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Guild Wars 2®
Guild Wars 2 is an award-winning online roleplaying game with fast-paced action combat, deep character customization, and no subscription fee required. Choose from an arsenal of professions and weapons, explore a vast open world, compete in PVP modes and more. Join over 16 million players now!
In short, Steam reviewers most often praise “fluid combat and rewarding exploration” (36 of 102 reviews) and “time-respecting horizontal progression” (21); the most common complaint is “pricey expansions and paywalled features” (12). What reviewers agree on ↓
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-29 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
36 of the 102 reviews raise this.
“Guild Wars 2 is easily one of the best MMORPGs ever made, and honestly, games like this just aren’t made anymore. What sets it apart right away is how much it respects your time. There’s no forced grind, no subscription…”
“Such a great great MMO. I've played FFXIV, WoW, Black Desert Online, OSRS, SWOTR, and probably a couple of others, and I can say, that hands down GW2 does things RIGHT. They respect players time and money. No monthly…”
“11k+ hours on the game, mainly in wvw and pvp (i dont play it on steam but thought i'd leave a review here). it's literally the best game combat wise ive ever played, hands down. better than deadlock, better than marvel…”
21 of the 102 reviews raise this.
“Guild Wars 2 is easily one of the best MMORPGs ever made, and honestly, games like this just aren’t made anymore. What sets it apart right away is how much it respects your time. There’s no forced grind, no subscription…”
“Such a great great MMO. I've played FFXIV, WoW, Black Desert Online, OSRS, SWOTR, and probably a couple of others, and I can say, that hands down GW2 does things RIGHT. They respect players time and money. No monthly…”
“An MMO that doesn't have a crazy intense gear grind that never ends. I can leave for months or years and my gear is still current with trends as always. Lots of horizontal content and great story”
19 of the 102 reviews raise this.
“Such a great great MMO. I've played FFXIV, WoW, Black Desert Online, OSRS, SWOTR, and probably a couple of others, and I can say, that hands down GW2 does things RIGHT. They respect players time and money. No monthly…”
“An MMO that doesn't have a crazy intense gear grind that never ends. I can leave for months or years and my gear is still current with trends as always. Lots of horizontal content and great story”
“i would say, this game has brought me many hours of enjoyment over the years. ive played off an on since its launch, always seem to find my self back. I pretty much only play as a Guardian class with any of its elite…”
18 of the 102 reviews raise this.
“Such a great great MMO. I've played FFXIV, WoW, Black Desert Online, OSRS, SWOTR, and probably a couple of others, and I can say, that hands down GW2 does things RIGHT. They respect players time and money. No monthly…”
“I don't use steam version got 2k hours on the proper launcher, took me a few tries to get into it Initially because I started as a guardian but it's great when you don't play guardian, seems like alot of the social side…”
“i would say, this game has brought me many hours of enjoyment over the years. ive played off an on since its launch, always seem to find my self back. I pretty much only play as a Guardian class with any of its elite…”
16 of the 102 reviews raise this.
“Such a great great MMO. I've played FFXIV, WoW, Black Desert Online, OSRS, SWOTR, and probably a couple of others, and I can say, that hands down GW2 does things RIGHT. They respect players time and money. No monthly…”
“Pros: The game is free to play and you every update for free, but you still have to pay for the DLC. Your weapons determine your move set, meaning any class can do anything. Don't want to play in a massive party? The…”
“Been playing for 3 months, cannot put this game down!! It has everything an MMO should without the monthly fee.”
12 of the 102 reviews raise this · 7 of them still recommend the game.
