Although there were hardly any launches of new, ambitious MMORPGs in 2024, every major online role-playing game received a new expansion. From WoW: The War Within to Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds – how do the addons perform? The answer is provided by the Power Ranking of MeinMMO.
The year 2024 has been and continues to be quite exciting for fans of MMORPGs. Although there were only comparatively few releases of new, ambitious online role-playing games – such as Tarisland or most recently Throne and Liberty – all the genre giants received a fresh expansion:
- June 3, 2024: The Chapter Gold Road for The Elder Scrolls Online
- July 2, 2024: Release of the expansion Dawntrail for Final Fantasy XIV
- August 20, 2024: The expansion Janthir Wilds for Guild Wars 2 is released
- August 26, 2024: With The War Within starts the World Soul Saga of World of Warcraft
- September 12, 2024: Land of the Morning Light: Seoul comes for Black Desert
As this has never existed in this form before, we take the opportunity to pit the mentioned five expansions against each other in a Power Ranking. Which addon impressed the most?
You have chosen – the best MMORPGs of all time for PC and console:
Criteria for the Power Ranking
Aside from a subjective assessment, there is unfortunately no evaluation basis that fits all five MMORPGs. While WoW: The War Within, Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road, and Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, for example, are available on Metacritic, there is not even an entry for the new expansions of Guild Wars 2 and Black Desert.
On Steam, however, World of Warcraft continues to be scarce, whereas the other four MMORPGs have been able to gather many new reviews in recent weeks and months. Since there are also no official player or sales figures, we rely on a mix of all factors that we put into a pot as a basis for the Power Ranking.
Rank 5: Black Desert: Land of the Morning Light – Seoul
- Metacritic Score: –
- Steam Reviews (Overall): “Mostly positive”, with 75 percent positive reviews
- Steam Reviews (last 30 days): “Balanced”, with 61 percent positive reviews
Although there have been noticeable changes in Black Desert since its launch, its strengths and weaknesses remain similar. The combat system is great, the graphics are pretty, and the life skills are motivating. However, you can expect a lot of grind, Pay2Win elements, and unbalanced PvP.
The trailer for the new expansion of Black Desert:
There was also a lot of frustration when developer Pearl Abyss separated from publisher Kakao Games. Many players lost their completed microtransactions or characters because of this. None of this criticism can be alleviated by the free Land of the Morning Light – Seoul, especially since the expansion is aimed more at veterans.
New heroes were given an alternative starting point with the previous addon Land of the Morning Light as well as the first version of boss fights in the so-called “Boss Blitz” mode.
Rank 4: The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road
- Metacritic Score: 77 / User Score: 4.3
- Steam Reviews (Overall): “Very positive”, with 83 percent positive reviews
- Steam Reviews (last 30 days): “Mostly positive”, with 76 percent positive reviews
The new chapter of The Elder Scrolls Online had a rather difficult start. Even before the launch, visitors from the public test server were annoyed that the Westmarch would be too small compared to the regions of other chapters.
The launch trailer for Elder Scrolls Online – Gold Road:
Even more serious was the feedback on the new system of scriptural studies, which allows you to customize skills from various skill lines to your individual needs. However, since only the Tamriel heroes who possess Gold Road have access to the new skills, the accusation of Pay2Win arose.
On the other hand, the developers have succeeded in transporting the Gold Road known from Oblivion and the city of Skingrad into a modern guise, providing a feeling of “familiar, yet just different enough”.
Ultimately, many Tamriel heroes wish that Zenimax breaks out of the fixed chapter framework of recent years and offers more surprises and fresh player experiences in the future. Gold Road feels too much like “more of the same” in a new region.
On the next page we continue with ranks three to one of our Power Ranking.
- 1
- 2
