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No, we’re not just being mean: This specific poll is a long-running tradition here on MOP as we take stock of how the studio that just about shares a birthday with our own independent site is faring in the industry. When we began this poll, the studio, which had at that point won best studio four years in a row, had just become Daybreak and had brought its total of purged MMOs to something like 20 games, with layoffs and cancelations, followed by the weirdly secretive SSG acquisition, the Columbus Nova debacle, and then the sale to EG7 (which Daybreak has since taken over from the inside). It’s a curiosity!

So let’s do some historicals.

• In 2015, you picked Dragon’s Prophet (you were right; it died that same year).
• In 2017, you picked PlanetSide 2 (but Landmark sunsetted in 2017).
• In 2018, you picked Just Survive (definitely did not survive).
• In 2019, you picked the unannounced EverQuest game aka EverQuest III (which was apparently canceled but now is back in dev).
• In 2020 and 2021 you picked PC H1Z1 aka Z1 Battle Royale (that which is ignored can never die).
• In 2022, the Z1 franchise took both first and second place, followed by EverQuest III. (nope, but Daybreak did kill the Marvel MMO for the second time in 2022).
• In 2023 and then again at the top of 2024, you guys once again picked the H1Z1 franchise over all others.
• In 2025, you went back to EverQuest III, followed by PlanetSide 2 and H1Z1.

And you know what, those weren’t unreasonable guesses. PlanetSide 2 especially had been kicked around all through 2024, and we thought it was in trouble. We haven’t heard much about EverQuest III this year, either. In fact, the game we’ve heard the most about this year has been OG EverQuest, and that’s because it’s apparently been struggling in competition with player-built and well-funded rogue servers, which Daybreak has been battling in court all year (don’t like that characterization, then your complaint is with the judge and EG7’s executives, not with me). It’s a weird situation that has led Palia to emerge as the studio’s top game. On the other hand, that Cold Iron game got a delay this year, too, and DCUO is still being too quiet for my liking.

You tell me: Which Daybreak MMO do you think is most vulnerable now?

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