Despite a heaping helping of new releases in 2019, many online games released in previous years are still going strong with constant updates and thriving communities.

Best Ongoing Game of 2019: Final Fantasy XIV

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Final Fantasy 14 Game Director Yoshi-P and his team at Square Enix not only dropped one of their best expansions yet with Shadowbringers this year, but they were able to introduce a slew of big quality of life updates that improve the experiences for new and old players. Jobs were changed significantly to make combat easier and features like the Trust System are geared towards players who like a single-player experience. Aside from the typical patches you see with every MMO, Final Fantasy 14 was able to add in a new unique job, a Final Fantasy 15 crossover event, and new postgame content in collaboration with Nier Automata this year.From Square Enix’s livestream updates to community fan events, Final Fantasy 14 represents everything an MMO can get right.For more check out our Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers review These are our nominees for the best ongoing game of 2019.

Best Ongoing Game Nominees 6 IMAGES

Click through the gallery above or scroll down the page for the full list!

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Monster Hunter: World

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Rainbow Six: Siege

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Destiny 2

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People's Choice Winner: Monster Hunter: World

Since launch, Respawn has supported Apex Legends with a steady, if a bit slow, drip of new content.After its surprise launch and breakout success, Apex went fairly quiet on the update front, but Respawn has now hit its stride with regular content seasons, implementing new weapons, characters, skins, and most notably a massive new map.For more check out our Apex Legends review 2019 was a massive year for Monster Hunter: World. Its Iceborne expansion nearly doubled the size of the game, adding a whole new story, incredible new monsters, wonderful quality of life features, and an entirely revamped endgame that fans will be gleefully carving creatures up in for a long time to come.But even beyond that glacier-sized content drop, World has had great support from Capcom, with seasonal events, fierce new fights, and unexpected tie-ins – for heaven’s sake, we got to play as The Witcher 3’s Geralt (magic, side quests, dialogue options, and all) INSIDE of Monster Hunter this year, how wild is that?For more check out our Monster Hunter World: Iceborne review If you would have told me in 2015 that Rainbow Six Siege would be on bestseller lists for the next 4 years I wouldn’t have believed you. However here we are and it’s not as surprising as you might think. With constant updates, tweaks to the operators, and huge championships featuring new reveals every year, Ubisoft has managed to keep the game feeling fresh with each patch. In the last year I’ve found myself gravitating back toward Siege and having a great time learning to be a better player via the plethora of fan-made strategy videos that often manage to blend information with a bit of blunderous fun as creators poke fun at themselves (and the rest of us) for the ways we all made mistakes when starting out.Not only is there a community out there of inviting people willing to teach you the best ways to breach, but even as you’re learning you find yourself improving even when learning simple tactics like camera placement or creating a rotate between points. With the Operator grand total being brought to 52 as of last month with the addition of Kali and Wamai Rainbow Six Siege shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.For more check out our Rainbow Six: Siege review On September 6th, 2017 Destiny 2 launched and while it seemed to be an upgrade in many respects, fans felt the systems nearly perfected with the original just didn’t translate into Destiny 2. PVP teams became larger, there was an odd mod-based power level chase, and the Raid only had a single big-boss damage encounter. It was good, but faltered in the endgame. Fast forward to 2019 and Bungie has made vast improvements to that original sandbox and continues to do so with their latest release Destiny 2 Shadowkeep that brings back a 3v3 PVP mode, infuses some much-needed narrative into the overall experience, and builds upon the excellent PVE changes that started with Forsaken in 2018 and continued here with a new armor system. It seems they’re building a playstyle that lends to builds, weapon pairings, and balance.There’s no arguing that Destiny has had its ups and downs through development, but Bungie has also done a tremendous job trying to find that sweet spot as they poke and prod the engine into a place the community is happy with. With regular updates, cross-save, and especially since they’ve gone free-to-play it’s not surprising that Destiny 2 was the number 1 paid, and free game on Steam this October. Destiny 2’s future looks brighter than ever, especially with a team as committed to getting it right as Bungie.For more check out our Destiny 2: Shadowkeep review According to our readers, Monster Hunter: World was the best ongoing game of 2019, beating out the competition with 28% of the vote in our People's Choice polling. From our review of its latest expansion, Iceborne:A true beast of an expansion, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne adds a boatload of impressive new and returning monsters and improvements to an already incredible game. It’s almost big enough to be a sequel in terms of the sheer amount of content it adds – even if it leans a little bit too heavily on Subspecies and Variants of familiar monsters at times (though that’s an issue veteran fans may not be bothered by as much). Iceborne is exciting and creative throughout, reiterating Monster Hunter: World’s place as one of the very best games of this generation.

What was your favorite ongoing game this year? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to check out all of our other Game of the Year award winners as well as our picks for the best movies, TV shows, comics, and anime of 2019!

Art for IGN’s Best of 2019 is by Julia Rago, Justin Vachon, Angela Nguyen, and Nicole Cagampan.