Once Popular MMO Games That Are Now Almost Dead On Steam (2024)

Despite some MMOs having a grueling first few hours, most gamers tend to stick around for the fascinating lore and impeccable social aspects, yet sometimes, the overall playability and enjoyment can gradually decrease over time, causing a decline in those who revere the title to remain loyal.

As one may imagine, the very heart and soul of this sociable genre is rooted within its devoted players, yet if this key component is taken out of the mix, even the best MMOs will inevitably crumble. With a drastically dwindling player count, and a vicious contrast to their former glory days, once-popular MMOs are on the cusp of going obsolete on Steam.

Updated on June 7, 2024 by Mark Sammut: The data for each MMO has been updated, along with their specs and notes. Furthermore, another MMO has been added, one that takes inspiration from Pokemon.

5 Age Of Conan: Unchained

Current Average Player Count On Steam (June 6, 2024): 50

Set in the barbarous world of Hyboria, Age Of Conan: Unchained encapsulates its players with everything MMO, from an intense combat system to a vast roster of classes. Although the current player count shows a clear-cut sign of this title's archaic nature, gamers were once entranced with the immense list of intriguing quests, engaging dialogue, and even fierce guild wars, relishing in an action-packed title that granted incessant hours of joy.

Donning a frivolous launch, Age Of Conan: Unchained was once a prominent name in the MMO scene, homing in on hundreds of daily active players. However, the game's strongest days seem to be in the past, as now this historical time piece has fallen off on platforms like Steam, even if its gripping premise and social attributes continue to be worth celebrating.

4 Rift

Current Average Player Count On Steam (June 6, 2024): 123

Having its players thrust into the dangerous yet beautiful realm of Telera, the renowned MMO Rift utilizes a heavily customizable character system to captivate its fans, allowing them to mix and match abilities and factions. From fending off the Elemental Planes' vicious creatures to trading with comrades, Rift solidified its legacy as a memorable MMO.

Despite its vividly sociable and profoundly entertaining debut, Rift's active player count has taken a blow over the past few years, barely surpassing the 100 mark on Steam. However, those who still partake in its exhilarating raids, challenging dungeons, and satisfying combat system still hold hope for the future, making sure their beloved title doesn't go under. For the most part, Rift is still relatively active away from Steam.

3 Star Conflict

Current Average Player Count On Steam (June 6, 2024): 124

The skirmish MMO Star Conflict is engaging, chaotic, and downright action-packed. The game launches fans into the center of a destructively conflicting space battle against not only NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) but also other players.

With such an enticing plot at hand, it was a no-brainer that Star Conflict's launch was distinctively lucrative, amassing over five thousand spaceship pilots at once. Nevertheless, their gigantic playing arena seemingly fell through, as now, this once eminent game struggles to allure over 200 active players a day on Steam, making the game all but dead on Steam's platform.

2 Skyforge

Current Average Player Count On Steam (June 6, 2024): 30

A somewhat more recent example of an MMO that has lost its fans' attention is Skyforge, a title that tasks players with defending the jaw-dropping planet of Aelion from belligerent forces of evil. Offering a plethora of unique classes to choose from, a highly dynamic fighting system to master, and astonishingly deep lore to delve into, Skyforge has cemented its name within the grounds of MMOs alike.

Despite its fruitful first appearance on the MMO scene, Skyforge's overall playability and satisfaction have taken a notable plunge in recent years, and things are looking pretty bad for the game's future at the moment. Although an impressive number of active players once relished this fantastical project, the current count is all-around unimpressive, and that goes beyond just Steam.

1 Temtem

Current Average Player Count On Steam (June 6, 2024): 147

Temtem is a strange case, as the title is still worthy of a recommendation, albeit as a single-player creature collector rather than an MMO designed to be played endlessly. Working through the story should keep most people engaged for roughly 50 hours, and they will likely have a decent time if they are craving a fairly safe but enjoyable Pokemon-style experience with pretty good visuals, solid combat, and quite a bit of secondary content. The creature designs are also pretty great, which could be enough to entice most people.

That said, Temtem's MMO element is fairly underwhelming throughout the main campaign, outside a few basics like daily missions and PvP (that said, the endgame shifts fairly extensively into MMO territory). The latter can be fun at times, but the competitive scene tends to be pretty divisive among players. More importantly, Crema has announced that support for Temtem will be coming to an end soon, with the upcoming 1.8 patch being the last major update. Ultimately, players should pick up Temtem if they are interested in the single-player stuff; if that hits the mark, the MMO side of things can be a nice bonus.