The year that revived MMORPGs

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From Runescape, to World of Warcraft, to Final Fantasy 14, let's look through the last 20 years of MMO history to find out if the genre is actually dying. That's right, video essay boy is back.

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The world of MMOs and MMORPGs has changed dramatically over the course of these past two decades. From the humble beginnings of titans like Runescape in 2001, to the massive release of World of Warcraft in 2004, to the modern day games like Final Fantasy 14. It's a common thought that MMORPGs are not as good now as they were back in the early 2000s, but after looking through the last 20+ years I can confidently say that they are in the best place they've been in since 2008.

So let's look through each of those years one by one to see how MMOs have evolved. The highs of Wrath of the Lich King, the lows of New World, and examine the current state of the genre as a whole.

00:00 Intro
2:37 Tier list breakdown
3:58 2000 (everquest mostly)
4:26 2001 (runescape mostly)
5:29 2002 (everquest mostly)
6:05 2003 (capitalism mostly)
6:42 2004 (world of warcraft mostly)
7:57 2005 (club penguin wooo)
9:08 2006 (guild wars i guess)
9:37 2007 (linkin park mostly)
10:36 2008 (wotlk mostly)
11:48 2009 (still wotlk)
12:28 things are getting stale
13:13 things are closing
14:02 Evolution of Combat
14:49 FFXIV (oh and OSRS)
16:20 2014-2016 (the dark ages)
17:50 2017 things are still not great!
18:24 2018 and thing are still not good!
18:59 2019 (WoW Classic aka things are good!)
20:04 2020 (uh oh)
20:43 2021 (send help)
21:50 2022 (wait hold up??)
22:50 hey it's today! (things are good)