An avalanche of live service titles are available to play on PC as well as consoles, but some have built up a reputation for being head and shoulders above the rest.
With so many live service and online multiplayer titles vying for players’ time these days, we run through the very best of them that you can play right now.
Gaming is different in 2024. Whereas the landscape was once dominated by single-player titles that prioritised good gameplay and telling a good story, these types of experiences are now very much the exception to the rule as opposed to the norm. Taking their place in today’s popularity zeitgeist are what are known as live service games – online-only multiplayer releases designed to be played indefinitely over a long period of time, all in the bid to get their hooks into you until it’s tough to put down. Not all live service games are created equal, however, and this year alone has proven how easy it is to see them come and go.
If you’re an online-preferring player looking for a good live service game to spend your precious time with friends, there’s most certainly a fit and healthy live service game – continuing to receive precious updates and regular patches – ideal for you. To make that search just a little bit easier and less daunting, here we’ll rank the 10 best live service games you can play right now in 2024 (in no particular order).
Helldivers 2
Easily one of 2024’s biggest breakout successes in the PvE multiplayer space, Helldivers 2 released back in February with a bang and has never really stopped being a good way to blast aliens and robots side-by-side with friends. It swaps the 2015 original’s isometric view for a true third-person perspective, challenging your ability to defend Super Earth using all manner of offensive Strategems that are simultaneously inventive yet incredibly devastating to your intergalactic foes if used correctly. Helldivers 2 is PlayStation’s biggest success releasing a game on PC yet, with various battle pass style Warbonds always being introduced to keep you fighting for cosmetic rewards. Helldivers 2 might be new on the scene, but its satirical edge and explosive gameplay has given it staying power.
Destiny 2
Going mostly strong for 10 years now, Bungie’s trademark sci-fi FPS has had its ups and downs but now finds itself in relatively good health. The occasional wonky expansion aside, this year it finally delivered on the promise of resolving its main Light and Darkness story thanks to the arrival of The Final Shape, which righted the wrongs of last year’s Lightfall and will see future annual seasons swapped for more manageable episodic updates. Regardless of whether you want to be invested in Destiny’s convoluted lore or not, with Destiny 2 you’re always guaranteed great-feeling shooting, raids that are fun to repeat in the hunt for good loot, and a solid PvP option in Crucible. Since it went free-to-play in 2019 there’s no reason not to jump in.
Fortnite
You know we couldn’t get through this list without mentioning the elephant in an otherwise very crowded room. By this point Fortnite needs no introduction, of course, but it’s still worth mentioning how its one of the very best live service games for those craving variety, colour, and a guaranteed amount of chaos in any one of its several game modes. Speaking of which, while competitive battle royale remains the crux of what Fortnite has to offer, the likes of Lego Fortnite, Fortnite Rocket Racing, and now Fortnite Festival all but confirms the worldwide dominance developer Epic Games has been able to secure since the title first launched in 2017 as a humble tower defence shooter. There are two types of players in this world: those who play Fortnite, and those who’ll play Fortnite eventually.
Diablo 4
Hacking and slashing through demons doesn’t get more hellish than in Diablo 4. A darker, grimmer take on the longstanding Blizzard series compared to the previous entry, a whopping five starting classes ensures that nobody’s character build and story experience is the same, but it’s really the quarterly seasonal updates that have kept this latest Diablo title kicking in the year since launch. And sure, there’s been several setbacks in the form of poor class balancing and error codes upon updates, yet Diablo 4 still offers a unique type of live service experience – one that regularly gives you and friends the ability to mash through thousands of enemies in a single session. 2024 is an exciting time to dive in, too, thanks to the arrival of the Vessel of Hatred expansion and new Spirtborn class.
No Man’s Sky
No Man’s Sky arguably represents one of the biggest video game comeback stories… probably ever. Having released severely undercooked back in 2016 as a PS4 exclusive, with lifeless procedurally generated planets and limited ways to interact with them – knowing this wasn’t enough from dissuading the team at Hello Games from realising their lofty ambitions. No less than 25 updates have arrived since, slowly introducing new features such as base-building, updated water graphics, the ability to play in third-person, and so on. All these updates have been free, too, so firing up No Man’s Sky today means playing one of the most fully-formed space exploration experiences ever.
Sea of Thieves
In many ways the ultimate social pirate simulator, Sea of Thieves has been making waves for several years due to its charming art style, laid-back gameplay loop, and nature to coax the best and worst out of your fellow role-playing pirates. Collaborations with the likes of Pirates of the Caribbean and The Curse of Monkey Island have come since its launch exclusively on Xbox One in 2018, all of which have cemented Rare’s seafaring title as one of the genre’s very best. Keeping your vessel shipshape with friends while battling skeletons and monsters and searching for treasure ensures that you never know what to expect from any Sea of Thieves play session. Since it has come to PC and PlayStation, the potential for fun is now as wide as an ocean.
GTA Online
Arguably just as big a phenomenon as the main draw, GTA 5, and definitely much more profitable than most other live service games on this list, GTA Online is about as expansive an online experience as they come. Letting up to 30 players roam about freely on a single map, completing co-operative missions such as Heists and more, Rockstar Games has ensured that the updates have continued to roll out in the 10 plus years since launch. GTA Online fully delivers on its promise to bring the anarchic open-world experience of the mainline series to the online multiplayer format, slowly transforming into more of a platform than just a single mode. Complete with its own multiyear narrative, GTA Online can be tough to get into but can be infinitely rewarding when it clicks.
Final Fantasy 14
If at first you don’t succeed, try again! This is the lesson Final Fantasy 14 learned way back in 2013 when it re-launched as Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn three years after it died with a complete visual and design overhaul. This fantasy MMORPG has grown to become a leader in the genre ever since, introducing so many story expansions, DLC, and updates – almost to the point of intimidation. Dawntrail, as the latest expansion pack, takes players to the continent of Tural for new adventures, complete with two new jobs to do it with. Needless to say, the behemoth that is Final Fantasy 14 shows no sign of slowing down.
Warframe
If you’ve ever wanted to roam about the galaxy as a nondescript (and yet super sleek) space ninja, then Warframe is the live service game for you. Mixing in aspects of role-playing, shooting, and swordplay into one neat sci-fi venture, Digital Extremes has been able to slowly yet surely cultivate a passionate community of players, all of whom continue to have immense fun playing as any one of the game’s titular guises. Complete with inventive weapons to try out and a sweeping story centred on the Earth’s far future, Warframe gives back however much you’re willing to put in.
Call of Duty: Warzone
The world of Call of Duty continues to be many people’s go-to way to play online with friends, which goes some way to explaining Warzone’s dominance within the battle royale sub-genre. Building on the bones of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4’s Blackout mode, duking it out on sizeable maps such as Urzikstan and Verdansk is a great excuse to enjoy Call of Duty’s airtight FPS gunplay in a format that is something other than traditional PvP. The fun continues with frequent updates based on the likes of WWE, Prime Video's The Boys, and more in order to give Warzone fans new ways to play. As a free way to enjoy military-themed shooting, Call of Duty: Warzone isn’t without its issues but still proves incredibly popular.
