There’s no doubt that 2025 was an incredibly active year for MMORPG launches and releases. And while game debuts got a big spotlight, much of the actual player enthusiasm was channeled into the raft of expansions, updates, features, and additions that arrived in currently operating MMOs.
This was a terrific year for expansions and updates, making a list of the top picks an almost impossible proposition. However, we’re nothing if not cocky and enthusiastic about such a challenge, so here’s Massively OP’s choices for the best updates to live games over the past 12 months!
World of Warcraft: Player housing
It’s definitely not a common occurrence for an end-of-expansion-cycle patch to be one of the biggest highlights of the year, but then again, it’s not every day that World of Warcraft adds one of the most-requested features into its game. Patch 11.2.7: The Warning introduced player housing in early December as the tentpole feature of 2026’s Midnight expansion (even though this was a War Within patch, so don’t let that cross your eyes too much). Finally, WoW players had a place they could call their own with a promise of improvements to come.
Throne and Liberty: Wilds of Talandre
Throne and Liberty broke the winter quiet with a huge boom of an expansion in early March. Wilds of Talandre arrived with a level cap increase, an artifact system, new dungeons, and the opening of the PvPvE Nebula Island. And if that wasn’t enough, the fantasy MMO also came out with its own player housing system in September with the Solisium’s Awakening update. Not too shabby at all!
Guild Wars 2: Visions of Eternity
October delivered an early Christmas present for Guild Wars 2 fans, thanks to the arrival of its sixth expansion, Visions of Eternity. The pack came with the vast Castora island to explore, a ship-themed homestead to claim, and — most notably — nine brand-new elite specializations to try out. This was the latest in a series of now-annual expansion releases that kicked off back in 2022, and we’re having a hard time complaining about this cadence.
Palia: Elderwood
Palia always does things on the slightly smaller and intimate side of the developer spectrum, but that’s not to say that this past May’s Elderwood release was insignificant. On the contrary, the game’s third-ever zone was embraced by its swelling playerbase as adventurers explored the purply woods and enjoyed more story, crafting, characters, and systems. Then later in the year, the title added animal husbandry to keep things spicy.
Elder Scrolls Online: Seasons of the Worm Cult
Elder Scrolls Online shifted away from chapters/expansions this year and into its new “seasons” format — although it did not shift away from expansion pricing, as Seasons of the Worm Cult cost curious players $50 to access. The two-part release added a sweeping new storyline and regions to explore, including a battle for the fate of Solstice. It apparently was successful enough to warrant more of this format for 2026.
New World: Nighthaven
OK, yes, we all know what happened shortly after this came out, but for a brief shining moment there, it looked as though New World was mounting a wonderful comeback with the arrival of its de facto latest expansion, Nighthaven. The titular new zone brought players into a spooky storyline while the game introduced more housing and rebalanced weapon stats. It wasn’t a perfect content drop — there were some bugs and shortfalls — but it was a filling final meal that players didn’t know they were eating.
Black Desert: Flying mounts
This happened all the way back in February, so you would be forgiven if you forgot that Black Desert surprised us all by unleashing its first flying mount into the game after 10 years of operation. “Adventurers can now take to the skies as Duskwing the dragon introduces the thrill of aerial travel, offering a new dimension of exploration and verticality to the world,” Pearl Abyss said.
Lord of the Rings Online: Kingdoms of Harad
After three years and three expansions, LOTRO arrived at the conclusion of its epic storyline that took players far to the south of Gondor and Mordor. Kingdoms of Harad didn’t offer any huge new features or twists, but it did package up four zones and over 400 quests for Middle-earth adventurers to enjoy — and the surprise inclusion of a kinship calendar feature as well.
Fallout 76: Burning Springs
With the runaway success of Amazon’s Fallout series, it’s not surprising that Bethesda scrambled hard to figure out a way that it could tie Fallout 76 into the show. The answer was this fall’s Burning Springs release, a map expansion into Ohio that mimicked the old west, introduced bounty hunts, and brought the fan-favorite Ghoul out for an appearance.
WoW Classic: Mists of Pandaria
It’s wild to realize that the original World of Warcraft Classic from 2019 progressed into the MMO’s fourth expansion this summer with Mists of Pandaria Classic. This popular expansion took players into an eastern-themed continent with plenty of Chinese influences — not to mention the introduction of the Pandaren race for both factions and the Monk class.
And a few honorable mentions!
The year was far more than just those 11 releases, of course, so here are a few more that bear mentioning. Final Fantasy XIV released Patch 7.2: Seekers of Eternity last spring as the Dawntrail expansion cycle continued. Wizard101 saw a gothic world, Darkmoor, open its doors in November. Both EverQuest titles pushed out December expansions with Shattering of Ro and Rage of Cthurath. Dungeons and Dragons Online returned to the Ravenloft campaign with Chill of Ravenloft, EVE Online saw two expansions (Catalyst and Legion) come out, and No Man’s Sky pushed further into the MMO space with its Voyagers release and multi-crew starships.
Everyone likes a good list, and we are no different! Perfect Ten usually takes an MMO topic and divides it up into 10 delicious, entertaining, and often informative segments for your snacking pleasure. And per tradition, we’re cranking this column up to eleven with our annual special features in the End-of-Year Eleven!