If youve played sandbox survival games like Empyrean or Space Engineers, youll be fairly familiar with how Dual Universe works.

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Across hundreds of games, they bring in 10 billion dollars a year and have audiences that expand well into the tens of millions.

In just World of Warcraft, players have collectively logged more time than our species has spent evolving on this planetover 6 million years.

The best MMORPGs share the beautiful ideal that anyone from anywhere can become anything within the confines of these virtual worlds (and grind out some epic loot in the process).

So to celebrate that awesome lineage, weve rounded up the best MMOs that you can play right now.

Whether you want to kick ass as some sort of human-cat hybrid or conquer the galaxy as a ruthless dictator, the MMOs on this list represent the best the genre has to offer.

To make things easy, weve broken this list down into categories that really get at the heart of what makes each of these games exemplary.

For more of the very finest experiences in PC gaming, check out our roundups of the best strategy games on PC, the best RPGs on PC, and the best battle royale games.

The Best MMO in 2020 Final Fantasy 14 A lesson in history An incredible number of MMOs have played a critical role in shaping the genre, but many of them are much older and less populated than in their better days.

For that reason, this list focuses on MMOs that still have a lot of life left in them, rather than those that are slowly winding down or have already run their course.

If you want to read about the genres past, check out our brief history of MMO games.

Though we heartily recommend every entry in this list, if we had to choose just one MMO to recommend in 2020, it would be Final Fantasy 14.

Few MMOs check every box, but FF14 comes close with its gorgeous graphics, captivating story, robust features, excellent dungeons, and consistent quality updates.

Last summer, FF14 launched its third expansion, Shadowbringers, and it is easily the best out of the bunch.

At its core is a heartfelt and captivating story of a world teetering on the brink of complete annihilation from the forces of lighta clever inversion of the typical good versus evil paradigm.

Even if you dont want to play FF14 as a live service game, the story of Shadowbringers is so good its worth buying just to experience it, and it also has one of the best villains since Kefka or Sephiroth.

Since Shadowbringers release, there have been two major updates that have expanded the story and added all new systems, like fishing raids, city restoration projects, and new raids and trials.

Its endgame can be a little repetitive (especially if you arent interested in crafting or housing), but its gorgeous world, emotional storytelling, and variety of activities set it far ahead of other MMOs in 2020.

Best Upcoming MMOs You can find the rest of our recommended MMOs below, but we also wanted to briefly mention some of the most promising upcoming MMOs to pay attention to.

Image credit: Amazon) New World Amazons no-subscription-needed New World has changed a lot over the past few years of development, wavering between a proper MMO and just a really big multiplayer survival game.

Whats never changed is the emphasis on massive PVP territory battles with 50 players on each side battling it out to control various forts and settlements scattered around the map.

While Ill never say no to more PVP-focused MMOs, Im also excited to check out New Worlds action combat, which actually requires carefully-timed dodges and melee attacks instead of memorizing complex hotkey rotations.

Amazon is planning a closed beta sometime in April, but the actual game is planned to release in May of 2020.

Its been in development for years, but this space-faring MMO has some cool tech under its belt, especially in how it plans to handle thousands of players in a small area at the same time.

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