# ‘It’s Difficult To Justify the Investment’ – How MMOs Have Become Niche, Despite Starting the World’s Obsession With Live-Service Games

> Whatever happened to the MMORPG? In the early 2000s, the likes of World of Warcraft, RuneScape, and EverQuest dominated cyberspace, their worlds host to millions of players questing and raiding together.

- **Source:** [Ign](https://www.ign.com/articles/how-mmorpgs-built-and-lost-the-live-service-throne?utm_source=gearopen.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=feed&utm_content=6ac7b4fdeaf6d71dce446467)
- **Published:** 2026-10-08
- **Category:** Gaming
- **Tags:** #galaxy #steam
- **Canonical:** http://localhost:4321/a/6ac7b4fdeaf6d71dce446467

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_GearOpen's distilled summary. The full original article is published at Ign (source link above); GearOpen does not republish the source's full text._