World of Warcraft – Warlords of Draenor
MMORPG Expansions that Exploded the Games’ Active Player Base
Ah, World of Warcraft, the undisputed king of the MMO. Ever since Blizzard debuted the title, the company has amassed enough money to fill a bank vault full of gold coins and swim through the wealth like Scrooge McDuck. But all was not well in the land of humans, orcs, trolls, and space goats. Even though the game reached an astounding peak of 12 million subscribers around the time players were busy running directly into a dragon god’s magma breath to earn an achievement (yes, seriously), the Cataclysm expansion that reshaped the game world didn’t do much to attract players. Neither did the Mists of Pandaria expansion that finally gave gamers playable panda monks, but then came Warlords of Draenor, the expansion that revitalized the player base and ripped the time-space continuum of the game world a new one.
According to the World of Warcraft fansite MMO Champion, subscription numbers during Mists of Pandaria reached an all-time low of 6.8 million (I never thought I would say something in the millions is “low”). And while the player base increased slightly to 7.4 million before Warlords of Draenor released, the expansion itself saw a huge resurgence of players, capping off at a cool 10 million, at least according to MMO Champion. Maybe players wanted to slap around Garrosh Hellscream for being a racist who alienated all non-orc members of the Horde, or perhaps they wanted to listen to Scott McNeil voice the father of Thrall, World of Warcraft’s most important character. Either way, Warlords of Draenor was the shot in the arm World of Warcraft needed. At least until subscriptions numbers sharply dropped off again.
Final Fantasy XIV – Stormblood
MMORPG Expansions that Exploded the Games’ Active Player Base
Final Fantasy XIV’s original release was a dumpster fire, but that didn’t stop the developers. Well, technically it did, but only in the sense that they stopped working on the original version, scrapped everything, went back to the drawing board, and rebuilt the game from scratch into one of the most popular modern MMORPGs. It was no World of Warcraft, at least not until Stormblood released. Stormblood’s promised features were too tempting: improved combat, new classes in the form of the Samurai and series-iconic Red Mage, and raids that brought fans back to the land of Ivalice —the setting of every Final Fantasy Tactics game and Final Fantasy XII. These were just the icing on Stormblood’s cake that took the community by storm, and the expansion has continued to wow audiences with plenty of new and nostalgic content.
In August of 2017, several months after the release of the Stormblood expansion, it was reported Final Fantasy XIV amassed more than 10 million players. This isn’t just limited to subscriptions though, as the game is essentially free, up to level 35 (Stormblood increased the max level to 70).
Still, Final Fantasy XIV took just under four years to obtain 10 million players, which is an impressive feat that eludes most MMOs. It’s not every day a game comes back from a literally apocalyptic launch to become the only MMO that can challenge World of Warcraft for player population.
Elder Scrolls Online – One Tamriel
MMORPG Expansions that Exploded the Games’ Active Player Base
The Elder Scrolls Online came from a massive legacy, arguably the biggest of any MMORPG on this list. It was the latest entry in a long-running series of fantastic RPG games, and players expected the world (of Elder Scrolls). Sadly, at release, the game played like a discount Skyrim; an inability to steal sweetrolls and assassinate bystanders didn’t help matters. Even after Bethesda dropped the subscription fee, which is usually a sign of trouble for MMOs, The Elder Scrolls Online refused to gain traction. But then someone had the bright idea to make the game play more like a traditional Elder Scrolls game.
Come October 2016, the One Tamriel update landed and completely changed the game. Gone were restrictions that locked characters who didn’t meet specific level and/or race requirements out of certain areas. Players could go anywhere they wanted at any time, just like the other Elder Scrolls games. According to The Elder Scrolls Online Steam chart, the game’s population grew significantly. Barren servers that never saw more than 10 thousand players suddenly were swarming with nearly 30 thousand, and that was just the PC version. And then Bethesda struck while the iron was hot with the November 2016 free weekend, convincing players once and for all the game was a true multiplayer Elder Scrolls experience. If it weren’t for the One Tamriel update and timely free weekend, The Elder Scrolls Online would have probably fallen prey to the same hungry maw that gobbled up so many other MMOs before it.
Warframe – Plains of Eidolon
MMORPG Expansions that Exploded the Games’ Active Player Base
Warframe has quite the storied history. What began as a game that was meant to be pitched to a AAA publisher has exploded into the best indie free-to-play MMO to date. According to July’s Steam leak, Warframe is the 8th most popular game on Steam, right between Garry’s Mod and Counter-Strike: Source, and it’s easy to see why. Warframe is the ninja simulator we’ve always wanted (no, Naruto games don’t count) but with gun-fu and super-powered suits that make Iron Man envious.
Now, Warframe has been popular since its inception, and it has received plenty of expansions and updates, but one, in particular, flung its popularity so high, it started orbiting Saturn: the Plains of Eidolon.
Before this update, Warframe was a heavily instanced game. Players always visited small, procedurally generated levels made out of various interconnected rooms (and sometimes expanses of outer space), but the Plains of Eidolon opened up a whole new frontier with the game’s first foray into open world levels. Ok, it was just one level, the titular plain, but it was full of all the exploration and danger that comes with the open world territory. Oh, and the update introduced the long-desired ability to craft customizable weapons.
According to Warframe’s Steam chart, the Plains of Eidolon update almost doubled the game’s average concurrent players from 37 thousand to 62 thousand, and peak concurrent populations were almost tripled. And much like The Elder Scrolls Online, this is just the PC version we’re talking about. Given developer Digital Extremes’ roadmap for the future, Warframe’s hype train isn’t stopping anytime soon.
Destiny 2 – Forsaken
MMORPG Expansions that Exploded the Games’ Active Player Base
While Bungie’s sequel to its shared-world shooter started off well in Sept. 2017, Destiny 2 started running on fumes just a few months further down the line, if that. Shooting space rhinos in the face and capturing the flag was only fun for so long, as evidenced by lagging player populations. But then the long-awaited Forsaken expansion launched, and the turnout would have made an Exo blush.
Maybe it was the new, explorable locations and sweet new weapons that attracted fans. Perhaps some Guardians were intrigued by the new supers. Or maybe, just maybe, players came back to Destiny 2 to avenge the death of Cayde-6, the lovable robo-gunslinger who became the face of Destiny 2 thanks to his goofy personality and speeches that rallied players to fight for loot and puppies. Regardless of the reason, Destiny 2’s population spiked after Forsaken.
According to DestinyTracker, the game was barely breaking 500,000 players in PvP and couldn’t get up to 1 million in PvE before the expansion, but in the time since its release, we haven’t seen a day go by without 1.3 million PvP participants and 2.5 million PvE partakers. The game is making one hell of a comeback.
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