Best Games With A Persistent World

Video games offer players incredible immersive and engaging worlds to explore. As technology has improved, these games have become larger and more complex. Stunning and dynamic game worlds have become commonplace, with servers able to handle high numbers of players at one time. Often associated with the MMO genre, more games than ever offer players a persistent universe to explore, pushing the boundaries of gaming into thriving virtual worlds.

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A persistent universe refers to a game that continues to exist, even when the player is logged out. Offering players a higher level of immersion, these are games where the player's choices matter. Actions can affect not only other players, but also the world they exist in. They can often create amazing moments between people, forcing conflict or cooperation through emergent storytelling over longer periods. These games are at the forefront of the genre, leading the charge in technology and online social experiences.

7 Grand Theft Auto Online

Persistent World Features: Stock Market Prices

GTA is one of the most successful game franchises in history. This is one of the few titles to become a household name, even for non-gamers. GTA Online offers players the chance to experience all the chaos and crime of the game, with up to sixteen players per server. Players can create a crew, plan heists, and even fight with other players in this immersive and addictive online game.

Players can affect the world of GTA Online through various actions, but most notably through the in-game stock market. By destroying certain items, such as cars or planes, players can influence the market price of those items, earning them more money over time. GTA has also spawned several unofficial role-play servers, most notably No-Pixel, which takes the persistent world of GTA to whole new levels of immersion, with players role-playing their characters in a fully interactive GTA world.

6 Conan Exiles

Persistent World Features: Building Destruction And Degradation

Conan Exiles is a popular multiplayer survival game, set in the Conan the Barbarian universe. The game offers players the chance to explore different biomes, construct buildings, and even craft and upgrade tools, weapons, and armor. Players can create a unique character in the game, which they can level up through different actions. Although the game doesn’t feature a class system, players can choose which attributes and skills to level, effectively creating their own class as they progress.

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Conan Exiles offers players a lot of freedom. The game has three different play modes; PvP, PvE, and PvE Conflict. The first of these, PvP, allows players to deal damage to each other, as well as to the buildings they construct. Building damage is only available at prime times though. This allows for a persistent universe in the game, with players being able to affect a settlement even if the players who built it are offline. In addition, buildings degrade over time, so players may find that their home is no longer there if they return to the game after an extended absence.

5 Rust

Persistent World Features: Building Construction And Destruction, Item Storage

This popular multiplayer survival game drops players into temporary servers, where they can construct bases, build items, and interact with other players. In Rust, players need to scavenge for materials, and grow or hunt food to survive. The game has a strong emphasis on PvP combat, so forming alliances is down to the players. As such, conflict between groups is common.

Any structures that players build will persist, even when the player is logged off. These buildings will stay in place unless destroyed by players, or if the server is wiped after a month or so. Rust is a brutal game though, where player conflict is common. While a structure can persist for a long time, chances are it will likely be destroyed in short order.

4 Minecraft

Persistent World Features: Building Construction And Destruction, Item Storage

One of the most popular games of all time, Minecraft’s simple gameplay allows for endless creation and fun social interactions. The game offers multiple modes, allowing players to join different server types, which can vary from being build-only to full PvP. In the latter, players can permanently affect the world, destroying other players' buildings as much as they like.

It is also possible to set up a private server, seen most frequently in the world of Twitch streaming. Through these custom servers, players can create a unique world where only those who are invited can join. This type of server offers players an incredibly immersive and persistent world in which to explore, build, and interact with friends in.

3 Star Citizen

Persistent World Features: A Dynamic Economy, Persistent Items

One of the most ambitious game projects the industry has ever seen, Star Citizen is a huge, ongoing sci-fi MMO where players can choose a unique path through the game. They can explore other planets, battle other players, and accumulate wealth as they go. From earning money through salvage and trading to turning to piracy, players are free to forge their adventures around the Verse.

Star Citizen is currently in active development and hosts thousands of players every day. It offers a persistent universe, where actions can have lasting consequences, from failing a contract to attacking the wrong ship. The game continues to improve and add additional features, growing into one of the most immersive space experiences ever created.

2 Avalon: The Legend Lives

Persistent World Features: Deep Player-Driven Economy

• Platform: Platform Independent
• Released: 1989
• Developer: Yehuda Simmons
• Genre: Fantasy, Text-Based RPG, MUD

Many of today’s persistent open-world universe games owe a lot to the innovations of this classic multiplayer text-based RPG. Starting in the late 80s, Avalon maintained a constant presence up until as recently as 2023, which made it the longest-running online RPG in history. The game allowed players to create another life in a world of gods, dragons, and merchants, with a game world offering over 20,000 unique locations.

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Avalon was famous, not only for being a continuously long-running game, but for many of its innovations that would become standard in modern MMOs. It was the first game to create a player-based economy, which included trading, item ownership, and real estate, as well as the opening of its own virtual bank. In the realm of persistent universe games, Avalon: The Legend Lives stands as one of the true originators of thriving online worlds, where every player’s choices have an impact and lasting consequences.

1 Eve Online

Persistent World Features: Shared In-Game World, Dynamic Economy, Passive Real World Time Progression

One of the most popular games offering players a persistent world is Eve Online. This popular sci-fi MMORPG gives players the chance to live out their spacefaring dreams in an enormous shared game world. Players will be mainly exploring the thousands of in-game stars in their spaceship while upgrading their character with new skills continuously in real-time. The player character will learn skills even when offline, some of which can have a staggering 10-year training schedule.

In Eve Online, players are free to choose their path, but many turn to piracy, mining, or trading. The game has a complex in-game economy that is dynamic and ongoing. Players’ actions have a lasting effect on this, and with different factions all competing with each other, this has often led to all-out war. These conflicts can involve thousands of people and last hours or days, with players losing hundreds of dollars worth of in-game ships by joining or rejoining to continue the fight. Eve Online has become more than just a game, with its deep lore and complex mechanics creating a thriving virtual second life for many players.

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