Top 10 Best MMORPG 2016 (Best PC Games 2016-2017)

A few things to note before I get into the list though, if you don’t mind waiting a moment:

1.) This list is my list. Not your list. Therefore it will have 10 games that I believe should be in here. You are welcome to disagree, but your opinion holds no more weight than mine or anyone elses.

2.) This list will comprise games that are currently alive in 2016, not that came out in 2016. We will have a separate video for that.

3.) Just because I list these as the “Top 10 MMORPGs of 2016”, doesn’t mean they have the best graphics, combat, user experience, or anything else. Simply that they were the best to play in 2016 in my personal opinion.

Coming off at the bottom of our list – is DC Universe Online; a Superhero themed MMORPG released in in early 2011 under a subscription based model.
After releasing to a less than favorable launch, it was decided that DC Universe Online would relaunch under a free to play model later in the year.
While having transitioned to a free to play MMORPG, much of DC Universe Online outside of the base game remains locked out to paying customers only, in an attempt to coax free players to pay.
DC Universe Online is a fairly large game and still has a very dedicated, active population to this very day, having multiple large DLC released since its initial launch – however, once again locked behind a payment requirement.
In DC Universe Online you get the ability to not only create your very own superhero with unique powers – but you are given the option of playing alongside famous superheroes like Superman and Batman while traversing cities like Gotham, Metropolis and other iconic DC locale.
With a fun and active PvP system, and plenty to do on the PvE side of things, DC Universe Online definitely deserves a spot in this list.

Aion has one of the best character creation systems in MMORPGs to this day. Note I said “one of”, not “the best”.
Initially released in late 2009 (yes it’s really that old), Aion, like DC Universe Online, launched under a pay to play model, going free to play in 2012 due to lack of interest and poor subscription numbers.
Aion has however somehow managed to remain relevant, which is a testament to not only its quality, but also its dedicated playerbase.
While very grindy at endgame, Aion offers some incredibly active, fast and fun PvP alongside a plethora of dungeons and raids.
While not necessarily the easiest MMORPG to get into due to issues with latency, well geared players ganking you while trying to level, and the grind necessary to level as you get higher, Aion definitely offers a unique experience to new players.

No matter how many times I mention ArcheAge in a list, it gets the same, typical kind of response: ArcheAge is Pay to Win! It’s a terrible game!
While I’m personally unable to comment on what people generally refer to as the “Pay to Win” content – partially due to having never made it to endgame myself, and partially due to whiners never really giving valid reasons, I would just like to throw this out there as a warning.
Now, ArcheAge is a huge game. Really huge. Having multiple different continents to explore – each variying in size and diversity (of both race and region), and various ways of traveling such as by ship, sailing the ocean, or through gliding across huge open areas – you can’t help but be impressed.
Which constantly begs the question: Why isn’t it more popular? Is it due to the game truly being Pay to Win? Is it due to that very comment spreading without people testing it themselves, that prevent new players from coming into the game?
Either way, ArcheAge offers huge open exploration across both land and sea, while providing an excellent class system, giving you the option of choosing three different class trees and merging them into one larger main class.
This provides a large amount of diversity to the kind of character you can create, and also gives you some creative freedom over the kind of DPS you want to be.
The PvP, although not incredibly active in the arena, is fairly active outside of it, and although we haven’t had the option of personally engaging in PvP yet – we have seen plenty of it over the months, and personally look forward to trying it out ourselves.

Next we have a much more recent game – Black Desert Online. Both loved and hated – Black Desert has managed to dominate the Action MMORPG market, taking over TERA’s spot as the number 1 Action MMORPG in 2016 and so far, 2017.
Released in early 2016, Black Desert is an absolutely gorgeous game – featuring a giant open world or sandbox world – whichever you prefer to call it, and featuring some of the fastest, most engaging action combat in an MMORPG currently.
This, however, is a double edge sword, as this combat has driven just as many people away from the game, maybe even more, as they’re unable to play Action MMORPGs – which is a perfectly valid issue. Action MMORPGs aren’t for everyone.
Coupled with its amazing (or terrible, whichever side of the fence you’re on) combat, another issue Black Desert Online ran into was the fact that the grind, similar to Aion, is pretty intense at endgame.
While not a problem for many of the players that are currently active, spending a lot of your game-time grinding the same monsters every day for a small percentage of XP can be a turn-off.
Don’t let that disparage your opinion of the game however, as Black Desert offers a lot more than just fast combat: It also has a very popular, and fairly well built profession system that you could spend just as much time in as opposed to grinding if that’s your thing!