“Highly not recommended. Boils down to Customer Service dealing with account bans, community toxicity around help and support for banned accounts, extremely aggressive behind the scenes monetization model, and general…”
“this game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid buying path of fire and heart of thorns was a waste of money the areas are a pain in the ass to explore path of fire progress totally ♥♥♥♥♥♥ you need a mount thats locked behind perk points…”
“Guild Wars 2 is quite the game, out of all the mmorpgs I have played this is easily the best. I do I a few complaints, ~Steam requires you to download all dlc files even if you have them or not making the game just…”
6 of the 102 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“this game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid buying path of fire and heart of thorns was a waste of money the areas are a pain in the ass to explore path of fire progress totally ♥♥♥♥♥♥ you need a mount thats locked behind perk points…”
“They claim the game is free but they've locked everything useful behind separate expansions forcing you to pretty much buy all of them (spend hundreds of dollars) if you want to ever get a sliver of enjoyment from this…”
“Guild wars 2 Trades monthly subscriptions for gameplay annoyances. They limit the amount of character slots you have so If you want to try every class you have to buy at least 3 dlc's to even get the character slots to…”
5 of the 102 reviews raise this · 1 of them still recommend the game.
“Highly not recommended. Boils down to Customer Service dealing with account bans, community toxicity around help and support for banned accounts, extremely aggressive behind the scenes monetization model, and general…”
“Almost 10,000 hours logged on this game since launch 14 years ago; from all welcome end-game commander, to guild leader, to fractal organizer--- - its become p2w, new paid expansion every quarter but it never fixes old…”
“Loyalty Means Nothing: Broken Systems and Apathetic Customer Support If you are looking for an MMO that respects your time, your money, or your dedication, look elsewhere. Guild Wars 2 features some of the most…”
5 of the 102 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“the map is absolutely huge, the combat system is simple and easy to navigate, and they aren't withholding the majority of the game like other free to play MMO's do, you can absolutely get dozens of hours of free play…”
“so far loving it, will update this as time goes by....the graphics could be updated but other than that the game itself is nice..i like the layout and the story line...oh speaking of story line, as a new player the…”
“As a wow enjoyer this game is a mixed bag. The story is pretty good, the exploration is pretty good, the combat is turn brain off mash 1-6 until angry music stops. Graphics solid, Runs pretty well ( I don't own a super…”
5 of the 102 reviews raise this · 1 of them still recommend the game.
“I like the game, but I hate the requirement to engage in game modes I don't really care for just to earn rewards that are useful in the game modes I actually do enjoy. The heavy reliance on wikis to complete…”
“this game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid buying path of fire and heart of thorns was a waste of money the areas are a pain in the ass to explore path of fire progress totally ♥♥♥♥♥♥ you need a mount thats locked behind perk points…”
“I don't get the hype. I am an avid MMO player, but now, on my 3rd attempt to really get into GW2, I just simply can't. I understand there isn't a defined MSQ progression path, but ultimately, the gameplay just feels..…”
Counted across 102 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 88.2% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“When.. When I play this game, there are two songs that remind me of. And both songs, I cherish most. "Traveler's Song" by Aviators. "My Gaming Life" by Arensky and Jon Becker. For a long while now, these songs have touched me deeply, close to home. And a while longer than that,…”
— a player, Steam review · 357 hrs played“probably the best social mmo out there right now that also has very hard competetive content. the economy is also very good and main source of getting money is just playing the game, not doing chores. there is almost 0 fomo . its very easy to leave the game and just come back in…”
— a player, Steam review · 913 hrs played“I’m not new to Guild Wars 2. I played at launch, reached max level, and only came back recently because a friend insisted, especially after my time with Turtle WoW came to an end. It felt like a good moment to revisit older MMOs and see how they’ve evolved. When I logged back…”
— a player, Steam review · 82 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Adventure, Massively Multiplayer, RPG, Free To Play |
| Player tags | MMORPG · Adventure · RPG · Character Customization · Free to Play · Fantasy · Third Person · 3D · Massively Multiplayer · PvP · Atmospheric · Class-Based (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Multi-player · MMO · PvP · Online PvP · Co-op · Online Co-op · In-App Purchases |
| Languages | English * , French * , German * , Spanish - Spain * |
| Official site | https://www.guildwars2.com/en/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS *: Windows 7 (64-bit) Processor: Intel® i3 3.4 GHz / AMD Athlon x4 3.8 GHz or better Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680 / AMD Radeon HD 7970 DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 70 GB available space