Predictions

We think World of Warcraft Forever gets no WoW Token before November 2027 and Guild Wars 2 gets no expansion in 2027. Vi.ki's own predictions about 12 MMORPGs, each with the date it can be checked, and five calls creators made on video.

13:07 TheLazyPeon's answer to which MMO will still be going strong in ten years is Old School RuneScape; what follows is what we think happens to 12 MMORPGs much sooner than that.

These are Vi.ki's own predictions and opinions, not reported facts. Each one says what we base it on and when it can be checked. We will mark each one right or wrong when it resolves. Every game's own page carries one more prediction about it, beside its scores on MMORPG Rankings.

Will World of Warcraft: Forever get the WoW Token?

We think Blizzard adds no WoW Token to Forever before November 2027.

Confidence: Likely. Check by: Nov 2027.

The WoW Token costs $20.00 in modern WoW and its shop page says it is "Not available in World of Warcraft Classic games" (read Nov 12, 2026). In his Nov 10, 2026 launch video TheLazyPeon names the missing token, at 8:09, as a reason Forever's economy is fun. Forever's whole pitch is progress that is earned and kept, and a token would sell the gold that pitch depends on. We would be wrong if a WoW Token, or any other way to buy gold from Blizzard, appears in Forever's in-game shop or auction house by then.

Will Guild Wars 2 get a new expansion in 2027?

We think no: ArenaNet will not release, or put a 2027 date on, a seventh Guild Wars 2 expansion.

Confidence: Likely. Check by: Dec 2027.

ArenaNet's Jun 6, 2026 post says the team will "spend nearly a full year going back through each era" of the game after Visions of Eternity ended in September 2026, and MeinMMO reported on Jun 7, 2026 that ArenaNet is not working on new expansions while its four other plans run. The roadmap to December 2026 names no expansion, and the Guild Wars 3 beta takes the studio's attention in fall 2027. MightyTeapot said on Aug 12, 2026 that he expects none before 2028. We would be wrong if ArenaNet announces a paid Guild Wars 2 expansion with a 2027 release date.

Will Aion 2 come to PS5 and Xbox?

We think NC names the platforms and a release window for a console version of Aion 2 by September 2027, without cross-play with PC.

Confidence: Possible. Check by: Sep 2027.

NC's Namjoon Kim told Wccftech on Sep 7, 2026 that "we're preparing a console launch as well", with the global PC launch first, and that cross-play "probably won't be supported". The PC launch is now done: the game has been free on Steam and PURPLE since Oct 5, 2026, and NC's Launch FAQ still supports Windows only. We think a console date is the obvious second launch for a game whose Steam daily peak has slipped from 397,905 to 180,875 in five weeks.

What would prove us wrong: no console platform or window named by NC by Sep 30, 2027, or a console version announced with PC cross-play.

Will Fierce difficulty be in Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold at launch?

We think Fierce, the new eight-player difficulty between Normal and Savage, is not playable on Feb 23, 2027 and first arrives with the expansion's first raid patch, weeks after launch.

Confidence: Likely. Check by: May 2027.

The official Evercold page lists Fierce beside the new raid series Beyond the Lifestream and warns that some content will arrive through patches and will not be playable right after purchase. Fierce is a raid difficulty, so it has nothing to attach to until the first raid tier opens, and the same page ties other features (the PvP tutorial) to the 8.x patches. Patch notes for 8.0 that include a Fierce duty on launch day would prove us wrong.

Creator prediction: Zepla (Zepla HQ), video _gl1dWYawHY, at 3:17 (197 s), mid-2026 (the video speaks of a Jul 28 patch as still to come): "If Blue Mage was dropped at the end of Stormblood or Shadowbringers is anything to go by, they probably won't be an update for a Beastmaster until long after Evercold drops." Checkable against the 8.0 and 8.1 patch notes.
YouTube ids used

7zYn6ap70vc | TheLazyPeon | MMORPG Tier List 2026 - Over 100 MMOs | 2026, exact date not found
HkJ9l0Z-ews | TheLazyPeon | The Absolute State Of MMOs In 2026 "ACTUAL Good News" | 2026-07-05
YicI5yEjDcY | Preach Gaming | My FIRST FF Savage Raid - Why WoW is SO DIFFERENT | 2026, exact date not found (he speaks of Resident Evil 9 as new and the Midnight raid race as soon)
_gl1dWYawHY | Zepla HQ | Stop Waiting for Evercold | mid-2026, exact date not found (before Jul 28, 2026)

