5 Evergreen MMOs to try in 2026 (with pros and cons)

With plenty of great Evergreen MMOs to play, it might be hard to figure out where to put your time in 2026. I’ve picked out some titles that are surely going to be worth playing as we get into the coming year. This is based on my personal thoughts on the games, how they performed in 2025, and what they could be doing in the coming year. It should be a nice, well-balanced list of MMO types, so there’s something for everybody.

I also wanted to highlight, as a sort of honorable mention,Guild Wars Reforged. I was really surprised to see the game come back with updated resolution, and some quality-of-life features for the modern day.

It’s the same great MMO, complete with your old characters (if you still had them like me). However, what are the Evergreen MMOs that made the cut? Even if a game isn’t on here, it’s not bad, so please keep that in mind.

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Which Evergreen MMOs should you try in 2026?

1) Final Fantasy XIV is one of the best MMOs going into 2026

Final Fantasy XIV is going to be one of the best MMOs to play in 2026 (Image via Square Enix)

Pros

• Mountains of content, with an expansion on the way in 2026/2027.
• A beautiful game that’s playable on both console and PC.
• Only needing one character for all jobs eliminates the necessity of alts.

Cons

• It can take a very long time to catch up through all of the expansion’s MSQs.
• There are so many systems and things to learn, on top of the lengthy story.
• Mods/Addons are against TOS.

Final Fantasy XIV is honestly in a pretty great place right now as far as MMOs go. While the Dawntrail expansion was pretty divisive, I enjoyed it for what it was. It’s going to be up to the next expansion to really push the new story arc forward though. It’s a game that’s very easy to get into, and has tons of stuff to do, whether you want to collect cards, craft/gather, or just kill stuff.

Getting through all of the Main Scenario Quests and catching up to the rest of the players is going to take an incredibly long time. In addition, there’s just so much to learn. There are so many types of things you can do in-game, and knowing when/how to unlock them can be annoying. A good example is unlocking Submarine Exploration. In addition, you have dungeon/raid mechanics, your various Relic Weapons (and the grind associated with them), some of which can be a turn-off.

If you’re a former WoW player though, be aware that you can’t mod this game like you can World of Warcraft, which is potentially a negative for Square Enix’s MMO. That said, I think the game’s in a solid place, especially with patch 7.4. It’s a great time to jump into the game, that’s for sure.

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2) World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft has so much to do, and there's seldom a rush to do any of it (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Pros

• A very easy-to-play MMO with decades of content that doesn’t force you to play it all at once.
• Tons of classes, specializations, and ways to play, while still having easy access.
• The change to cross-faction content makes it much more accessible whether you play Horde or Alliance.

Cons

• Some classes definitely feel better than others to play, making them less desirable for endgame content.
• Known for having a pretty toxic community.
• Gatekeeping (especially in Mythic+ dungeons) can be infuriating.

World of Warcraft is a timeless MMO worth playing in 2026, with tons of different game modes and ways to play that all come with one subscription. You can play Classic, Retail, or any of the limited-time modes, like Legion Remix. You have so many different ways to play too, and can play Horde or Alliance and play alongside friends in most content.

Gatekeeping is pretty prevalent, so you may have annoying people telling you the class/spec you’re running is bad. Don’t let those people spoil your fun, though. It’s a fantastic game to play if you want a relaxing MMO experience, with a decades of amazing stories that you don’t have to play through all at once. It’s one way it definitely beats out FFXIV.

As someone who has played both FFXIV and WoW since the MMOs got their start, the community for Final Fantasy XIV is much better than World of Warcrafts. Now, things have gotten better over the years, but it can be miserable to interact with players, especially in Mythic+, or on the Classic servers.

Some very loud players can be toxic or downright unpleasant to play alongside. Especially again, in Mythic+ content, where gatekeeping is pretty prevalent, making it hard to get into unless you’re playing the most meta builds.

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3) Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 is a flashy, fun game with a truly compelling story (Image via ArenaNet)

Pros

• No subscription model means a cheaper barrier of entry.
• Incredibly easy to level up and play characters, and build up your alts if you wish.
• A very solo-friendly game (though it is more fun with friends).

Cons

• It can be a very complex game to play at first.
• Inventory Management is one of the worst in any MMO on the market right now.
• Pretty aggressive monetization.

Guild Wars 2 is one of the MMOs I wish I had the time to play more, and hopefully I will in 2026. I love the character classes, and the various ways to play those classes. Not having to subscribe is another major point in its favor, though you do have to purchase all the expansions if you want the content/features from them.

