The Free MMO Pay-to-Win & Fairness Index
We rated every major free-to-play MMO on how fairly it treats a player who never spends a cent — on a transparent 0–100 scale. Sort it, filter it, and yes, argue with it.
“Free-to-play” means very different things depending on the game. Some free MMOs never sell you a scrap of power and fund themselves on hats; others quietly build their whole endgame around your credit card. This index exists to tell those two apart. We scored every major free MMO in our catalog on five things that decide how fair a game really is to someone who refuses to pay — and we weighted the one that matters most, whether you can buy power over other players, twice as heavily as the rest.
The result is one number from 0 to 100 and a letter grade. At the top sits Guild Wars 2 (90/100); at the bottom, DarkOrbit Reloaded (30/100). It's editorial and opinionated on purpose — the point is to start the argument, not end it. Nothing here is influenced by whether a game pays us a commission.
| # | Game | Grade | Fairness | Power for sale | Our verdict | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Guild Wars 2 | S | None | The gold standard: no power for sale, gems buyable with in-game gold, cosmetics only. | Play free | |
| 2 |  Hordes.ioBrowser | A | None | A tiny browser game with almost nothing to sell — and nothing that makes you stronger. | Play free | |
| 3 |  Warframe | A | Minimal | You can buy gear, but everything is earnable and Platinum trades between players — famously fair. | Play free | |
| 4 |  Path of Exile | A | None | Zero power for sale; the shop is cosmetics and stash tabs. Only ding: you can't earn the currency. | Play free | |
| 5 |  PlanetSide 2 | A | Minimal | Weapons are sidegrades and all earnable with certs; spending mostly saves time, not fights. | Play free | |
| 6 |  Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis | B | Minimal | The scratch-ticket gambling is for cosmetics, not power — annoying, but it won't lose you a fight. | Play free | |
| 7 |  Once Human | B | Minimal | Largely cosmetic monetization with seasonal resets; power creep from the shop is limited. | Play free | |
| 8 |  Old School RuneScapeBrowser | B | Minimal | No power for sale; Bonds let you pay for membership with in-game gold. Most content is members-only. | Play free | |
| 9 |  Final Fantasy XIV | B | None | No pay-to-win at all — it's a subscription game. The free trial is huge but the full game needs a sub. | Play free | |
| 10 |  Albion Online | B | Some | No cash gear — but Premium speeds progress and silver is buyable, so money buys time and edge. | Play free | |
| 11 |  AdventureQuest 3DBrowser | B | Minimal | Small and casual; monetization is mostly membership and cosmetics rather than raw power. | Play free | |
| 12 |  EVE Online | B | Some | PLEX lets money become ISK, so it's indirect power — but PLEX is player-traded and fully earnable. | Play free | |
| 13 |  Wakfu | B | Minimal | The booster pack is convenience, not power; the best rewards lean toward subscribers. | Play free | |
| 14 |  Dofus | B | Minimal | No hard pay-to-win, currency is player-traded, but the best content favours subscribers. | Play free | |
| 15 |  AdventureQuest WorldsBrowser | B | Minimal | Casual by design; membership and cosmetics drive spending more than combat power. | Play free | |
| 16 |  Blue Archive | B | Some | One of the more generous gachas; mostly PvE, so spending chases collection, not an edge over players. | Play free | |
| 17 |  Wizard101 | B | Minimal | No real PvE power sold, but most worlds sit behind membership or Crowns — a heavy content paywall. | Play free | |
| 18 |  Honkai: Star Rail | B | Some | Generous gacha with no PvP; free players get plenty of pulls. The spend is FOMO, not power over others. | Play free | |
| 19 |  Wuthering Waves | B | Some | Notably generous with pulls and no PvP — the gacha is the model, but it isn't stacked against you. | Play free | |
| 20 |  Zenless Zone Zero | B | Some | PvE-only action gacha; free players are treated well and no one's wallet beats you in a fight. | Play free | |
| 21 |  Tarisland | C | Some | Markets itself as low pay-to-win for raiding, but the usual boosts and passes creep in. | Play free | |
| 22 |  Flyff UniverseBrowser | C | Some | Classic-era cash shop: some power and convenience for sale, but nothing egregious. | Play free | |
| 23 |  Genshin Impact | C | Some | It's gacha for characters, but there's no PvP — you're never losing to someone's wallet, just chasing your own. | Play free | |
| 24 |  Star Trek Online | C | Some | The lockbox gambling for top ships is the problem — real power behind a slot machine. | Play free | |
| 25 |  Star Wars: The Old Republic | C | Minimal | No real pay-to-win, but the free tier is the most restrictive here — it's a paywall, not a demo. | Play free | |
| 26 |  DC Universe Online | C | Some | Episodes and progression sit behind membership and the marketplace — spend to keep pace. | Play free | |
