Last year, we did a piece on what we expected our top three MMOs of 2022 to be. We’ll do that again next week, but for this week’s Massively Overthinking, I want to see if we were right! I’ve asked our writers to name their three most-played MMOs in 2022 – and whether they correctly predicted them. What were the wild cards? What games really fell off? Tell us what you played in 2022!
​Andrew Ross (@dengarsw): The truest MMO I played in 2022 was Orna, which I’m not playing super hardcore but have stuck to more than I thought I would. Most of my gaming is online/multiplayer but not strictly traditional MMOs – the biggest of those being, naturally, Pokemon GO.
For third place, it’s tough to figure this out since I often fire up my Nintendo Switch and then get sidetracked by work/emails/fact-checking a weird thing a family member heard on a bad “news” channel, but looking over my hours, I wouldn’t be surprised if Splatoon 3 were it. I would have thought Monster Hunter Rise would be in this slot since I spent a lot of time playing the base game with a friend, but she kind of dropped out early on with the expansion, so I did nearly all of it without her and then moved on. Pokemon Violet probably beat MHR this year too, though it’s tough to know how much of that was truly “online.” Overwatch 2 has basically been ignored on my PC and console, which is also surprising.
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna, blog): I knew I’d be playing Guild Wars 2 and SWG Legends a lot in 2022; it was a given. SWG Legends has become my comfort sandbox and MMO home over the last few years, and 2021 and 2022 in particular were huge for updates in the game. I’ve yet to run out of things to do. And of course, Guild Wars 2’s End of Dragons was a highlight of the year for my gameplay, although I didn’t stay long after finishing it – something that’s been a problem for me with Guild Wars 2 for a while now. Or maybe it’s not a problem. Maybe it’s perfectly fine. I go back a lot. We’re still friends.
The one I didn’t expect to spend quite so much time in was Lord of the Rings Online. I’d gone back and dabbled some in 2020 and 2021 (after not having played seriously since Lothlorien), but it really took off for me in 2022, and in fact I’m still there. I think I may have even spent more time in LOTRO than anything else last year, which blows my mind. I could never have predicted that in, say, 2019.
Either way, I’m pretty happy with those three (and my fourth, which last year was City of Heroes, also on a rogue server). I’m getting a bit of classic themepark, a bit of classic sandbox, a bit of classic sandpark, and a bit of modern action combat. Lil bit of everything.
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes, blog):Â Final Fantasy XIV, Guild Wars 2, and Elite: Dangerous were my top played games of the past year, and while XIV is not a surprise, I’m slightly more surprised by Elite and significantly more surprised by GW2.
I was generally sure I was going through a spat of buyer’s remorse as it relates to Elite Odyssey, but I started to just slowly realize that I had other, comparatively older pursuits in that game to chase, and while some of the Odyssey features fell short of expectations, there is still quite a bit to live in this one.
As for GW2, I already gushed in an earlier piece, so I’ll not repeat myself too much here. All I will add is that while the honeymoon period may have since worn, I still love firing up my Ele a whole lot, and find myself wanting to see what an alt or two feels like. Once I have all the account unlocks I want, natch.
Mia DeSanzo (@neschria): I don’t know what I did or would have predicted for 2022, but I am certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would have been wrong.
For 2023, I believe I will spend a great deal of time in EverQuest II and Lord of the Rings Online, with Final Fantasy XIV possibly coming along later to take over. Dungeons and Dragons Online is also a contender if I get a regular group together. I have played all of these games before, so I know they are things I enjoy and are likely to dominate my playtime this year.
I hope that something new and better comes along to prove me wrong.
Sam Kash (@thesamkash): My top three this year are MultiVersus, Guild Wars 2, and everything else ties for third.
MultiVersus is definitely a complete shock. I just never would’ve expected to play a Super Smash Bros. brawler nearly so much. I haven’t even played Smash Bros. in a decade. It’s definitely a well made game but perhaps it came out at just the right time as well. Whatever it was it’s been fantastic.
Guild Wars 2 is still up high, but I didn’t play it near as much as I ever would’ve guessed. The festivals have consistently kept me logging in and kept the game time up, but I haven’t even played EoD, which is completely mind blowing to me. I still love GW2, but I haven’t put any dedicated time into it.
Last being everything else because I played a crap ton of games, many of them for our PvP column, Fight or Kite. But none of them really stuck with me. I would play for a week or two and rack up a few hours or half dozen, but then I’d move on. There are a number of single player games that might compete, but they wouldn’t count in an MMO or multiplayer list!
Tyler Edwards (blog): I spent most of my MMO gaming time with New World and Lost Ark, which is probably what I would have predicted. In a distant third place would be Guild Wars 2, which I mostly only play with a friend as an excuse to chat.
Every week, join the Massively OP staff for Massively Overthinking column, a multi-writer roundtable in which we discuss the MMO industry topics du jour – and then invite you to join the fray in the comments. Overthinking it is literally the whole point. Your turn!
