There are a LOT of Old MMORPGs Out There

I’ve always known MMORPGs were big business, but I didn’t know so many older MMORPGs were still in service today. I figured the MMO business was a lot like technology. As games gold older, they were shut down and replaced by newer games. This is definitely true for console games, but some older MMORPGs still exist today. I guess it’s because a lot of these games can introduce new patches and expansion packs.

Anyway, the first game I wanted to mention was Ultima Online. The game originally released in 1997 and is still around today. The game has enjoyed countless updates and is still updated regularly. The game was developed by Origins Systems back in 1999 but was bought out by Electronic Arts later. Ultima Online is widedly considered the first popular MMOPRG ever. The game isn’t free to play though, so that sucks. It is an MMORPG free trial game though, so users can play it for 14 days without paying. Back when the game first released, it was the most hardcore PvP MMORPG ever. EverQuest is an older game too, but it was released in 2001. It was the first real fully 3D mmorpg.

After Ultima Online, Tibia, the 2D MMORPG, is still around. Tibia was also released in 1997 but has much simpler 2D graphics. Unlike Ultima, Tibia is free to play, making it one of the longest running free MMORPGs ever. Much of the game’s content though is only available to paying members.

On the more free to play front though, RuneScape and Ragnarok Online are some of the oldest MMORPGs still in service. Both boast over 50 million players world-wide. 50 Million is a huge number, considering World of Warcraft has only 12 million subscribers. That’s not a 100% fair comparison though, as both of these games are free to play and WoW is pay to play. Plus the 50 million number is registered accounts, not active users.