At the beginning of 2025, the MOP team tried to guess what our three most-played MMORPGs would be. It’s sort of like predictions, but personal. And… well, skimming the list, I can see some of us were way off base. This year was weird!
So we’re going to revisit this topic with the power of hindsight. For this week’s Massively Overthinking, tell me this: What were your personal three most-played MMOs in 2025? And do they line up with your thoughts from last January?
Ben Griggs (@braxwolf): I think the only MMO I played this year is LOTRO. Well, that’s not true. I spent probably two days trying to figure out Dune Awakening, but like most newer MMOs, it failed to hook me in. I have such a strong nostalgia for LOTRO that I can happily play it for a few weeks/months at a time before getting distracted by something else. I still find enjoyment in that game despite it showing its age.
Brianna Royce (@nbrianna.bsky.social, blog): I had guessed Guild Wars 2, Lord of the Rings Online, and SWG Legends, with Project Gorgon as a bonus aspirational pick. Guild Wars 2 was correct, as I played it a lot at the start of the year and then the end. LOTRO was a good pick too; I sunk a lot of time into it around migration season.
But what I didn’t see coming for me at all was Palia, and that definitely ate up a massive chunk of my MMO time this year. And I am not sorry about it at all.
Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes.bsky.social, blog): Monster Hunter Wilds: Eh, more or less! I’ve not been playing it quite so frequently recently, but I have definitely “kept pace” with the game’s wider community for the most part, which is saying something since I often feel like i’m left in the dust.
Final Fantasy XIV: This was a pretty safe bet, but once again I sort of tailed off due to a variety of personal reasons, most of which I’m just now beginning to surmount. Even so, this is still my “home game,” and I don’t see that changing.
Elder Scrolls Online: Nope, this was definitely not it, chief. My attempt to find a second home MMO ended up being with Guild Wars 2. Who knew that I would enjoy being a Thief? And desperately want to become a Ratmancer?
Colin Henry (@ChaosConstant.bsky.social): Guild Wars 2: My most-played as predicted. Duh. I think I will be playing this game regularly until the day it shuts down, or is at least deep into maintenance mode. Especially since Visions of Eternity is really good!
Lord of the Rings Online: I did play a fair amount of LOTRO this year, but sadly I had to drop my sub for financial reasons, so I didn’t continue with the Angmar server as long as I predicted in January. I really wish I could transfer characters off of there because I had some good momentum with them that I wasn’t able to transfer to my Peregrin characters, especially my Mariner, which was my first time playing that class. Oh well, it will happen one day.
Star Wars The Old Republic: I did play a bit of SWTOR, but not a lot. It might have still been my third most-played MMO, I’m not sure. I drifted around a lot this year, not really spending a lot of time anywhere other than GW2.
Eliot Lefebvre (@Eliot_Lefebvre, blog): I didn’t honestly predict what I would be playing in 2026 in part because I realized my playtime was in a degree of flux, but in this case I actually could have predicted pretty well. An easy layup would have been assuming Final Fantasy XIV and Warframe would easily get the most time, and that was… pretty much exactly accurate! As for the third place, it was probably V Rising, although I’m not entirely sure. This would probably surprise me at some point, but it makes sense having gone through it.
Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog): I’m pretty predictable and boring, so it ended up being WoW, WoW Classic, and LOTRO — and it probably will be again in 2026. That’s not to say I didn’t dally with other titles, most notably Palia, but those three overwhelmingly got my time.
Sam Kash (@samkash@mastodon.social): Yeah, so I really blew it on this one. My most played games this year were Dune Awakening, Albion Online, and then just as smattering of other games I played on and off.
I seriously think about playing Throne and Liberty every week or two, but then I hold myself back. Mainly because I really do want to dedicate time to it, but I’m never ready to fully commit myself to it. So I just put it off another week, then another week, then a whole year! Awful. I’m going to really get into it next year though, seriously!
Myth of Empires did get a solid few weeks out of me, but it just didn’t stick at all. Too much minutiae. And ArcheAge Chronicles! Well, I was right that it probably wasn’t going to release!
Tyler Edwards (blog): I was pretty close. I didn’t play that much New World prior to Nighthaven thanks to the content drought, and I spent less time in TSW this year, but I did still play both, and WoW remained a regular staple.
The only big surprise is that I ended up spending a good chunk of the year playing The First Descendant, which is something I feel the vague need to apologize for somehow.
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!