| 27 |  Lost Ark | C | Notable | Free to start and play far, but the honing grind and gold economy make the wallet a real shortcut to power. | Play free | |
| 28 |  Runes of Magic | C | Notable | The diamond shop can shortcut real progress — the classic 'free WoW' with an old-school cash-shop catch. | Play free | |
| 29 |  Neverwinter | C | Notable | Zen, keys and lockboxes push hard at endgame — one of the more pay-to-progress themepark MMOs. | Play free | |
| 30 |  Goddess of Victory: Nikke | C | Notable | Story and presentation carry it, but the gacha and monetization are heavy even by the genre's standards. | Play free | |
| 31 |  Aion | D | Notable | Long a byword for pay-to-win enchanting; the cash shop still tilts the field toward spenders. | Play free | |
| 32 |  Tower of Fantasy | D | Notable | Gacha weapons are raw power, and it has PvP — so here the pulls can genuinely buy an advantage. | Play free | |
| 33 |  MapleStory | D | Notable | The cash shop is everywhere and cubes sell power — beloved, but a poster child for MMO monetization. | Play free | |
| 34 |  Mabinogi | D | Notable | A charming sandbox with an old, biting cash shop where spending buys meaningful convenience and power. | Play free | |
| 35 |  Dungeon Fighter Online | D | Notable | Avatars grant stats and the endgame grind rewards spending — fun combat, less-fun monetization. | Play free | |
| 36 |  Elsword | D | Notable | Cash-shop pressure runs high and cosmetic avatars carry stats, so the shop touches power. | Play free | |
| 37 |  Blade & Soul | D | Notable | Great combat undercut by RNG boxes and a grind the shop is happy to shorten for a price. | Play free | |
| 38 |  Drakensang OnlineBrowser | D | Notable | Fun early, but the endgame leans hard into pay-to-progress. Fine for a casual browser romp. | Play free | |
| 39 |  Throne and Liberty | D | Notable | Gorgeous and free to enter, but growth items and endgame shop pressure draw steady pay-to-win complaints. | Play free | |
| 40 |  RuneScapeBrowser | D | Notable | Treasure Hunter is MTX gambling baked into a subscription game — the main reason players prefer OSRS. | Play free | |
| 41 |  DarkOrbit ReloadedBrowser | F | Heavy | A veteran browser MMO built around pushy premium currency — about as pay-to-win as the genre gets. | Play free |
How we score fairness
Five criteria, each 0–5. “No pay-to-win” counts double.
No pay-to-win ×2
Can money buy you power or an advantage over other players? This is weighted double — it's what the whole debate turns on.
Free access
How much of the game can you actually play for free, before anything is walled off behind a sub or purchase?
Cosmetics-only shop
Is the shop limited to cosmetics and convenience, or does it sell raw power and progression?
Earnable premium
Can you earn the premium currency in-game, or is it strictly cash-only?
No predatory pressure
Free of energy timers, lootbox gambling, FOMO events and a shop that nags you every login.
A note on gacha games
Gacha games look like the villains of any fairness list, but most of them — Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, Wuthering Waves — have no PvP. That changes everything for this index: you can spend a fortune chasing a character, but you're never beating another player because they paid. That's very different from a PvP MMO where the credit card wins the fight, which is why gacha games land mid-table here rather than at the bottom. Where a game combines gacha power and PvP, like Tower of Fantasy, the score drops accordingly.
Where to start
Fairness Index FAQ
What is the least pay-to-win free MMO?
Guild Wars 2 tops our index: it sells no power at all, only cosmetics and convenience, and you can buy its cash-shop currency with in-game gold. Warframe and Path of Exile are close behind.
How is the fairness score calculated?
Each game is scored 0–5 on five criteria — no pay-to-win, free access, cosmetics-only shop, earnable premium currency, and no predatory pressure — with 'no pay-to-win' weighted double. The total is normalised to a 0–100 score and a letter grade (S to F).
Why are gacha games not rated lower?
Most gacha games (Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, etc.) are PvE-only, so spending never buys an advantage over other players — you're chasing your own collection, not beating someone's wallet. That's why they land mid-table rather than at the bottom, despite heavy monetization.
Is this ranking biased by affiliate deals?
No. The score is editorial and based purely on each game's live monetization in 2026. We earn commissions when you play some of these games, but that never changes a rating — plenty of high scorers pay us nothing, and some low scorers do.
What does the letter grade mean?
S (88+) is exemplary, A (75+) very fair, B (62+) fair with caveats, C (48+) mixed, D (34+) monetization-heavy, and F (below 34) is aggressively pay-to-win. It's a snapshot of how fairly a game treats a non-paying player.