The Best MMORPG for 2023

Sometimes it’s more fun to play with other people. There are many fantastic PC games that put you in the shoes of a lone hero, but some of the biggest and best games are massively multiplayer online games, or MMOs. These are vast games that receive a consistent influx of new content, and let you play with hundreds, thousands, or millions of other people.

Due to their ongoing natures, MMOs feature pricing schemes more in line with mobile games. Some MMOs have monthly subscription fees; others are free-to-play titles that charge you for small conveniences. In addition, many offer premium bundles that come with extra customization options, weapons, cosmetics, or other features.

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Playing MMOs on Steam Deck

Valve’s Steam Deck delivers a convenient, capable, and pleasantly portable device for all your Steam gaming needs. Several MMO games on this list are unavailable on Steam. Of those available, many are unsupported or Playable (but not Verified). That means you need to do some finagling to get the game to run properly on the Deck.

You may wonder why play on the Steam Deck at all, considering the classic controller scheme and Wi-Fi reliance? Thanks to the many Steam Deck docks on the market, you can comfortably nestle your device near a monitor or TV to connect to your games. Steam Deck docks usually include an Ethernet port, as well as multiple USB slots to connect mice and keyboards.

Get Ready to Raid

MMOs offer hours upon hours of play in which you improve your avatar, grind levels, and gather better armor and weapons to tackle even bigger challenges. If you give your time to these seemingly endless games, you’ll inhabit new worlds filled with characters that are controlled by people just like you. The experiences you have and people you meet can be potentially endless. Ready to explore all that and more? Check out our favorite MMO games on PC.

Black Desert Online

$9.99

at Steam

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Black Desert Online cares little about tossing beginners into its complicated depths. Its beautiful, fantasy landscape is full of systems, including combat, trade, and diplomacy. BDO lets you do so much more than undertake adventures; you collect resources, craft them into other items, and have them moved from place to place by automated workers. BDO is the type of MMO where you’re just as likely to spend your time being a blacksmith as you are being a wizard.

Destiny 2

$0.00

at Steam

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You and your crew play as Guardians, immortal warriors who travel the solar system taking down interplanetary threats. This sci-fi shooter has seen many changes since its 2017 launch, such as moving to a free-to-play model, adding the Destiny Content Vault(Opens in a new window), and increasing the planet count. Destiny 2 is one of the most action-heavy MMOs that you’ll find on PC, so it could be your bag if you dig Call of Duty.

The Elder Scrolls Online

$0.00

at Steam

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From Zenimax Online comes the only MMO that takes place in the best-selling Elder Scrolls franchise. Set a thousand years before Skyrim’s events, ESO lets you visit majestic locations from the series’ lore and take part in legendary events. You can explore Morrowind’s swamps and alien environments, Summerset’s sun-drenched isle, and Skyrim’s snow-covered peaks. In terms of storytelling, Elder Scrolls Online is one of the stronger MMOs, featuring well-written characters and full voice acting.

EVE Online

$0.00

at Steam

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Space empires rise and fall within the free-to-play Eve Online. This is the king of sandbox MMOs, a game that places you in a cosmos filled with starships, pirates, and player-created corporations. Eve Online is more of a social experiment than a game, as it forces you to engage with a vast universe of potentially-cutthroat existing users merely to survive. If you decide to give it a go, you’ll discover that Eve Online is one of the most rewarding and unique games ever made.

Final Fantasy XIV Online

4.5

$59.99

at Amazon

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Final Fantasy XIV is the MMO that’s beaten the odds and challenged World of Warcraft’s dominance. Following a rough launch, FFXIV got its second life in 2012 with the release of A Realm Reborn. Now the MMO goes from strength to strength, with a fantastic story, beautiful graphics, and all the aesthetic flourishes of the long-running Final Fantasy franchise. It’s a great alternative “theme park”(Opens in a new window) MMO to Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. The base FFXIV game costs $19.99, with a monthly subscription starting at $12.99.

Final Fantasy XIV Online (for PC) Review

Guild Wars 2

$0.00

at Steam

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If you don’t want to go the microtransactions route or deal with a monthly subscription, then Guild Wars 2 might be the MMO for you. You pay a single price for entry, which is currently $30 for the standard edition. With that one-time charge you get not only a great PvE experience against elder dragons and nefarious ancient beings, but one of the better player vs. player (PvP) MMOs, too. The deathmatch and objective-based PvP modes truly highlight Guild Wars 2’s excellent action-focused combat.

