The MMORPG year 2025 not only continues the long drought period of the genre, but also buries a prominent part of the future of online role-playing games. MeinMMO looks back at the past 12 months.
When I looked ahead to the MMORPG year 2025 in December 2024, I was filled with hope. There were new MMORPGs (Throne and Liberty and Tarisland), exciting early access titles with potential (like Pax Dei or Corepunk), and extensive expansions for all major genre representatives.
Even more importantly: The delays and a cancellation promised a strong MMORPG year 2025, with potential new releases like Chrono Odyssey, Aion 2, and Blue Protocol: Star Resonance. Additionally, several games wanted to leave their early access. And on the list of MMORPGs of the future, there were more Western large projects than in many years.
A genre dismantles itself
One year later, hardly any of that optimism remains. On the contrary! Although the drought phase for fans of online role-playing games has been ongoing since 2015 and there have been many underwhelming years since then, 2025 is likely to go down in history as the worst MMORPG year of all time.
Many of the games that launched disappointed. The biggest hopes for 2025 didn’t even dare to emerge from development. And then, several of the most prominent projects of the foreseeable future went over the metaphorical plank to make themselves comfortable on the bottom of the MMO graveyard.
What remains is a pile of shattered pieces from a genre mainly kept alive by the established giants that have been online for decades. Fortunately, there are still a few MMORPGs with big ambitions that allow fans to look ahead to 2026 and beyond with a bit of remaining hope.
An MMORPG year with many casualties
In every year, there are a few unsuccessful MMORPGs that get shut down. In 2025, fans had to say goodbye to the following 5 games:
- from the PC and mobile MMORPG Tarisland by Tencent, which had only launched in 2024
- from the PC and console MMORPG Skyforge, which even had Obsidian Entertainment (Grounded 2, The Outer Worlds 2, Avowed) involved
- from the Free2Play MMORPG MapleStory 2 by Nexon, which could never step out of the shadow of its popular predecessor
- from the crypto MMORPG Ember Sword, which ran out of money in early access, even though revenues had been generated from selling houses
- from the anime MMORPG Gran Saga, which reportedly cost 25 million dollars, but had to go offline after just 4 months
However, the most shocking news came from the end of an MMORPG that will still be online for some time: I mean New World, of course. The announcement of the switch to maintenance mode came at the worst possible time. After all, the freshly launched Season 10 had just caused a positive trend reversal.
The layoffs at Amazon Game Studios, which coincided with the end of New World, could also have buried the Lord of the Rings MMORPG. At least that’s what the news from an affected developer suggested.
There were also significant layoffs in 2025 at Microsoft’s gaming division or Zenimax. One victim of the cuts was the MMORPG with the code name “Blackbird”, which the creators of Elder Scrolls Online had reportedly been working on for 7 years.
Two other ambitious MMORPG projects from the USA have also suffered due to a strategic shift at the Chinese publisher NetEase. The responsible parties cut back on their Western investments. Affected were, among others, the new Warhammer MMORPG, which was to be developed by Jackalyptic Games, and Project Ghost from former WoW lead Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street.
Although experienced veterans were behind both productions and noticeable progress was made during the development, the studios failed to find alternative investors for their respective projects. Cost-cutting measures ultimately led to the cancellation of the nearly finished Perfect New World, a quasi-successor to Perfect World from 2006.
Within a year, the list of ambitious or notable MMORPG projects coming from the West has halved. Now only the online role-playing game for League of Legends, Guild Wars 3, a new EverQuest, Ashes of Creation, and – with some exceptions – Stars Reach from industry veteran Raph Koster remain on that list.
– After a difficult beta, Chrono Odyssey does the only right thing, postponing to 2026
– The new MMORPG ArcheAge Chronicles fully focuses on PvE, wants to wait another year to release, even though it is fully developed
From mediocre to disaster – highlights are lacking
By August 2025, there were 9 fresh MMORPG launches, but the quality of the newcomers was so underwhelming that they ended up in the ranking of shame, admittedly a bit unfairly – the one-eyed man among the blind was the “magicpunk MMO action RPG” Crystal of Atlan, which at least scores with its fast battles.
