The best MMOs and MMORPGs on PC in 2022?

What is the best MMO RPG on PC in 2021? Is it one with spells to sling and demons to slay? Working your way through the stars as a miner or a corporate bigwig? Solving ancient conspiracies and fighting Lovecraftian horrors? Maybe it’s all of them.

But, hey, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What’s an MMO, anyway? Well, those oft-used letters represent the words Massively Multiplayer Online and refer to games where hundreds – if not thousands – of players come together in the same world. MMORPG games like World of Warcraft offer new lands to live in, exchanging your regular life for one of adventure, profit, and danger. 

 Here’s our list of the top MMORPG games on PC, kicking off with a few of the top free PC MMOs. You’re sure to find something that will swallow up entire days at a time – be that the most popular MMORPG in the world, a hidden gem with a dedicated community, or even an MMO based on a popular book series.

GUILD WARS 2

 Where World of Warcraft is as traditional an MMO as they come, Guild Wars 2 is the weird, contrarian opposite. Its design can be seen as an attempt to fix and improve on every broken mechanic that online games persist in pursuing, and its success in these areas makes it one of the best MMORPGs you can play.

It has few regular quests: instead, players gang together to fight in rolling events – mini storylines that play out in stages depending on how gamers perform. 

These get players to work together organically, and also have an impact on the region they are in, perhaps reducing the threat of roving bands of monsters, at least temporarily. End game content is constantly evolving through the Living World episodic updates, the latest of which will pit heroes against the dragon Jormag and his nice brood. 

Should you not be ready to meet that challenge, you can play lower-level adventures without spending a dollar, as the core game is now entirely free.

NEVERWINTER 

Neverwinter is a surprise. It is thematically Dungeons & Dragons, taking the places, classes, spells, and abilities from the tabletop game, and then cramming them inside one of the best MMORPGs. It should not work, but somehow it does. 

It helps that there is an earnest love for the source material, and each quest feels like one you could imagine yourself embarking upon while sitting around a table.

Lots of free expansions – which include new races and classes – have been introduced in the time since Neverwinter launched, taking players far from the safety of Neverwinter itself, to lands like Icewind Dale, where barbarians and unpleasant temperatures are the least of your worries. It is a mostly linear MMO, but if you start running low on new content, there is always the player-created stuff, which contains some real gems hidden away from the rubbish.

Word of warning, though: unless you approach the game casually, you will probably have to spend money. It is become increasingly difficult to play for free, though certainly not impossible.

STAR TREK ONLINE

Miss Star Trek on TV? Star Trek Online might just tide you over until Discovery reappears on television screens. Each quest in this MMO is like an episode of the show, and each mission series is an arc, complete with the occasional filler episode.

Take a trip to Risa, visit DS9 in Star Trek Online, land on planets and practice your diplomacy, or get into tense space battles with Cardassians, Romulans, Borg, and whoever else is causing mischief. Space fights are tactical while playing out in real-time, as it’s key to position your ship to get the most out of your firing arcs. On any away missions that devolve into combat, the game turns into a squad-based third-person shooter, complete with ability cooldowns.

Miss Star Trek on TV? Star Trek Online might just tide you over until Discovery reappears on television screens. Each quest in this MMO is like an episode of the show, and each mission series is an arc, complete with the occasional filler episode.

Take a trip to Risa, visit DS9 in Star Trek Online, land on planets and practice your diplomacy, or get into tense space battles with Cardassians, Romulans, Borg, and whoever else is causing mischief. Space fights are tactical while playing out in real-time, as it’s key to position your ship to get the most out of your firing arcs. 

On any away missions that devolve into combat, the game turns into a squad-based third-person shooter, complete with ability cooldowns.

EVE-ONLINE

There is a good chance that you have already heard about one of the many tales of dark bastardry that have spun out of Eve’s New Eden. It is a game of cold-hearted betrayal, mining, economics, more betrayal, more mining, and the occasional thousand-person spaceship battles.

With CCP’s hands-off approach, the universe of New Eden is one of the most player-driven MMOs in existence. Wars that span weeks, if not months, across multiple systems. Years of plotting and sabotage to bring huge corporations dow