So last night I was reading a Sword Art Online and World of Warcraft Crossover fan fic. (it was basically about the Ashbringer finding its away into the SAO universe)
Anyway the story made several references on how WoW is the greatest MMORPG out there and NO other MMORPG can top it and that got me thinking.
So I want to ask you guys. Do you still think WoW is the best MMORPG out there or has another taken that crown?
We don’t know. Numbers got so low in WoD that they decided that the amount of players isn’t a good measure of success for the game anymore.
Mango>Apple
Lineage in Korea passed WoW yearsssssss ago. In the US I think FF14 easily has 2nd place but with no official sub reports it is impossible to tell. Multiple Korean games put WoW to shame on population.
WoW is very vulnerable right now though.
Except for the part where the OP was asking about WoW in comparison to other mmorpg’s, not WoW compared to some FPS’s.
Pear?
/10ch
Even in wows worst state ever, its still crushes all others. It’s not even close.
It’s hard to say since the measure of what makes a game “great” is personal and subjective rather than an objective measure.
For me, I would say “no, several other games have surpassed it from both a technical and emotional standpoint”. Other people, however, might still love WoW as much as they did the first day they bought it.
Since none of them divulge their player base it is an unanswerable question.
Thing is you are looking at just the US and Korea …other countries play MMORPGs
In terms of population, literally nobody knows.
Blizzard hasn’t reported subs since WoD.
Square Enix hasn’t reported subs since 3 of their MMOs combined hit 1 million.
I don’t know anything about ESO but AFAIK they don’t report subs.
The only thing we can maybe take from that is that Square Enix reports on milestones, not as regular updates, so it’s unlikely they’ve hit 2 million yet, even combined.
In terms of “best” as a personal feeling… I’m mixed.
I think WoW has the most polish over a wide range of areas. Playing FFXIV feels like I’m constantly at 300ms latency in comparison, simply due to its design. I think WoW has by far the best endgame raiding experience (and potentially dungeon experience thanks to Mythic+). But I also think FFXIV has better class design, better storytelling, and in general SE listens to their players infinitely more than Blizzard does, which results in better changes and additions, whereas Blizzard ignores us and pushes things no one wants, sometimes getting it right, sometimes breaking their own game.
Currently, my personal best is still WoW, but I’ll fully admit a decent part of that is simply familiarity and a preference for the universe. But combat being as polished and responsive as it is is REALLY important, and it wins there for sure.
From my limited experience, I view ESO as a dumpster fire that mostly just caters to existing TES fans. Combat was the opposite of enjoyable, story is passable but segmented out of reality in the same way GW2 does it, graphics are mediocre, and animations are as rigid as Skyrim which is hilarious.
China will shortly have more gamers then the US has total population.
We don’t know the numbers so it’s difficult to say but based on observable popularity I would guess that WoW and FF14 are the top MMORPGs globally. I’m certain there are popular niche games in Korea, China, and Japan, but they’re not well-known outside of their respective countries.
Probably just a broken record here, but I think wow is still king globally.
Ffxiv is a close second.
Any other mmo might be more popular in their respective country, but globally doesn’t come close.
/Moose noise
It still is massive and multiplayer… That’s about it …
I saw a website of active players that had FF14 at 250k US characters last month. This month had a huge boost, but they did the June survey right in the middle of a 2 week free play time event.
Maybe close second was a poor choice of words. But I can’t think of another mmo, except maybe eso, that comes close to wow or ffxiv in popularity.
It’s difficult not knowing sub numbers though. We can only guess.
/Moose noise
I too enjoy mango!
Nope
Depends how you define top…
Most subscribers?
Most revenue annually?
Most MAU?
Most “fun”?
Like what are talking about?