BitCraft Online, despite its charming Zelda-style, fell short of expectations; the gameplay loop in crafting and leveling is too dull and grindy. Embers Adrift, on the other hand, frustrated some players with its solo-unfriendliness, tedious progression, and tough entry.
Then there was the surprising comeback of Defiance, which was already a rather generic, mediocre MMORPG in its prime. It didn’t help that the new operators first had to delve into the poorly documented technical foundation of the game – the launch was correspondingly rocky.
Many problems also arose at the launch of The Quinfall, which with its ambitious promises and delivered quality recalls total failures like The Day Before. The trio of Blade & Soul NEO, ODIN: Valhalla Rising, and 4Story: The Original collectively carries a large sign with a purchase or play warning – due to aggressive monetization or technical problems.
The Ship of Heroes, which was released after the ranking, fits perfectly into the ranking of shame with its problematic launch. Following short-term delays due to issues with the approval process by Steam, there was trouble over the payment model (mandatory subscription) and too few players to realize raids, for example.
There were also complaints about the payment model at Pax Dei, which initially only wanted to offer players a plot of land with a home if they had a subscription. However, since a lot has happened since the early access launch and Pax Dei possesses strengths such as great graphics, I had some fun during my re-visit.
Finally, the global launch of Blue Protocol: Star Resonance was also mixed. Although the MMORPG managed to excite colleague Cedric for a while, it also launched with many potential irritants. The Steam ratings (only 52 percent positive) and the sharp decline in player numbers (from nearly 100,000 simultaneous players on Steam down to 7,500, via steamdb.info) tell a clear story.
Diverse small releases and early access starts like those from Realm of Simplicity, Winds of Valen, Halmgaard, or Reign of Guilds were simply irrelevant to most genre fans. What this year lacked was a highlight that could positively stand out from the mass of releases.
Where are the positive news?
This year, there were only a few doses of positive news. At least 2 MMORPGs could be happy about securing their funding until the final release:
- The future of the PvE MMORPG Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen on Steam is secured, receiving funding in the millions
- The new MMORPG Stars Reach is already in alpha, raising over 1.5 million dollars again
Excitingly, in a positive way, was also the first gameplay of the Horizon MMORPG from NCsoft and Guerrilla Games, reminiscent of a mix of the Horizon games and Monster Hunter. Only the design of the generic characters dampens the anticipation.
And then, among the established titles, there were some successes to report this year:
- The new expansion for Guild Wars 2 attracts more players than ever on Steam
- How many players does WoW have? New data says: more than ever before
- In EVE Online, there are more players than in years, and revenue is at its highest since 2018.
- Ashes of Creation started early access on Steam in December, giving more players the opportunity to accompany the ambitious project until its final launch at a lower price.
- While Throne and Liberty was not a mega success, it brought in enough money to serve as a model for future NCsoft games regarding the payment model.
- 33 new worlds are not enough to catch the boom of the 12-year-old MMORPG RuneScape; more are needed.
Finally, there is this fascinating and remarkable Where Winds Meet, which classifies itself as an open-world RPG but offers an optional MMORPG mode. Yes, it is quite simple and limited, not a direct replacement for the single-player mode.
Nevertheless, we might see a possible future of the MMORPG genre here due to the tremendous success of the RPG (even if I hope that this won’t be the only offering for genre enthusiasts).
What will 2026 bring?
At least: The difficult year 2025 could potentially have positive effects on the upcoming MMORPG year 2026. Thanks to some delays, we now expect 3 ambitious MMORPGs from Asia that want to address the global market more strongly: Aion 2, ArcheAge Chronicles, and Chrono Odyssey.
Surely genre representatives like Ashes of Creation, Stars Reach, or Monsters & Memories will continue to make noticeable progress and move towards their respective final launches. An overview of all these games can be found here: MMORPGs 2026 – The 8 most promising online role-playing games set to release next year
