The Best Live-Service And Ongoing Games To Play

Key Takeaways

• Successful live-service games like Rocket League and Genshin Impact prove that adaptation and evolution lead to lasting player satisfaction.
• Wuthering Waves demonstrates how attentive developers can turn a rocky launch into a thriving, engaging open-world experience.
• Games like Path of Exile and Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn show that constant updates and expansions can revitalize a game’s reputation.

As one of the most collectively reviled gaming trends in recent memory, gamers everywhere will still have to put up with live-service games for a good while. Continuous updates and a steady stream of content years after launch all sound great on paper, but as is often the case, empty promises and unreachable lofty goals so often lead to disappointment.

Thankfully, not all live-service games follow the same fate. When done right, live-service games will adapt and evolve to the needs of their player base over time. These games have not only realized the original vision that was laid out by the developers, but they have also more than surpassed them. Here are some of the best live-service games that are still widely enjoyed today.

Updated on November 08, 2024, by Sanyam Jain: Most live-service games have defined amounts of time when they launch new updates that could release new characters, game modes, or mechanics. However, there are some games out there that get consistent update to spice things up, but not at a regular timeline, and Once Human is a great example for this.

16

Rocket League

When Rocket League was released all the way back in 2015, it was not initially touted as a live-service game – its staggering success and huge concurrent player base saw to that. The base game mode sees you engage in tense matches of 4v4 soccer matches while controlling rocket-powered sports cars.

After its huge success, Psyonix and Epic Games began rolling out the game’s live-service elements to keep its huge community of players satisfied. After several years of significant content drops, car packs, cross-platform support, and a battle pass, Rocket League has become a multiplayer juggernaut that still has a healthy concurrent player base.

15

Once Human

While there are many live-service games that extend their gameplay with updates, there are only a few that drastically change everything, and Once Human is one such example. The game leaves you in a big open-world where you have to consistently fight zombies while you farm for better gear and get stronger.

You essentially have to select a scenario for your character and go through the multiple phases of that scenario. Once you’re on the last phase, you can sign up for the next scenario, consistently progressing the story and getting to take part in different types of worlds. With updates, the developers also release various events to keep things fresh.

14

Genshin Impact

The developers at HoYoverse released Genshin Impact on September 28, 2023, and it instantly took the world by storm. This Gacha game became extremely famous worldwide because it had something for everyone. With a giant open world, emotion-filled story, difficult combat, and a variety of characters, there was no way for it to fail.

Not only has the game recently gotten the release of one of the most anticipated characters, Clorinde, but is also on its way to reaching its fifth main region soon. If you want to be a part of Teyvat’s story, now is the perfect time as you’ll be able to catch up with the story by the time Natlan releases and enjoy the way forward with other players.

13

Wuthering Waves

While the launch for Wuthering Waves might not have been the best, the developers have quickly proven that they’re on top of things and care about their community with various fixes and in-game rewards. Wuthering Waves is an open-world game set in a post-apocalyptic world where you play as Rover.

Apart from the main story, this game has tons of areas for you to explore with a wide range of beautifully designed characters. The combat feels extremely satisfying with the requirement of timed dodges and parry mechanics. With the Version 1.1 update, Mt. Firmament map has been added for exploration, which is far more immersive than any other exploration area in the game.

12

Path Of Exile

Taking heavy inspiration from the iconic Diablo 2, Path of Exile has evolved into something truly special. This wasn’t always the case, as it took some time for gamers to warm to the new IP when it was released back in 2013.

All they had to do was engage in its fantastic ARPG mechanics and a vast array of engaging character builds to be sold on one of the best games to ever do it. The game has enjoyed a plethora of seasonal events and significant updates to keep players coming back. It also handles its free-to-play entry point amicably, by (fairly) monetizing for cosmetics only.

11

League Of Legends

Even if you’re not a MOBA fan, it’d be hard not to at least be aware of the ongoing impact of League of Legends on the general gaming sphere. Over the years, League has added hundreds of Champions to take into the game’s diverse set of tense battle arenas, with more being added on a continuous rolling basis during its popular ranked seasons.

There’s a reason the game has accrued over 180 million registered players, is a global Esports phenomenon, and has inspired a bunch of high-quality spin-offs. Its longevity and continued relevance in gaming culture pretty much speaks for itself.

10

Honkai: Star Rail

Another Gacha game coming from HoYoverse, Honkai: Star Rail had a lot to prove during its release since it was directly competing against the biggest Gacha game from the same developers. This game’s world wasn’t nearly as open or explorable as Genshin Impact, but it still exceeded all expectations with its phenomenal story and character design.

You’ll play as Kafka when you start the game for the first time, but eventually, you’ll start playing the role of the main character who has a Stellaron inside them. The cast of playable characters in the game is evergrowing with the recent additions of Firefly and Jade in the Version 2.3 update. Apart from all that, the developers have also teased a new Path for March 7th, one of the members of the Astral Express.

