Why didn't EverQuest remain as popular as other old MMO's?

[Wakanda]

I just googled most popular MMOs to see if I could find a new MMO to play until M&M comes out. Was scrolling through this list and was kind of blown away at how many people are playing Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, City of Heroes etc. (Obviously Runescape goes without saying.)

I tried all of these games when they were new, and none of them came close to EverQuest when all of the games were new products on the market. Even in 2026 I have more fun playing on P99 than I do playing WoW most of the time.

I'm just genuinely baffled by how so many older MMOs were able to gain such a huge following, yet the same games struggled to even compete with EQ back in the day?

It also cracks me up when I meet a younger person and they just assume that since I played EverQuest that I must have really loved Runescape since it came out in 2001... like no, man. Runescape was the EverQuest that you bought off of wish.com.

My theory is that the direction EQ went with the millions of different expansions that came out doesn't really appeal to veterans of the game, or younger / newer players. And P99 it just too difficult to install for the average normie. Game itself is possibly too difficult to play if you aren't familiar with it? IDEK.

[Belambic]

People got used to WoW easyraiding and didn't want to actually learn to play a game.

[Ekco]

even before WoW, i remember a bunch of people at the local Magic the gathering shop (rip Games Galore) jumped ship to Anarchy Online and it was pretty hard to argue it wasn't cool at the time

and Asheron's Call, whatever the timeline was i remember people pretty quickly looking for greener pastures that weren't/prior/also the nonsense that was WoW

[kjs86z2]

Asheron's Call was the best MMO, period.

[Reiwa]

There was also a concerted effort by many of the uberguilds to migrate to WoW.

[Defo]

Originally Posted by Ekco [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

even before WoW, i remember a bunch of people at the local Magic the gathering shop (rip Games Galore) jumped ship to Anarchy Online and it was pretty hard to argue it wasn't cool at the time

and Asheron's Call, whatever the timeline was i remember people pretty quickly looking for greener pastures that weren't/prior/also the nonsense that was WoW

I was one of those that jumped ship to AO. It's still alive, and still a good game. Also has a great monk class.

But yeah, WoW roflstomped EQ2. Lots of players left EQ1 for either EQ2 or WoW.

[BradZax]

Also back then we didn't have "i only play 1 game" gamers, and moving on from a game after a couple years was normal too.

EQ turned me into an i only play 1 game gamer.

[Ekco]

Originally Posted by Defo [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I was one of those that jumped ship to AO. It's still alive, and still a good game. Also has a great monk class.

played Agent, Monks looked so badass in Temple of the Three Winds, was cool camping that giant robot and seeing monks in their robes get that breastplate, AO was indeed cool

never got further than that first big dungeon really, i remember leveling out of it and the next one kinda blew, and grinding missions was kinda meh as well


camping a named for literal computer RAM sticks there was dope af also lol

[Eagish]

We jumped ship to DAoC when it came out and it was pretty awesome. Three different realms of characters and races to choose from, three different paths per class with mix and match options, quest rewards that were actually worthwhile, epic quests that were achievable with little to no bottlenecks, etc.

CoH was also awesome and one of the reasons it caught on so well was that it worked almost perfectly from the get go. Also flight and teleportation. I suspect it continues to have a dedicated player base because of both its simplicity of play and its ultimately customizable fashion quest. It got a little 'looty' after several years, but it's still pretty low key on that front.

Of course, I also play a fair bit of LotRO and that looks like it has pretty low numbers these days.

EQ really led the way, but even by 2004 it was graphically deficient and fugly compared to the competition. And as already implied, EQ (isn't exactly challenging) is far more punishing of player mistakes. When it was the only real game in town, people dealt with that and many left for more rewarding games when the opportunities opened up.

[red_demonman]

World of Warcraft killed it. That's really it. No reason to go back after the majority of the player base moved to WoW.