Caveats

The tier list transcript 7zYn6ap70vc.txt was not in _mmorpg when I started; I fetched it with tools/yt.py (no 429). I fetched three more transcripts the same way (YicI5yEjDcY, _gl1dWYawHY, uTuOscTYjIc). I did not use uTuOscTYjIc (Lucky Ghost): the creator says in it that Square Enix partnered on the video, so I treated the whole video as sponsored. Chrome was never needed.
Three video dates are missing: the watch pages came back truncated without a date. The page says "2026" or "mid-2026" for them. The session's metadata pass should fill these in and correct the wording if needed.
I did not look at frames. The lead moment (Preach, 7:22 to 7:58) is chosen from the transcript, where he is explaining arenas and markers in a video he says shows his raid footage; whether gameplay or his camera fills the screen at that second is unchecked. The same holds for both Zepla moments, which may be talking head.
MassivelyOP refused the fetch (403). I used Square Enix's own press releases (Apr 24 and Oct 31, 2026) and the Lodestone for the same facts instead of going to Chrome, so nothing on the page rests on it.
The Online Store page loaded but its item lists are built by script, so I could not read USD prices for story or level skips. The page gives no price for them and rests the claim that they are sold on Zepla's words at the moment. "Nothing in the store adds combat power" is our statement; no page I opened says it in those words.
Evercold's USD price: not read. Steam showed me UAE prices only (AED 148 standard, AED 205 collector's), so the page gives no Evercold price.
Square Enix's free trial page lists four games and level 80, but its rules line names jobs from A Realm Reborn, Heavensward and Stormblood only. The press releases say Shadowbringers through Patch 5.58, which is what the page states.
The PvP mode list (Frontline, Rival Wings) and "one character can level every job" are long-standing facts written without a link of their own. The team sizes were taken out because I had no page for them.
Population: 36,882 is Steam only. By the brief's rule that is 8, plus 1 for a game mostly played off Steam. The Steam record of 95,102 in the prediction is Steam Charts' all-time peak, read today.
Least sure scores: Fair pricing (7 by the rule for convenience sold; I gave 8 for the free trial, and a strict reading would make it 7, which gives 44/6 = 7.3 and B tier) and PvP (4 could be argued as 5 given ranked seasons and region-wide matching since Nov 10, 2026). The tier is on the A/B line: any one-point drop moves it to B.
TheLazyPeon's tier: he says he feels "positive about the game overall", which is B on the scale he states at the start of the video; I did not see the tier image itself.
Word count is about 1,750 with the scores table, slightly over the brief's range.

Will Old School RuneScape get Leagues VII in 2027?

We think Leagues VII starts before the end of 2027, although Jagex's roadmap does not list it.

Confidence: Likely. Check by: Dec 2027.

Jagex's Oct 27, 2026 roadmap runs to Autumn 2027 and names no league. But Leagues VI ran from Apr 15 to Jun 10, 2026, and MeinMMO reported over 250,000 players two weeks into it, nearly double the 132,640 we read on Jagex's counter on Nov 12, 2026. We think no studio leaves its best population event off a whole year, and the same roadmap says "secrets" are held back. We are wrong if 2027 ends with no Leagues VII start date reached.

Will RuneScape 4 replace RuneScape 3?

We think Jagex shows no publicly playable build of its fourth RuneScape MMO at or before RuneFest 2027, and announces no end date for RuneScape in that time.

Confidence: Likely. Check by: Nov 2027.

Jagex's Oct 5, 2026 press release calls the game "still early in development" and gives it no name or date. On stage the presenter said "It is a few years away", heard in TheLazyPeon's Oct 4, 2026 reaction video at 3:28. In his Oct 16, 2026 RuneFest recap, Jagex's Mod North says the core team is "small at the moment" (11:18) and that the game "will not replace any of the games" (6:53). A public playtest at RuneFest 2027, or any closing date for RuneScape, would prove us wrong.

Will ArcheAge Chronicles get ships and naval combat?

We think no player-sailed ship is playable in ArcheAge Chronicles before Early Access ends, and that the first sea content XL Games shows is a trade route, not ship-to-ship combat.

Confidence: Likely. Check by: Nov 2027.

Nothing naval is in the Early Access feature list on the store page, and when XL Games described where PvP could go it named trade runs through PvP channels and guild fights over trade posts, on land (Let's Talk PvP, Oct 4, 2026). The first update is a weapon and a gender option, and a dedicated team is still reworking combat. A ship a player can steer on live servers before Early Access ends would prove us wrong.

Will Where Winds Meet ever charge for an expansion?

We think the next major Where Winds Meet expansion after Hidden Mountain and Qingzhou is free, like every one before it.

Confidence: Likely. Check by: Jul 2027.

