Five MMORPGs to Watch in 2026: Upcoming Releases, Early Access, and Long-Awaited Projects

Now that we’re off and running in 2026, it’s starting to become clear that, barring any catastrophic delays, this year is shaping up to be a big year for MMOs. It feels as though the culmination of several projects will be coming to fruition this year. We’ve put together a list of 5 games that you need to watch for this year. These five aren’t just on the radar because they look pretty, but rather that we expect them to hit a milestone moment, whether that be launch, early access, or a long awaited update.

1) Chrono Odyssey

Chrono Odyssey has felt so far off, even as it continues to draw nearer. Despite launch expectations this year, the dark fantasy world, action combat, time-manupulation MMO with enormous bosses, has already had a few tests ahead of their intended launch target of Q4, 2026.

The game’s core identity is built around that “chrono” concept, with players using time-based abilities to reposition, interrupt, and control the flow of encounters. It’s a novel idea that is generally difficult to pull off in practice, but that’s what makes Chrono Odyssey so enticing. However, the game isn’t without its issues. 

Chrono Odyssey is aiming toward late 2026 after the team committed to significant overhauls following earlier testing feedback. Does that mean that we could see the game delayed yet again? It’s a very real possibility. But the feedback given in the tests last year have helped redefine what needs to change ahead of launch, and with more than a year to execute, we can see an end of year launch on the horizon – or in the very least, some widespread testing throughout 2026.

2) Camelot Unchained

Could it be? Camelot Unchained has been living in MMO limbo for so long that its been granted citizenship. More than a decade has passed since the tri-realm RvR-centric spiritual successor Dark Age of Camelot graced us with their Kickstarter campaign. The project was built on a clear premise, returning to the core of the original with massive battles, player-built structures, and a focus on territory conflict as the beating heart of the game.

But up to this point things have gone quite astray, with the team going nearly silent for most of 2025, after what some fans deemed as lackluster updates, with premiere MMO developer Mark Jacobs periodically missing from some of the updates.

Despite that, and some of the hardships City State Entertainment (Now Unchained Entertainment?) has gone through, Jacobs himself pointed to a late 2025 Early Access. While the team didn’t make the 2025 cut off, it only stands to reason that 2026 will be when we can finally expect to get our hands on Camelot Unchained. 

We fully expect the best-case scenario in 2026 for Camelot Unchained will not be a miraculous full launch, but rather an expansive testing of the largescale battles the team has recently teased. The worst-case is another year where the only thing that we get our hands on is a blog post explaining why the next year will finally be the year, but either way, you should keep a close watch on this one, as we seem to be nearing the Scooby-Doo-like unmasking of a game more than a decade in the making.

3) ArcheAge Chronicles (aka ArcheAge 2)

The MMO formerly known as ArcheAge 2 has spent the last couple of years of rebranding, timetable yeeting, and teasing what’s to come as the sequel of a once beloved title navigated the dangerous world of MMO development. Now, fully outed with its rebrand as ArcheAge Chronicles, the project is detailed as a modern follow-up that can capture what made ArcheAge wondrous, without the problems they feel bogged down its legacy.

The sequel is set to have largescale raids, world bosses, new game modes, while staying true to much of the core pieces that players enjoyed from the first game, just set 50 years in the future. Publisher Kakao spent much of 2025 working towards finding avenues of profitability, as 2024 saw a drop in operating profit. But with not only one, but two games (which includes Chrono Odyssey) set to release in 2026, it’s looking like a big year for Kakao.

The most interesting part of what we can only assume as a true 2026 release for ArcheAge Chronicles might be the impending lead-up rather than the launch. A healthy MMO release in 2026 would include meaningful testing with enough players to stress everything from the economy to servers, and all of these fancy world events we’ve been promised. 

That means that the next phase of testing in 2026 will likely be the most telling. What state will the game be in? Will the developers listen to feedback if Archage Chronicles needs a lot more work? Worse yet, XL Games has already tried to reframe the nature as less MMO-like, into a ‘story driven online action rpg’, but how far will it stray from the original MMO that people are clamoring for? Only time will tell – and that time is 2026.

4) Stars Reach

Stars Reach is one of those unique MMO pitches that sounds like the entire premise is a proof of concept meant to lure in players who looking for true dynamic worlds, but what Playable Worlds has shown in the past year is that the team is consistently delivering.  The science-fantasy sandbox where the environment is much more than a static themepark backdrop, but a system that responds to the players and world conditions in real-time is set to make some major headway in 2026.

The current reality is that Stars Reach likely isn’t close to a proper “launch” in 2026 in the traditional sense. But that’s not the bar for a game that has opened up testing with near weekly tests of some sort ongoing. Rather. the bar in 2026 is how far the game will actually come to a true-blue Early Access release. With the late-year inclusion of their virtual roadmap, we’re seeing a lot of new features on the horizon, such as new species, better communication tools, and better early game features to get players terraforming faster.

Unlike many studios, Playable Worlds has been transparent from very early on, allowing players into the game when it was soggy and malformed like a moist pizza dough. Yet Stars Reach has come a long way in 2025, shaping up rather nicely, so it stands to reason 2026 might just be year we see the team shoot for the moon and open the game up for everyone on Steam. 

5) Soulframe

When it comes to Soulframe we can argue that it’s not really pitched as a traditional MMORPG, and it isn’t wearing the “MMO” label as loudly as the others, but let’s not kid ourselves in this ever-shifting landscape of online game labels and semantics. Soulframe is a title that is going to bear a stark resemblance to the wildly popular Warframe title that precedes it, and that means hundreds of thousands of players adventuring together in a naturalistic dark-fantasy world.

What makes Soulframe interesting is its commitment to fluid, impactful combat and a cinematic feel that seems to hit some emotional cords in ways very few MMOs manage. With Digital Extremes pairing everything they’ve learned from Warframe with a wider open world full of the kind of fantasy-based shared exploration that MMO gamers have come to love, DE has given Soulframe the tools to feel like an evolved MMORPG rather than a traditional one.

But Soulframe more importantly hits this list because, despite the team stating the game is in pre-pre-pre-alpha many times, they’ve swung the doors open with founders packs, dropped thousands of invites for players to get in game, and have even hinted that they may just leave that door wide open in the future for anyone interested in giving the game a shot without spending any money. 

Setting the free testing aside for a moment, DE has been blazing through their Soulframe preludes updates, and 2025 was a banner year. It only stands to reason that DE should knock off a few more of those “pre’s” from that pre-alpha as Soulframe barrells its way closer to a full-scale release.