Top 10 Private MMO Servers You Should Play In 2025
Why Private Servers?
Over the years there has been a increase in Private Servers, mainly due to peoples knowledge of coding improving and technology advancing.
It’s no longer a financial sink to host your own private server either, which opens up the possibility for gaming communities to revive old MMOs that were once thought to be lost forever.
Or have the community setup a private server of an existing game in order to try and run it better then the original devs do.
So let’s take a look at some of the top private servers out there and which ones you should check out in 2025.
10 – World of Warcraft
Although World of Warcraft is far from dead, they have had enough controversies over the years to cause people to want to try and run the game better then Blizzard.
Two private servers that have been suggested to me numerous times are WOW Ascension and Turtle WOW.
Ascension aims to bring classic WOW to the masses, but with a classless system, bringing a new way of playing.
Link here: https://ascension.gg/
Where as Turtle WoW is going back to the Vanilla days but with the added bonus of shifting the game to UE5 hopefully in the near future.
Link here: https://turtle-wow.org/
Both are come highly recommended and are free to play. Which I’m sure Blizzard wont be happy about…
9 – Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy XI is still alive today, despite its lack of support from Square Enix. There are no future updates planned and is basically circling the drain. If it wasn’t for the $10 a month subscription cost, the servers would of most likely been shut down by now. It’s because of this lack of support that the Horizon server was spun up. A free to play Private server, that has a level cap of 75, and aims to re-balance the game and bring it back to a time where it wasn’t so neglected.
This one comes highly recommended and is one I will hopefully be checking out in the near future.
Link here: https://horizonxi.com/
8 – Lineage 2
Although the Western servers closed down back in 2011, people still find a way to play this NCSoft classic and that is of course, through the use of Private Servers!
But which server is everyone playing on you might be wondering. Well the simple answer is, I don’t know.
There are over 100 different private servers to choose from, with some going as far as to upgrade the engine and others just trying to make the game more balanced. So if you are looking for a Lineage 2 private server, may I suggest the following site that has the top 100 listed…
Link here: https://www.top100arena.com/category/lineage2
7 – EverQuest
Once again, another old MMO with an abundance of private servers to choose from. One of the founding fathers of the MMO genre, it really shouldn’t be a surprise that there are so many different ways to play this historic title.
Two of the most popular ones to choose from are Project 99, which aims to recreate the classic EverQuest experience from you guess it, 1999. This Includes the game’s original rules and mechanics.
The other highly rated server is The Heroes’ Journey, which is EverQuest without the restriction of being 1 class, instead you can choose up to 3.
Both are super popular and bring their own unique niche to the title.
Link here: https://heroesjourneyemu.com/ and https://www.project1999.com/
6 – Ultima Online
Another classic MMO with a new zest for life, thanks to private servers. In particular one that has been recommended to me several times and i’ve only ever heard good thinks about is the Ultima Online Outlands private server, which has been going for 6 years now.
Ultima Online is by far one of the most brutal sandbox MMORPGs out there, which is why it’s important to have a fair playing field. The Outlands server is against pay to win mechanism and wants to make it a fun and exciting time for everyone and even has new content planned in the future.
You can check it out for yourself at the following link: https://uooutlands.com/
5 – Dark Age of Camelot
To this day, the Dark Age of Camelot servers are still accessible, however they are well and truly neglected whilst still expecting people to pay a monthly subscription fee….good old EA aye?
So would you believe it, there is once again a better ran private server then the original. This comes in the form of the Eden server.
Not only is it more populated, it’s better maintained and has new content, 3 new classes and has seasons. Once again a shining example of what happens when the community runs a game that the Devs have given up on.
Link here: https://eden-daoc.net/
4 – Dragon’s Dogma Online
Capcoms first MMO was Dragon’s Dogma Online, which sadly never made it to the western market and closed down 4 years after release.
Essentially it was Dragon’s Dogma but in an online shared world. It allowed for 4 players to group in overland, had an active player hub with trading and guilds, zone chat and furthermore 8 man raids.
Thanks to some dedicated fans you can still play DD Online through several private servers.
Check out my link here, with more details as to how you can get access: How to Play Dragons Dogma Online in 2025
3 – City of Heroes
Probably one of the most inspirational stories involving private servers is the City of Heroes HomeComing server. NCSoft closed down COH back in 2012, but luckily the source code was leaked by one of the devs before it completely vanished.
The HomeComing server was one of the first to keep the game alive via private servers not to long after the closure and did so in secret. For several years only those who had been trusted with access were able to play on the server. It would be a few more years before the HomeComing Server went public and for reasons relating to avoiding legal ramifications.
They had been seeking a license agreement with NCSoft in the background until eventually, what people assumed was impossible, NCSoft granted them rights to run the server.
There are of course several other COH servers to choose from, but officially the HomeComing server is the only one back by NCSoft and has a decent size population.
If you would like to check out the City of Heroes for yourself, you can do so here: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/
2 – Warhammer Online Age of Reckoning
Another golden oldie is Warhammer Online, a MMO that was arguably closed down way too soon.
Another EA blunder, Warhammer was closed down back in 2013 to the dismay of a lot of fans. However thanks to the people at Return of Reckoning you can still play this popular game today! This free to play MMO has been running for over 10 years now with no issues.
Same say Age of Reckoning has the perfect blend of PVE and PVP whilst maintaining the ever so popular Warhammer IP. The game is still going strong with seasonal events, balancing and bug fixes.
It’s amazing that this voluntary run projects is doing better then some triple AAA studios.
Check out Warhammer Online here: https://www.returnofreckoning.com/
1 – Star Wars Galaxies
When Star Wars Galaxies closed down, without sounding too dramatic, it felt criminal.
The trade of from Galaxies to the Old Republic, doesn’t seem like a fair one. Although Star Wars The Old Republic is looked upon quite fondly by a lot of fans, I think by far Star Wars Galaxies was the more popular title.
Essentially bad management caused this once great MMO to close and thanks to a dedicated fan base, there are several private servers that you can play on today and experience the nostalgia that is SWG.
Not only that, some of these servers have been adding their own new content as well as rule sets to give even the most veteran players a refreshing play through. There are several instances of SWG which try to rectify the mistakes made by EA.
I think just simply because the legacy that SWG has left makes it my number 1 private server pick.
A lot of SWG’s systems were influential to modern day MMOs and even by today’s standards still does a better job then some existing titles.
There are several Star Wars Galaxies servers you can play on today, which I will link here: How to Play Star Wars Galaxies
Honorable Mentions
There are of course a whole heap load of other private servers out there for you to explore and you can check some of them out here: Modding / Private Server Guides