Lost Ark

4.0

$0.00

at Steam

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Lost Ark is an action-focused MMORPG that’s packed with loot, stylish visuals, and an impressive amount of endgame content. It’s a free-to-play PC game that has been available in other regions for years now, but the title finally made it to the West in 2022. As a result, it launched with a tremendous amount of polish, delivering an expansive story with numerous dungeons to run and near-endless activities once you reach the level cap. Admittedly, the story content won’t take you more than 20 hours to chew through, but hardcore raiding, boss fights, character building, and resource farming await you once you get there.

Lost Ark (for PC) Review

Lord of the Rings Online

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at The Lord of The Rings

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If a lore-dense fantasy world packed with nearly 15 years’ worth of content and support sounds like the MMO for you, take a look at The Lord of the Rings Online. Based on Tolkien’s massively influential fantasy works, you create a character and experience adventures that run parallel to the events in The Lord of the Rings books.

Naturally, major characters and antagonists make appearances throughout the core storyline, but you also enjoy many smaller adventures within each of the highly detailed and iconic game regions. If you want a welcoming, free-to-play experience in a classic fantasy world replete with an enjoyable story and deeds to undertake, you can’t go wrong here.

Runescape

$0.00

at Steam

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Runescape is an MMORPG that’s been around for ages: 20 years in fact, and still going strong. Despite its age, Runescape remains popular, receiving frequent updates to keep long-standing fans happy and engaged.

The game found its footing well before the MMO character-archetype trinity (tank, DPS, and healer) became popular, so it uses a rock-paper-scissors system where melee beats range, range beats magic, and magic beats melee. Gameplay is largely a point-and-click affair, but it incorporates a blend of combat scenarios, social interactions, quests, and mini-games. Runescape is easy to get into, and its casual feel and old-school style may engross you enough that you may never want to leave.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

5.0

$39.95

at Amazon

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You may have forgotten that developer BioWare maintains an ongoing MMO. The free-to-play Star Wars: The Old Republic is the successor to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, a classic RPG that brought BioWare firmly into the mainstream. While fans of that RPG might bristle about engaging with MMO concepts, such as parties, dungeons, and raids, The Old Republic boasts amazing storytelling. Each of the game’s eight classes have their own tales and companions, and the reduced leveling grind lets you enjoy the game like a singleplayer RPG.

Star Wars: The Old Republic (for PC) Review

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2

$29.99

at Epic Games

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The Division 2 has the unfortunate burden of having a premise that feels tailor-made for current events. Following the outbreak of the Green Poison, society has been thrown into chaos, forcing a clandestine organization called The Division to step up and bring order. You play as a member of the Division, a group tasked with rebuilding New York and Washington, D.C. to their former glories. If you have a military fixation, this might be the MMO for you.

Warframe

3.5

$0.00

at Steam

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Digital Extremes’ spunky, action-RPG has grown a lot throughout the years. What started as a mission-based, persistent online game has expanded to encompass so much more. It now features open-world environments like Destiny, where you can skim across the surface of a planet on a hoverboard or soar through the stars on a Railjack starship. Warframe’s free-to-play nature means that it requires a lot of your time or money to level up or obtain the best Warframes. That said, Warframe has a universe filled with 50 million players, so you’ll certainly find a few dedicated partners.

Warframe (for PC) Review

World of Warcraft

4.5

$0.00

at Blizzard Entertainment

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Since its 2004 launch, World of Warcraft has been the MMO to beat. Azeroth is one of the biggest and best MMO worlds, one that lets you travel from locale to colorful locale while fighting demons, monsters, and fellow warriors at the behest of the Horde or the Alliance. WoW is one of the easiest MMOs to get into now that developer Blizzard added a revamped starting zone for new players and tweaked the leveling experience. The latest expansion, Shadowlands, takes the heroes to the realm of the dead to explore The Maw, a roguelike dungeon.

If you’re a returning veteran who longs for WoW’s halcyon days, Blizzard also runs World of Warcraft Classic, a version that mirrors the game’s launch year state.

World of Warcraft (for PC) Review

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