Who would have thought this a few months ago? The MMORPG genre suddenly looks forward to an exciting future again, and we don’t have to wait long for some highlights. MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz celebrates what’s happening in online role-playing games right now.
The MMORPG genre is reflecting on perhaps the worst years in its history, especially 2025 was disastrous. Rarely have so many large, exciting, and well-known projects landed on the graveyard of failed developments in such a short time. I just mention: Project Blackbird from Zenimax, Project Ghost from Greg Street, the Warhammer MMORPG from Jack Emmert, or the Lord of the Rings MMORPG from Amazon Games.
On the list of upcoming online role-playing games, there were suddenly almost only Asian representatives, which always have it pretty tough here in the West, a LoL MMORPG that is still a long way off, as well as a new EverQuest and a Guild Wars 3, about which very little was known at the time.
A few months later, the wind has noticeably turned. With Aion 2, the largest theme park MMORPG with a PvE focus in years is celebrating a strong launch. Several very exciting launches are expected in the coming months. Our factual situation regarding Guild Wars 3 is quite different. And now a studio from England has also announced a new online role-playing game for a historically significant franchise.
Let’s go through the individual points that give me so much hope for the future of MMORPGs…
If Jagex makes a new MMORPG, genre fans should cheer…
Jagex has announced RuneScape 4. This is great news, even for those who can’t relate to RuneScape and Old School RuneScape. After all, we are talking about one of the very few Western studios that have had the courage to develop a new, ambitious MMORPG in the past 11 years. Jagex taking this step is a great sign!
And Jagex is not just any studio. The English have been making online role-playing games for 27 years, and although their two current titles don’t look very contemporary (but rather old), they are still managing to achieve strong successes in 2026. While other MMORPGs are struggling with declining player counts and have difficulty attracting new players to their servers, Jagex seems to have found the holy grail right here:
- Old School RuneScape can continuously set new milestones for its active player counts – for example, in April 2026, there were an impressive 250,000 players simultaneously on the servers.
- About 50 percent of the currently active community of Old School RuneScape is said to have joined the RuneScape franchise in the last 5 years.
About one million active subscribers Old School RuneScape currently has. An impressive number, especially when considering the age of RuneScape. They can now invest this financial success into a modern RuneScape 4 without having to fear that any investor will turn off the money tap or that a publisher will exert pressure regarding the payment model. It couldn’t be better!
More about the MMORPG genre can also be found on the YouTube channel of MeinMMO. There we discuss, for example, the anticipation for WoW Forever in a video:
Finally MMORPGs for everyone!
In the past weeks and months, much more has happened that has made me look very positively at my favorite genre. At the forefront, of course, is the announcement of WoW: Forever, which will surely keep me busy for a while starting in November.
Many fans of Azeroth have been waiting for such a WoW Classic Plus for many years and the beta already hints at how great it could be. Why? Well, because there are hardly any MMORPGs of this type with a focus on the leveling phase and the social interaction.
We also finally learned some concrete information at and after gamescom about Guild Wars 3. ArenaNet has already proven twice that they can create great online role-playing games. Whether the new MMO-lite approach will appeal to everyone in the end, I don’t know. But I am sure that the game can only succeed. The beta is scheduled for next year, and I am as curious as ever.
Much earlier, namely from October 19, anyone interested can try ArcheAge Chronicles for a week on Steam. Although it differs significantly from its predecessor, it could be exciting for many genre fans with its stronger focus on story and PvE content for solo players and small groups. Early access is expected to start later this year.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Riot has been working on its LoL MMORPG for many years and has at least theoretically the prerequisites to establish a massive AAA theme park. Next year, Chrono Odyssey is set to debut as an exciting MMO, which has taken the pleasant time since the beta to address the many issues from the testing phase. The potential is there.
I could also point out an Honor of Kings: World that I enjoyed in the beta in May. But also many other projects, small ones like Apogea, Drakantos, or Hana, that fly under the radar.
Or on the many still very active MMO-Oldies that constantly receive new content updates and with which you can easily pass the waiting time for upcoming releases. And of course on an Aion 2, which due to its peculiarities may not appeal to all theme park fans, but is a feast for fans of Asian grinders.
Long story short: The future finally looks bright again and there should be something for every MMO type. Who would have thought this a few months ago? Not me. Feel free to let me know in the comments if you feel the same way! By the way, some of the MMO hidden gems of the foreseeable future were discussed in this article: 6 upcoming MMORPGs on Steam that could be really good but nobody is currently talking about
Your opinion is important to us!
Do you like the article? Then let us know!