Another recently released MMORPG in this list, having come out early 2016 as well, Blade and Soul offers players a fast mixture of tab target and action combat to create something of a.. unique combat style.
Blade and Soul may look a little dated to some, but the game itself has a very unique art style to it that is rarely used in MMORPGs in the West (or, at all? I can’t recall any MMORPGs that even look remotely similar outside of the upcoming MMORPG Revelation Online)
Regardless, Blade and Soul is an absolutely beautiful game – with beautiful areas and character models, even if a little.. oversexualized.
One problem with Blade and Soul however is the fact that each area is instanced. Every zone you go to, and many towns in each zone are all instanced. The game is far from open world, and many people have a problem with this as it disconnects them from the world.
While not really a problem for me personally, I can understand the appeal of open world games, loving them myself. Adding on to this is the fact that the game itself is very poorly optimized in comparison to better looking games like Black Desert or even Revelation Online.
Another problem is the fact that many endgame players claim the game is completely Pay to Win in PvP, as players buy everything they need to absolutely roflstomp you.
While I cannot personally confirm this myself, I can also see how this would turn people off of the game.

RuneScape is the oldest MMORPG in this list, having released all the way back in 2001.
Since then, RuneScape has managed to both capture and captivate millions of players year after year, being one of the most successful free to play MMORPGs ever made.
Even though RuneScape was released in 2001, the game has had many updates, going so far as completely overhauling the graphics to keep itself relevant, visually.
Posessing an insanely large open world, with tons of different environments, a large skill tree that allows you to heavily customize the kind of character you want to have, and the sheer size of the game overall, it’s no wonder RuneScape is still alive and going strong in 2017.

Here we have a tricky one. The Elder Scrolls Online originally released in 2014 to ridiculous hype.. followed by ridiculous hate.
The game itself was bad, being panned by anyone and everyone for a variety of reasons, a few including the fact that it was a poor successor to Skyrim, the game mechanics being poorly designed, the fact that the game all but turned you against grouping up with other people, and more.
This drove people away en masse, and likely would have meant the end of the game if not for the Devs working hard to sort through all the problems the game had, eventually leading to the One Tamriel update that all but breathed new life into the game.
This led to what is now one of the most popular MMORPGs on the market. It feels as though no matter where you go in Tamriel, there are other players playing alongside you, and that is partially due to the Megaserver that The Elder Scrolls Online employs.
The Elder Scrolls Online truly feels worthy of being called an Elder Scrolls game on the premise of sheer size, depth, and quality – but that doesn’t change peoples poor opinions of the game when they tried it out initially.
The PvP in The Elder Scrolls Online is another area this game shines in – featuring huge battles between hundreds of players massacring each other over and over.
Regardless of its faults, The Elder Scrolls Online brings in a constant wave of new players, and is one of the MMORPGs that anyone in need of a break from whatever they’re playing should try out.

