massively multiplayer online game

noun

plural massively multiplayer online games

: an online multiplayer game that has a persistent virtual world and that can typically support a very large number of concurrent players : mmo

Age of Conan is a massively multiplayer online game while Conan Exiles was an online survival title that can also be played alone.

—Gieson Cacho

As time passes, these digital kingdoms and their citizenry change—take a break from an online game for too long and you can return to a world full of strangers. That's because massively multiplayer online games run nearly constantly—the adventures don't stop just because you log off or cancel your subscription.

—Stanley A. Miller II

The massively multiplayer online game genre has changed much over the last decade or so, but medieval fantasy games like those that started it all still dominate.

—Dwight Odelius

Word History

First Known Use

1998, in the meaning defined above