Every 2026 expansion shipped at no charge: RPG Site reported Hexi as "free-to-play on PC, PlayStation and mobile" from Mar 6, 2026, and a year after launch Steam lists no paid DLC (read Nov 12, 2026). The money comes from cosmetics and passes, $4.99 to $19.99 on the US App Store, so a paid region would cut the audience that buys them. In his Nov 29, 2025 review TheLazyPeon also said all future DLC will be free. A priced expansion or a paid story chapter on any store by July 2027 proves us wrong.

Will Black Desert Online get a new class in 2027?

We think Pearl Abyss reveals a 33rd class at its summer 2027 ball and has its Succession live on NA and EU by the end of August 2027.

Confidence: Likely. Check by: Sep 2027.

Agent, the 32nd class, launched on Jul 30, 2026, days after the Heidel Ball. Inven Global's report from that ball says the policy from now on is Succession in summer and Awakening in winter. The Jul 30, 2026 press release names the class before Agent as Deadeye, from 2024, while MrHulthen's Feb 2026 video speaks of a Seraph class from late 2025, so the yearly rhythm has held. We are wrong if no new class is playable on the NA/EU live servers by Aug 31, 2027.

Creator predictions: none found that can be checked. TheLazyPeon's Jul 5, 2026 line (HkJ9l0Z-ews, 32:27, "BDO does seem to just maintain a solid player base year round") is an observation, not a forecast.
YouTube ids used

Caveats

The page says "July 21, 2023 video" for XIKZ8Fwqaco and "July 2023" for eVyNI0tqE84 (uploaded Jul 27, 2023). Upload dates were read from each watch page's own uploadDate field, in US Pacific time.
TheLazyPeon's tier list is titled 2026 but was uploaded Dec 11, 2025; the page says so. His tier for the game is "positive", which his own scale maps to B.
Overall is exactly 7.5 (45 over 6), the lowest possible A. One point off any score makes it B tier, the same as TheLazyPeon's.
Population: 8 by the rule (29,271, Steam Charts) plus 1 for play off Steam. Nothing measures the launcher or console share; the plus 1 follows the brief's rule, not a figure.
Fair pricing (4) is the score we are least sure of. The Nov 5, 2026 Pearl Shop notes list packs with a "Choose Your Ultimate Enhancement Box" and Advice of Valks boxes, and the Oct 8 notes give Pearl outfits 50% Combat EXP, but we found no official page today stating a Pearl to dollar rate or the rules for selling Pearl items for silver, so neither is on the page. The Pearl Abyss web shop page failed to load ("Failed to load the page").
8vNLkHf1jYo is BlueSquadron reacting to a new player's video; the page attributes "Most of BDO is solo content" to that new player and only "That is true", "It's a sandbox MMO. Embrace it." and "You only quest when you absolutely have to" to BlueSquadron. The stream has strong language outside the range played (22:32 to 23:02); worth a listen before publishing.
Moments were checked against transcripts only, not frames. The lead moment (tAcRJ10HRUs 2:00 to 2:47) is narration about the combo system; that gameplay is on screen there was not verified by eye.
MassivelyOP answered 403 to both Oct 2026 articles; we used Pearl Abyss's own patch notes instead and cite no MassivelyOP page. Inven Global (not on the brief's press list) is the only source for the Heidel Ball roadmap ("winter" Agent Awakening, "targeting November" Family Dispatch) and is named as such.
The console platforms rest on MeinMMO's Apr 1, 2025 report plus the official console notice board, which lists Oct 29, 2026 patch notes but does not name PS5 or Xbox Series X|S on that page.
"24 patch notes from May 21 to Nov 5, 2026" was counted from the official notice board filtered by "Patch Notes"; there was no note between Sep 23 and Oct 8, so the page says "almost every week".
Node War and Arena of Solare details come from long official pages read through a fetch summary; the Apr 30 page was cut off before its Conquest War section.
Word count is about 1,745 with the scores table, slightly over the 1,700 guide.

Will Lost Ark merge servers again?

We think Smilegate merges western servers or regions at least once more during 2027, most likely folding a smaller region into NA East or EU Central.

Confidence: Likely. Check by: Dec 2027.

The Aug 26 and Sep 9, 2026 merges left 3 of 7 servers in NA East and 2 of 5 in EU Central, and Amazon gave matchmaking and party finding as the reason. Since then the monthly Steam peak has kept falling, to 8,954 in October 2026 from 17,735 in February. A new publisher taking over the servers in early 2027 has both the reason and the occasion to consolidate. We would be wrong if 2027 ends with the same server list in every western region.