Another MMORPG that began Pay to Play and was forced into the free to play model, Wildstar, released in 2014 and free to play in 2015, is a large sci-fi themed MMORPG that is generally overlooked by the majority of MMORPG players in 2016 and 2017.
This is due to a lot of bugs, balance issues, and overall dissatisfaction with the game upon launch.
Similarly to The Elder Scrolls Online, Wildstar had a fairly negative launch, many people thinking it would be the first competitor to World of Warcraft in years. When people realized this was not the case, they were not only disappointed, but left the game in troves.
This lead to the game dying off very fast, and required a fast transition into the free to play market, where it found enough of an audience to maintain itself over much of 2015 and 2016.
Wildstar itself is a beautiful, cartoony game that looks great, and plays even better, featuring action combat that doesn’t rival Black Desert – sure, but is definitely proof of a high quality title.
Adding on to this is Wildstar’s PvP; feeling very reminiscent of World of Warcraft – which I guess is a good thing – Wildstar offers very fast, fluid, engaging PvP in a variety of forms.
While unfortunately a lot of players gave up on Wildstar and never looked back, there is a small percentage of players that stuck with the game, never giving up hope that it would be enjoyable one day, and that paid off.
Wildstar is a very fun, engaging, and fluid MMORPG that a lot of people don’t give enough credit to.

Guild Wars 2 initially launched in 2012 under a Buy to Play model – switching to a free to play model in 2015 to keep the game alive.
While it had to switch to a free to play model to remain relevant, Guild Wars 2 is not completely free, having a few restrictions on gameplay, and expansions like Heart of Thorns requiring a purchase before being playable.
Guild Wars 2 is a massive game, like really, really huge. Not only is it massive in size however, but the game itself is a very different kind of MMORPG to many that are around today.
Instead of going from quest hub to quest hub, there are constantly spawning dynamic events in the open world that you can participate in alongside hundreds of other people, world bosses that spawn just to fuck with you, and a questing system that doesn’t require the acceptance, nor turn in of the actual quests.
There are dungeons and raids in the game, but strangely enough there aren’t traditional tanks and healers, instead forcing each player to utilize their crowd control skills and support skills to come out of each battle alive.
While some people may not enjoy the removal of cookie cutter specs like Tank, Healer, DPS, the fact is it is a nice, welcomed change.
PvP in Guild Wars 2 is huge. World vs World combat featuring hundreds of players in an area duking it out for supremacy is not only ridiculously satisfying, but also incredibly entertaining.
Combat is fast and very fluid, having a mixture of both tab target and aim-to-cast spells and skills, Guild Wars 2 definitely has something for both sides of players interested in traditional point and click and action combat.

Literally one of the only MMORPGs to remain completely Pay to Play, with other paid MMORPGs such as Guild Wars 2, Elder Scrolls Online, Wildstar, EVE Online and more, going free to play to remain relevant, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn brings MMORPGs back to their roots.
Originally released in 2013, Final Fantasy XIV was heavily panned as one of the worst experiences in an MMORPG ever. This led Square Enix to completely overhaul the game, pushing out the current Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn to critical success.
More alike to WoW than any other MMORPG in this list (with the exception of Aion), Final Fantasy XIV is probably one of the most traditional recently released MMORPGs, having the typical holy trinity of Tank/Healer/DPS, normal dungeons, raids, etc.
However, unlike a lot of games, Final Fantasy XIV has huge open world events called F.A.T.Es that spawn all over every single map – requiring anywhere from 1 person to 100 people to group together and tackle each objective, earning experience and Seals for your faction.
Final Fantasy XIV has a very unique class system, giving every single person the ability to be any class at any time. What I mean by this is that you can swap between classes whenever you want to, being able to level every single class on a single character, removing the necessity of leveling alternate characters to pursue a different class.
The world of Final Fantasy XIV is very large, with the expansion Heavensward making the game absolutely massive – and the upcoming expansion Stormblood possibly making Final Fantasy XIV one of the largest MMORPGs outside of the king itself, World of Warcraft.
Not only is traveling the world on your trusty, loveable Chocobo fun, but unlike a lot of MMORPGs, Final Fantasy XIV allows you to take to the skies – soaring above all of its expansions content upon completion of each zone. While flying isn’t in the base game, we can only hope it will be in every future expansion!
PvP in Final Fantasy XIV isn’t a main focus, unfortunately, so if PvP is something you look for in an MMORPG you may be a little disappointed. The PvP isn’t bad in any sense however, it just isn’t as fleshed out as several of the other MMORPGs in this list, not having world PvP and all of it being instanced.