MMORPGs experienced a huge hype in the early 2000s, thanks to WoW. For many years, countless new games emerged, wanting a piece of the big MMO pie. While MMORPGs are still popular, they are no longer as dominant on PC. Nevertheless, MMORPGs were among the most successful gaming genres in 2021 – thanks to smartphones.
How successful are MMORPGs? When looking only at the PC and console market, action, sports, and adventure games dominate. Role-playing games and even MMORPGs are often found in the middle of many lists. Overall, all PC and console games generated a revenue of about 82 billion Euros in 2021 (via Newzoo).
In contrast, there was a small surprise in mobile games in 2021. The second most successful genre – based on revenue – is mobile MMORPGs, with nearly 8 billion Euros in revenue (via Data.ai). They showed significant growth. For comparison:
- With the 8 billion Euros, they alone account for almost 1/10 of the revenue of all PC and console games.
- This corresponds to about the revenue that Activision Blizzard King made in 2021.
- The three MMORPGs Guild Wars 2, Aion, and Blade & Soul reached a combined global revenue of nearly 300 million Euros – 3.75% of the mobile MMORPGs.
However, many classic PC fans wouldn’t even touch those mobile MMORPGs that generate particularly high revenues.
Mobile MMORPGs are not the most popular, but the most lucrative games
What are the dominant mobile MMORPGs? Some big revenue generators include games like:
- Lineage W – the third mobile installment of Lineage reportedly made 9 million Euros daily in its first weeks. It relies on autoplay and pay-to-win mechanics and is similar to Lineage 2M, which we played extensively.
- Odin: Valhalla Rising – the Viking MMORPG from Kakao Games made over 11 million Euros just after 2 days. Here too, there is criticism for pay-to-win, especially regarding the graphics, which have little to do with Vikings.
- Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds – Although this mobile MMORPG only launched in 2022 in our region, it has been running in other countries since summer 2021. In the first 10 days after release, it made nearly 100 million Euros. The game was criticized for bots, pay-to-win, and autoplay.
What stands out? If you look at the statistics of the mobile games that were downloaded the most in 2021, none of them appear in the global top 10. Here, casual games like Hair Challenge or racing games like Bridge Race and High Heels dominate.
Looking at the most downloaded mobile games at all, you’ll find titles like PUBG Mobile, the free-to-play shooter Garena Free Fire, or Pokémon GO. The most monthly users are also from Roblox, Candy Crush, and Coin Master.
No MMORPGs are visible in these statistics either.
Mobile MMORPGs are not necessarily the most popular games, but they manage to monetize their content in a way that many players spend money on them. Often, this is associated with pay-to-win mechanics.
A disappointment in this context was also Diablo Immortal from Blizzard. There, you have to spend more than 500,000 Euros to get the best equipment, as recent findings show.
The negative impacts this shop has on gaming in general have been discussed by Leya and Schuhmann in the latest podcast:
Are there glimmers of hope? Sort of. In our list of the best mobile MMORPGs for Android and iOS, you’ll find games that are also available on PC and later received a mobile version. These include RuneScape or Albion Online. These do not feature pay-to-win mechanics.
Additionally, there are some MMORPGs that launch simultaneously for PC and mobile and also avoid pay-to-win models. A prominent example is Tower of Fantasy, which resembles Genshin Impact:
Tower of Fantasy is the MMORPG that Genshin Impact was supposed to be
