An MMORPG with 89% on Metacritic has taken off on Steam this Easter, 20 years post-release

Twenty years ago, the first Guild Wars was released. To celebrate the anniversary, which falls around Easter, the player counts on Steam are skyrocketing again.

What kind of game is this? Guild Wars is an online role-playing game developed by ArenaNet, released on April 26, 2005. On Metacritic, Guild Wars has a metascore of 89/100 points. The user score for the game is also very good at 8.2/10 points. This game was followed by several expansions and a sequel in 2012.

Here you see a trailer for the Guild Wars expansion “Eye of the North”:

Guild Wars hasn’t had this many players on Steam in a long time

The first Guild Wars is still supported by the developers: Therefore, there is also a special event celebrating the 20th anniversary. For many players, this is a reason to take another look at the game: 

• Guild Wars can be played not only through its own launcher but also through Steam – however, only about 200 people were playing simultaneously there in recent years. (via steamdb.info)
• Since April 15, player counts have surged significantly: the game has now reached a new peak of almost 700 simultaneous players on Steam.

Thus, Guild Wars does not break the player record from 2011 – back then, there were about 1,300 simultaneous players on Steam in July. Nevertheless, this represents a significant increase compared to previous years.

The anniversary celebration takes place in the monastery of Shing Jea as well as in outposts across Tyria: Talk to Captain Li Sah to participate in a game of dodgeball in the dragon arena. Alternatively, you can approach the beetle trainer to try your luck at the beetle race.

During the celebration, there are special items to collect and a new ranger animal companion, Balthazar’s hunting dog. To get the latter, speak with Ceira, the fire sworn.

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The festivities for the 20th anniversary began on April 15, 2025, and will run until May 6. The anniversary celebration is a separate event and will start on April 22, but will also continue until May 6.

Have you already participated in the celebrations for 20 years of Guild Wars? Feel free to share your impressions in the comments. If you’re new to the MMORPG genre, the Guild Wars series is a great place to start: Guild Wars 2 is one of the 5 best MMORPGs for newcomers.