Around the Massively OP office, the common consensus is that 2024 ended up being the Year of the MMO Expansion. After all, we got so, so many of them, with every major player bringing something new to the table alongside several other B- and C-tier MMOs as well. Players have reveled in a wealth of new content and features as a result, making it a pretty darn good year to be an online gamer.
So let’s take a look back at the 11 biggest and best expansions to come our way in the 2024 calendar year, perhaps reminding you of a title or two you promised yourself you’d check out when you got some spare time. You do have some spare gaming time, yes?
Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road
The expansion season officially kicked off last June with Elder Scrolls Online’s yearly chapter. This time, Gold Road took players through three gorgeous biomes, the hub city of Skingrad, and plenty of story and dungeon content to conquer. However, ZeniMax held off on adding the expansion’s two new companions until the fall, charging extra for them if you weren’t subscribed – and then the new scribing system was kind of a bust.
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail
While it started a new era and took the popular MMO to a gorgeous tropical setting, FFXIV’s Dawntrail proved weirdly divisive as players settled into this different direction. However, with high concurrency counts and some strong word-of-mouth, this ended up being one of the better releases this year. What else did you expect from Square-Enix?
World of Warcraft: The War Within
The summer of MMORPGs both began and ended with a bang, as Blizzard provided one heck of a cap on the season with The War Within. The start of the ballyhooed Worldsoul Saga, this well-received expansion trotted out four new zones, a solo-friendly delve system, and an endgame that proved to be one of the best that players have seen in years. The general consensus is that this continued the gradual upward trend that began in Dragonflight. One major downside? The studio introducing paid headstarts for the first time in WoW’s history.
EVE Online: Equinox and Revenant
EVE Online: Equinox tried to “rejuvenate” nullsec this summer with new Upwell structures and the sovereignty hub model. The expansion also brought out new ships, SKINs, and a better daily system. Then we got Revenant this fall with mercenary lairs, Deathless ships, and an improved management system for corps.
Lord of the Rings Online: Legacy of Morgoth
While it didn’t feature a new class, race, or level cap increase, Legacy of Morgoth stepped up with another great content pack for Middle-earth adventurers. This time, players got to explore deeper into the Harad desert with four new zones, 350 quests, an Elf avatar revamp, and the baubles collection system. It was good times.
Dungeons and Dragons Online: Magic of Myth Drannor
As is often the case with this MMO, Dungeons and Dragons Online’s latest expansion was functionally a non-event when it released this past summer. Yet fans of the quirky and surprisingly deep fantasy RPG welcomed Magic of Myth Drannor with 13 new quests, a fresh wilderness area to explore, a level cap increase to 34, and eventually a raid.
Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds
Instead of pumping in tons of resources to create a massive End of Dragons-type expansion, Guild Wars 2 went a smaller, more focused route with this year’s Janthir Wilds release — and was better for it. Not only did the modest expansion add a new land to explore, a warclaw mount revamp, the spear weapon type, and (by the end of the year) a raid, but the homestead feature finally brought proper housing to this MMO in a way that did the playerbase proud. It was nuts seeing what fans could do with these tools.
Black Desert: Land of the Morning Light Seoul
Black Desert fans weren’t left out of the expansion explosion this year, as Pearl Abyss launched Land of the Morning Light: Seoul in September. This “sequel expansion” built upon last year’s release with the Hwanghae region, eight new Korean folklore quest lines, six new bosses, and the new sovereign weapons tier.
EverQuest: The Outer Brood
EverQuest was able to check off its 31th expansion (!) with the rollout of The Outer Brood. This pack came with six new zones, raids, missions, quests, and collections — not to mention the incredibly popular Dark Elf Ranger class/race combo.
EverQuest II: Scars of Destruction
Not to be left out of the fun, EverQuest II made its annual release happen with November’s Scars of Destruction. A giant frozen dragon necropolis and a level cap increase awaited faithful adventurers as they traveled up north to see the latest from the Daybreak team.
WoW Classic Cataclysm
And while it wasn’t everyone’s biggest wish list item or the most surprising launch this year, WoW Classic trotted out a somewhat creaky and buggy rendition of Cataclysm this past spring for those who — let’s be honest — are merely passing through on their way to Pandaria.
Everyone likes a good list, and we are no different! Perfect Ten usually takes an MMO topic and divides it up into 10 delicious, entertaining, and often informative segments for your snacking pleasure. And per tradition, we’re cranking this column up to eleven with our annual special features in the End-of-Year Eleven!
