8BitMMO

VS

AFK Journey

8BitMMO is a persistent-world indie MMO first released in 2015, focused on building and sandbox multiplayer gameplay. As a niche, indie title that is nearly a decade old, it has a much smaller active community compared to its launch, but may still retain a dedicated base of dozens to a few hundred daily players.

AFK Journey, developed by Farlight Games, is a recently released cross-platform fantasy idle RPG with gacha and adventure elements. The game has generated significant hype post-launch, especially among mobile and casual strategy communities, and leverages the popularity of its predecessor, AFK Arena. Recent mobile downloads and community activity suggest strong daily engagement, likely in the hundreds of thousands. Given its cross-platform support and gacha monetization, retention is high at launch. However, it does not qualify as an MMO despite some open-world and multiplayer features, as it lacks a persistent large-scale shared world.