If you\u2019ve spent any time in gaming circles during the last year, you\u2019ve most likely stumbled across, if not played, a newly released MMORPG like New World<\/em>, Lost Ark<\/em>, or the recently revitalized Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn<\/em>. <\/p>
These titles, in addition to the mainstays of the MMO genre that have yet to dissipate\u2014games like World of Warcraft<\/em>, Guild Wars 2<\/em>, and others\u2014have helped to make MMOs more accessible and diverse in countless ways. From varying gameplay styles, worldbuilding and storytelling techniques, as well as wildly different subgenres within games, MMO players have more options available to them in 2022 than ever before. <\/p>
The MMO genre hasn\u2019t been as front-facing, culturally dominant, and lucrative as it is today since the early 2000s when games like World of Warcraft<\/em>, EverQuest,<\/em> and the original Guild Wars<\/em> all competed and coexisted with each other. And while the release market for new MMOs isn\u2019t as diluted as it was in the early 2000s, it\u2019s just as prominent in the online zeitgeist. <\/p>
Surprisingly enough, the company that\u2019s been behind the recent rise of the MMO genre is Amazon, which spent the better parts of the \u201cpandemic era\u201d of gaming dipping its toes (and eventually its whole body) into the waters of MMORPGs. In 2021, the company released New World<\/em>, a long-awaited, endlessly delayed<\/a> title that was first announced at TwitchCon 2016 and was originally slated to launch in May 2020. Five months after the official launch of New World<\/em>, the company went on to publish Smilegate\u2019s Lost Ark <\/em>for Western consumers, adding another massive online title to its arsenal.\u00a0<\/p>
During the first week of Lost Ark<\/em>\u2019s Western availability from Feb. 8 to 15, the game became the fourth-most concurrently played<\/a> game in Steam\u2019s history, only behind PlayerUnknown\u2019s Battlegrounds, Dota 2, and CS:GO<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>
Amazon invests nearly $500 million per year into its game development prospects, according to a 2021 report from Bloomberg<\/a>. And while that entire budget can\u2019t possibly be expected to be dumped into its current division of running MMO tiles, games like New World <\/em>and Lost Ark <\/em>have been carrying the banner for the studio over the last six months in particular\u2014even more so since initially planned flagship releases like Breakaway <\/em>and Crucible <\/em>were canceled outright<\/a> during their respective development processes.\u00a0<\/p>
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Beyond Amazon, gaming giants such as Blizzard Entertainment, ArenaNet, and Zenimax continue to provide support for their trademark MMO games, investing funds into expansions for MMO titles well after their initial releases. <\/p>
Most prominently, World of Warcraft<\/em>, which has featured eight expansions (as well as two re-releases of previous versions of the game) across its 18-year run, is still one of Blizzard\u2019s most reliable cash cows. In 2020, the game\u2019s most recent expansion, Shadowlands<\/em>, became the fastest-selling PC game of all time<\/a> after selling 3.7 million copies across the first 24 hours of its release.\u00a0<\/p>
