Averse Lands

Guides

The best free MMOs you can play online

Free is easy to promise and harder to keep. This short list sticks to MMOs that really are free to start and worth the time, and says plainly what each one costs once you are hooked and what it needs installing. We make one of them, so we say where it falls short too.

How we picked

Every game here can be played for free for as long as you like, not just for a trial. We left out games that are only free for a few levels, and we kept the descriptions to what each game is known for. Prices and plans change, so check each game's own site before you spend anything.

The list

  • Old School RuneScape. The classic point-and-click skilling MMO. Free worlds are generous, but most of the map and skills sit behind membership. A downloaded client or the phone app.
  • Albion Online. A sandbox where almost every item is made by players, with full-loot PvP in its most dangerous zones. Free to play with an optional Premium. Installs on PC, Mac, Linux and phones.
  • Guild Wars 2. A polished fantasy MMO whose core game is free to play; its expansions cost money. A large download for Windows.
  • The Lord of the Rings Online. Middle-earth, quest by quest. Free to play, with an optional VIP membership and a store for more of the world. A download for Windows and Mac.
  • Tibia. One of the oldest MMORPGs still running, top-down and unforgiving, with open PvP. Free, with a premium account for more. A downloaded client.
  • EVE Online. A single shared galaxy run on player trade and war. Free Alpha accounts have limits on the ships and skills they can use. A download, and space ships rather than swords.
  • Averse Lands. Ours: a free 3D fantasy MMORPG that runs in a browser tab, with nothing to install. More about it below.
Players queueing at Wilmot, the Exchange’s clerk, in Thousand Year Town, two traders talking prices beside the queue
At the Exchange in Thousand Year Town · a queue at Wilmot, the market clerk, and traders comparing prices. On the High graphics setting. Staged in the local test game with test characters, each at a level, in gear and with a standing a real character could have.

Where Averse Lands fits

Averse Lands is in a small, free beta. You train by doing: weapon blows raise your attributes and each of eleven weapon kinds has its own skill. You hunt across the isles and the Mainland, take a party of two to five into dungeons, trade on a player market called the Exchange, and fight other players from level 8. The game database lists its 187 items, 77 monsters and 27 skills, made from the game's own data.

  • What it costs. Nothing in the beta, and there is nothing to buy in it. A shop is planned for later; it will sell looks and conveniences, such as auto loot and extra stash space, never power.
  • What it needs. A computer with a mouse and keyboard and a current Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. Phones only have a test mode so far; the cross-platform guide explains it.
  • Where it falls short. It is young and small next to everything else on this list: fewer areas, fewer players and no raids or guild wars yet. If you want a huge finished world tonight, start with one of the games above.

Which to pick

For skilling, Old School RuneScape; for a player-made economy, Albion; for story, the Lord of the Rings Online or Guild Wars 2; for a dangerous old-school world, Tibia. If you would rather play in the browser you already have, try Averse Lands, and read how it compares with OSRS or what playing without a download means.

Averse Lands is in a small, free beta. Apply with Discord and we read every application ourselves.

Apply for the beta