Will Throne and Liberty shut down?

We think NC announces no closing date for Throne and Liberty before the end of 2027.

Confidence: Likely. Check by: Dec 2027.

NC took the game's Western service in house on Nov 10, 2026, moved every account across and put a new app on Xbox, which is not what a company does with a game it means to close. NC's co-CEO put its first-year revenue at about 200 million dollars on the Q3 2025 earnings call, as MeinMMO reported on Nov 14, 2025. The risk is the count: the Steam average fell to 2,513 in October 2026. An official end-of-service date for the global version, announced before Dec 31, 2027, proves us wrong.

Will New World get private servers after it shuts down?

We think no public, playable New World private server exists by July 2027.

Confidence: Possible. Check by: Jul 2027.

Amazon's posts of Oct 28, 2025 and Jan 15, 2026 offer no offline mode, no server files and no sale of the game. TheLazyPeon hoped for a private server in his video on the announcement but doubted it, because the game runs on Amazon's Lumberyard engine and few private server developers know it. We would be wrong if reputable press reports a working fan server that anyone can join by then.

Creator predictions

TheLazyPeon, 04VydoXH0fc, 8:45 (525s), after Amazon's Oct 28, 2025 post (Oct or Nov 2025): "It wouldn't surprise me to see the Lord of the Rings MMO also get canned again." (BagginsTV's Y2J1e4Z65t4 at 6:00 reads a laid-off developer's LinkedIn post that implies it already was; I did not verify the cancellation in press.)
TheLazyPeon, HkJ9l0Z-ews, 12:12 (732s), Jul 5, 2026: "With New World officially shutting down on January 31st, 2027 and Crano Odyssey targeting a Q12027 release, the timing lines up almost perfectly for displaced New World players to migrate over." (A hope more than a prediction; checkable only against Chrono Odyssey's release.)
TheLazyPeon, 7zYn6ap70vc, 15:59 (959s), undated: "I think Chrono Odyssey has the potential to have better combat than what New World had."

YouTube ids used

Moments on the page (8, from TheLazyPeon and Newb World): 09ImdXpsLAg 1329 to 1374 (lead, gameplay), 09ImdXpsLAg 283 to 311, My8x_8FR-0c 1261 to 1304, 09ImdXpsLAg 1152 to 1191, My8x_8FR-0c 1113 to 1148, 04VydoXH0fc 114 to 150, 7zYn6ap70vc 921 to 947, kY21l-vog-E 342 to 392. Each checked against its transcript. None was checked in a real player for embedding or age restriction, and I did not look at frames: the lead moment is judged gameplay from the transcript (he narrates riding through Everfall).

Caveats

Video dates for six of the seven videos are inferred from what is said in them, not read from a watch page; the page words them as month and year. meta_full.jsonl held only HkJ9l0Z-ews.
Two new transcripts beyond the five given were used (kY21l-vog-E, Y2J1e4Z65t4); a third, miMemOWBNpw (Josh Strife Hayes), turned out to be about Ashes of Creation and is not used. Two YouTube searches run. No 429, Chrome not needed.
Newb World is a New World specialist channel but small (about 26,000 views on this video); it is the only creator I found speaking about the game's 2026 state. No established creator's 2026 gameplay of New World was found, so PvP and PvE scores rest on 2025 footage plus 2026 population figures. Those two scores are the least sure.
The claim that groups and queues are hard to fill today is our inference from Steam's 659 peak and Newb World's January 2026 remark; nobody measured queue times.
Fair pricing 5 is a judgment call: the rule would give the old model a 10, and I marked it down for the delisting and for non-refundable currency sold until Jul 20, 2026. The last sale price before delisting was not verified and is not on the page.
Console population is unknown; PlayStation Plus availability in 2026 was not verified and is not on the page.
PC Gamer, GamesRadar and Windows Central pages came back truncated to their headline through the fetch tool, and VGC answered 403; none is cited. The page's facts come from Amazon's two posts, its server status page, Steam, Steam Charts and MeinMMO, all opened today. Steam's store page was read through a fetch summary, which reported no buy button and the delisting notice.
The Facepunch (Rust) purchase offer reported in January 2026 is left out: I could not open a reputable article carrying the details, and MeinMMO calls later talks unconfirmed rumors.
The May 2026 patch (daily mutations, expedition limit 100, Soul Trial cooldown 6 hours) is sourced to MeinMMO only; Amazon's news page lists no patch notes after Nov 4, 2025.
"80 days" in the lead is counted from Nov 12, 2026 and ages daily.
The page file was corrected once with a small script after the Write (ten replacements); it is UTF-8 with LF endings.