I don’t have many friends that play it either, and so I’m glad that it’s easy to solo.Thankfully, the community is pretty friendly in terms of MMOs, so it’s not hard to find a community to join up with. Guild Wars 2 is also pretty complicated, with lots of mechanics/classes/features to learn. Grinding some of the content in the game is also mind-numbingly awful and expensive, such as the Griffon mount.

My least-favorite part of Guild Wars 2 has to be inventory management. Your inventory is terrible, and it’s a chore to get more space. Combine that with its wildly aggressive monetization/convenience items, and it can be a frustrating part of the game.

You don’t have to buy those items, but some of them can help. I don’t think it’s a pay-to-win game though, not by any stretch. At least its microtransactions are fairer priced than Diablo 4, though.

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4) Black Desert Online

If nothing else, Black Desert looks incredibly cool (Image via Pearl Abyss)

Pros

• Frequently updated with incredibly fun, varied classes to offer different gameplay styles.
• Doesn’t require a subscription, and is mostly buy-to-play.
• Offers one of the best character customization suites in all of MMOs.

Cons

• Can be seen as very pay-to-win (or at least pay-to-go-faster).
• It is no longer a PVP focused game, if that’s what you remember/prefer.
• Even with catch-up mechanics, can feel like an incredibly grindy experience.

Black Desert Online’s been around for quite a few years, and it’s made some drastic changes in that time that make it more enjoyable as we go into 2026. It’s not one of the few PVP focused MMOs anymore in the West, which is probably a good thing. Few PVP MMOs really survive here in the modern era.

The classes are wildly fun, and there are so many different styles of gameplay in this fantasy game, that there’s almost assuredly something for you. It’s easy to buy into without a subscription, and I cannot stress enough that it has the best character customization, outside of maybe Where Winds Meet. You can make some truly gorgeous characters with their flexible system. It’s already a very pretty game on top of that, even if I don’t always feel like it’s that well optimized.

I cannot stress enough that BDO is either pay-to-win, or at the very least pay-to-go-faster. You can spend money to progress faster, and that is a frustrating thing. You don’t have to invest money into their microtransactions though, but it can make things faster. If you want a pure PVP MMO this isn’t going to be your thing, either. It has PVP, but it’s not really the focus anymore, I don’t think.

Black Desert is a fun solo game though, but it can feel like it takes forever to progress. There are some catch-up events/mechanics that come around from time to time, at least. These tend to happen more when a new class shows up, it seems, so keep an eye out for that kind of thing.

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5) Star Wars: The Old Republic

SWTOR definitely captures the look and feel of the Star Wars Universe (Image via EA)

Pros

• An incredible Star Wars-focused story with familiar races/classes.
• Offers a wealth of great Easter Eggs and familiar locations to traverse.
• A very solo-friendly game that doesn’t require a bunch of money to succeed in.

Cons

• One of the weaker economies across all MMOs.
• Group-based content can be very frustrating at times (dungeons).
• The Endgame isn’t very fun, compared to playing through the stories.

Another one of the MMOs I occasionally come back to, it’s SWTOR (Star Wars: The Old Republic). The developers consistently put out great stories and content for it, and if you’re already a Star Wars fan, this is the game for you. You have a decent amount of races and classes to pick from, and it’s loaded for bear with references to the franchise.

It’s also free-to-play, though it does have an optional, inexpensive subscription. It’s worth dipping into, much like ESO and ESO+, I think. It’s not a pay-to-win game, though it does have a pretty miserable economy. In 2025, it’s not as bad as it used to be, though. If you want stuff from the Cartel Market shop, prepare to spend millions of credits for them. It’s awful. It can be a pain to group with people in dungeons, though not for the reason you might think.

There are plenty of accepted "skips" through dungeons, and as a newcomer, that might be unknown to you unless your group explains what's going on. It just adds one more complex thing to know, and not knowing it can lead to your group being rude or abrasive. This isn't a guarantee, just something to be aware of.

The only other really bad thing I can think of is the Endgame content. You just kind of grind through the same stuff, over and over again. There’s not as much fun endgame content compared to some other MMOs, unfortunately. That said, it’s first-in-class when it comes to stories, and definitely feels like it belongs in the Star Wars universe.

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Check out our other MMO guides and features

• How to tame Solwyn in ARK Survival Ascended Lost Colony
• Diablo 4: What to do with Unique Purified Essence
• All Guild Wars Reforged professions: What’s the best class for you?

Edited by Jason Parker