well-known WoW streamer AnnieFuchsia at the TwitchCon 2025. Together with our editor and streaming expert Lydia, she talked about her love for World of Warcraft and her greatest successes in the MMORPG.

The class trailer for the Wukong from Black Desert:

Black Desert: Trailer for the new class Wukong shows furious staff action

Autoplay

Teaser hints at new class for Guild Wars 2

What happened with the big MMORPGs:

Are fans of Guild Wars 2 looking forward to the first new class in 8 years? A post from the developers on X hints at this. In about a week and a half, we will know more.
With just one button, many players in World of Warcraft are stronger than their colleagues. A whole 75% leave them behind without mastering their class.
One class in World of Warcraft is more popular than all others. No wonder, because after the rework, almost everyone wants to play it.
Newcomers are quitting World of Warcraft for being too hard. Don’t believe it? Just try it out, what’s wrong.
Rare mounts can be found in World of Warcraft a lot more frequently in just a few hours. You can find the exact details here. We will tell you which mounts you should farm now. A simple addon makes it easier for you to farm mounts. You can see at a glance what you still lack.
If World of Warcraft HC isn’t hard enough for you, you can make it even harder. But a warrior pushes all limits here.
When the chapter Gold Road brought the new writing system to The Elder Scrolls Online there was a lot of criticism. The fact that you should pay extra for the ability to create new skills did not sit well with many players. More than a year later, the developers are changing exactly that.
Additionally, the Vengeance campaign for Cyrodiil has returned in ESO. It runs until July 8, 2025, and is also available on consoles this time. You can find all details at elderscrollsonline.com.
There was also a preview of update 47 and the upcoming dungeon raids. Where? Also on elderscrollsonline.com.
Final Fantasy XIV recorded player number records with the expansions Shadowbringers and Endwalker. However, the new expansion Dawntrail is now suffering from player loss during the patch cycle and it seems that the veterans are dropping out.
The real money shop of Final Fantasy XIV is the Moogle Station, which now offers a new outfit. Players are complaining a lot about it, even though they can relatively easily build it for free in the MMORPG.
On forum.square-enix.com you can now find the German summary of Producer Letter LIVE Part 87. There you will learn more about the implementation of player feedback for Patch 7.25, cosmic exploration, and Patch 7.3 of Final Fantasy XIV.
On July 8, the MogMog collection of Final Fantasy XIV will start. The event will run until the maintenance work of Patch 7.3. What else you need to know can be found on finalfantasyxiv.com.
For New World, there was a preview of the castle map for flag capture at newworld.com and what is planned for Season 9.
From July 10 to July 31, the event Da Vinci’s Favor runs in Throne and Liberty. The event improves rewards, weapon mastery, equipment slots, and storage. It also brings bonuses for Amitoi, contracts, and dimensional coins. You can find the details at playthroneandliberty.com.
On July 1, the third part of the 2025 roadmap for Lost Ark was released. For the coming months, a new progression system, new endgame content, the Valkyrie class, and much more are planned. You can find all details on Steam.

What happened in the small MMORPGs:

In the last 30 days, an average of 10,001 players were online simultaneously – in May there were only “8,811”. It may slowly take effect that MapleStory 2 has shut down. The peak during this time is 16,855 concurrent players (source: steamcharts.com). New record! The previous all-time high was 13,831 concurrent players.
The “The Beach” event is running in RuneScape from June 30 to July 28, more information can be found at runescape.com.
On June 27, a new letter from the Executive Producer for Star Wars: The Old Republic went live. On swtor.com, Keith Kanneg provides a glimpse into the future of the MMORPG. Look forward to update 7.7.1, which will include modernizations for the Rattataki.
The events in SWTOR for the month of July can be found at swtor.com.
On June 30, the update “Abyssal Depths” for Albion Online was released, bringing the depths, the new cave of the antiquarian, and a revised game entry to the servers. You can find the official patch notes at albiononline.com.
Thomas Chance “Sodapoppin” Morris is one of the biggest streamers on Twitch and is primarily known for his content about World of Warcraft. Currently, “Soda” is playing Old School RuneScape and experiencing some special moments that many veterans of the MMORPG know.