What creators predict

TheLazyPeon on Aion 2 in the West

In his Apr 17, 2026 video on the year's releases, TheLazyPeon said he "wouldn't expect it to maintain a player base in the West for longer than three months" (7:42), months before Aion 2's Oct 5, 2026 global launch. We think he is wrong on the letter and right on the direction: five weeks in, the daily Steam peak was still 180,875 (SteamDB, read Nov 12, 2026), far too many to be gone by January, but already less than half of launch day.

Check by: Jan 2027.

MightyTeapot on the next Guild Wars 2 expansion

In his Aug 12, 2026 video, MightyTeapot said "there's no expansion until realistically 2028 at the earliest" (8:07). We think he is right, and our own prediction above says the same for 2027: ArenaNet's posts name no seventh expansion, and the Guild Wars 3 beta takes fall 2027.

Check by: Dec 2027.

Bellular on modern WoW after Forever

In his Nov 10, 2026 video, Bellular said he thinks retail "is basically cooked in the short term" and that the Eclipse patch for Midnight will itself be eclipsed by Forever (12:20). We think he is right about the patch and too hard on the game: Mythic+ runs fell about 40% in Forever's launch week, but the players went to another part of the same subscription.

Check by: Apr 2027.

Kira on the Ashes of Creation lawsuit

In his Oct 23, 2026 update on the case, Kira said that if it reaches a trial "we're looking at" 2028 for it to be over (3:15). We think the timing is right and that it ends in a settlement first, as one related suit already has.

Check by: Dec 2028.

Spid on Throne and Liberty's raid update

In his Sep 28, 2026 video, Spid said he expects Throne and Liberty's raid update most likely at the end of this year (8:15). We think the Nov 10, 2026 handover from Amazon to NC pushes it into 2027: the team's November plans list only balance work.

Check by: Feb 2027.

Our take

We think 2027 is a year of waiting for the biggest names. Guild Wars 2 has paused expansions for Guild Wars 3, Jagex has told RuneScape players that a fourth game is "a few years away", and Final Fantasy XIV's Evercold does not arrive until Feb 23, 2027. The games with news are the new ones: World of Warcraft: Forever, Aion 2 and ArcheAge Chronicles.

We think pricing decides more than content does. The three games we score lowest for fair pricing among those still growing or holding (Aion 2, Eve Online, Lost Ark) all sell something that turns into power, and two of the three are losing players month by month. The game with the fairest price on our list, ArcheAge Chronicles, has announced that a shop comes later, and we think what goes into that shop matters more to its future than any feature on its roadmap.

We think closures are the part of the genre nobody plans for. Two of the 14 games we score cannot be played, or soon cannot: New World closes on Jan 31, 2027 and Ashes of Creation is already gone. Neither offered an offline mode or server files, and we expect no official one for either.

Sources

Moments

MMORPG Tier List 2026 - Over 100 MMOs

TheLazyPeon

13:07 TheLazyPeon's answer to which MMO will still be going strong in ten years is Old School RuneScape; what follows is…

The Next BIG MMO Releases Of 2026...

TheLazyPeon

7:42 ), months before Aion 2's Oct 5, 2026 global launch. We think he is wrong on the letter and right on the direction…

Could This Be The MOST IMPORTANT PATCH IN YEARS? - Visions of Eternity : Code of Creation Delay

MightyTeapot

8:07 ). We think he is right, and our own prediction above says the same for 2027: ArenaNet's posts name no seventh…

WoW Forever Is F-king Huge

Bellular Warcraft

12:20 ). We think he is right about the patch and too hard on the game: Mythic+ runs fell about 40% in Forever's launch…

The Ashes of Creation Lawsuit Update

Kira

3:15 ). We think the timing is right and that it ends in a settlement first, as one related suit already has.

The Honest State of THRONE AND LIBERTY in 2026...

Spid

8:15 ). We think the Nov 10, 2026 handover from Amazon to NC pushes it into 2027: the team's November plans list only…

Predictions

Will World of Warcraft: Forever get the WoW Token?

Will Guild Wars 2 get a new expansion in 2027?

Will Aion 2 come to PS5 and Xbox?

Will Fierce difficulty be in Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold at launch?

Will Old School RuneScape get Leagues VII in 2027?

Will RuneScape 4 replace RuneScape 3?

Will ArcheAge Chronicles get ships and naval combat?

Will Where Winds Meet ever charge for an expansion?

Will Black Desert Online get a new class in 2027?

Will Lost Ark merge servers again?

Will Throne and Liberty shut down?

Will New World get private servers after it shuts down?