9

Zenless Zone Zero

Zenless Zone Zero was the third major release from HoYoverse in the live-service genre, and it didn’t enjoy the same popularity as the other two, and there were a few reasons for this. However, the most common reason was the overuse of TV mechanic, especially in the main story.

In one of the recent updates, the developers revealed that they’ll be eliminating this mechanic from the main story completely, allowing players to have a seamless experience. That combined with phenomenal combat involving dodges and parries makes this game one of the more challenging gacha games to play, even if you have strong characters.

8

Sea Of Thieves

Despite offering players a deeply compelling pirate multiplayer experience, Sea of Thieves was a little lacking when it launched in 2018. It was incredibly satisfying to take to the seas in a rag-tag group of swashbuckling plunderers, but it was a bit bare bones at launch.

Things have looked way up since then, as Rare has been hard at work in the years since. Not only have the developers been brave enough to make some tough decisions of putting a cap on some game modes when they weren’t successful, but they also haven’t shied away from making meta changes recently with new guns and ship speed changes.

7

Grand Theft Auto Online

What started as a multiplayer offshoot of GTA 5, Grand Theft Auto Online is the culmination of Rockstar’s efforts to include multiplayer since GTA 4 introduced it to the series back in 2008.

Set in GTA 5’s same detailed setting of Los Santos (and beyond), GTA Online allows up to 30 players to roam around the open world, participate in missions, and play against each other in tense multiplayer races and gunfights. Though lacking a lot of features at launch, GTA Online is now a content-filled ongoing multiplayer experience, with a huge variety of updates, activities, and heists to mess about with.

6

No Man’s Sky

Most live-service games mentioned so far have a particular focus on multiplayer – this is not the case with No Man’s Sky. It features a staggeringly large, fully explorable procedurally generated universe where you can walk along the surface of countless planets and hop in your ship to take to the impossibly large depths of outer space.

The game suffered a disappointing launch in 2016, but after a huge amount of effort from Hello Games, No Man’s Sky has become one of the best space games ever made. There have been an incredible amount of updates that have added significantly to the game, including introducing base-building mechanics, more vehicles and ships, a dedicated VR mode, and the inclusion of 32-player multiplayer. It’s one of gaming’s greatest comeback stories.

5

Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn

Final Fantasy 14 was another game that was considered a failure at launch. It had a myriad of technical issues and was riddled with poor design choices that disappointed fans of the series. Thankfully, Square Enix listened to feedback and worked tirelessly to right the wrongs in a complete overhaul: A Realm Reborn.

Not only has Square Enix learned from its past mistakes, but it has also built upon them with a constant stream of massive expansions, patches, and updates that will keep players coming back for years to come. The recent one of these comes in the form of the Dawntrail DLC, and the game’s queues are enough to tell you how hyped it is.

4

Apex Legends

Apex Legends has maintained its huge level of success ever since it was shadow-dropped by EA and Respawn Entertainment back in 2019. It’s easy to see why, with its blend of the battle royale formula made popular by Fortnite and PUBG, with the class system based on hero shooters inspired by the likes of Overwatch.

The game has benefited from Respawn’s first-person shooter pedigree and utilizes a fluid movement system that feels great to play while taking control of its ever-expanding list of playable characters. Apex Legends has received countless updates and seasons over the years and has amassed a dedicated ongoing fanbase.

3

Valorant

Taking the FPS genre by storm on its release, Valorant has been a strong contender for the best FPS live-service game with its constant introductions of new maps and agents. With time, the game has also received various unique modes like Swiftplay, Spike Rush, or Escalation, making it perfect for both casual and competitive players.

You’ll have a team of five players against five enemies in most of the game modes, and you’re essentially supposed to win a certain number of rounds to be declared victorious in a respective game. Recently, Valorant has updated a bunch of Duelist abilities to bring them back into the meta alongside a new map called Abyss, where you can easily fall through the map while attempting parkour.

2

Warframe

Ten years on and still going strong, Warframe hooks players in with its slick movement, awesome gunplay, and captivating space setting, and gets them to stick around with its engaging rotation of multiplayer PvE missions, a tantalizing array of cool weapons, and a vast selection of ‘Frames’ that really change up the gameplay.

Warframe was one of the first to get the whole looter-shooter thing right, and features a fair free-to-play model – it should be used as an example for any other game that wants to follow suit. It has had some huge updates over the years, including new locations, new story content, a whole host of different classes, and the ability to explore open-world locations.

1

Destiny 2

The original Destiny that was released in 2014 was touted as Bungie’s magnum opus, with the lofty goal of pushing out a hefty ten years of content. Destiny 2 continued Bungie’s efforts with its release in 2017 and is a live-service game that has amassed a staggeringly large player base.

Since Bungie distanced itself from Activision, Destiny 2 became free-to-play and has become closer to what was originally envisioned for the series – a persistent multiplayer experience that has been built upon with continual updates, major story expansions, and newly added multiplayer content. The game is still enjoyed by a passionate and dedicated community and is one of the most successful live-service games ever made.