MapleStory
Join over 260 million players worldwide in MapleStory, the world’s biggest 2D MMORPG adventure! Play now for free.
Your like matters. Every heart nudges this game's GamingPickz Score and where it ranks (a small 5% of the score), so the lists get better for everyone.
- Released
- 2003
- Developer
- Wizet
- Platforms
- 1 systems
- Critics
- Not scored
- Steam Deck
- unknown
- Download
- Not stated
What is MapleStory?
Join over 260 million players worldwide in MapleStory, the world’s biggest 2D MMORPG adventure! Play now for free.
Description as published by the developer on its own store page, read 30 August 2026. It is marketing copy, not our assessment.
The record
| First released | 29 April 2003 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Wizet |
| Publisher | Level Up! Games, Shanda, Asphere Innovations |
| Platforms | PC |
| Genres | MMORPG, Platformer, Role-Playing |
| Languages | 1 supported |
Source. Catalogue facts from Wikidata Q569624, seeded 30 August 2026. Store data from Steam, read 30 August 2026.
How was MapleStory received?
Method. Player figures are Steam's own totals for the PC version, read 30 August 2026. The Metacritic score is the one Steam publishes on its store page and can lag the site itself. Neither is our opinion. We have not published a review of this game.
What does it support?
| Capability | Support |
|---|---|
| Controller | Not stated |
| Cloud saves | No |
| Cross-platform play | No |
| Mod support | No official workshop |
| Online play | Yes |
| In-game purchases | No |
| Steam Deck | unknown |
| Download size | Not stated |
| Add-on content | None listed |
| Age gate | None |
Method. Read from the publisher's Steam listing on 30 August 2026. Describes the PC version. Console versions differ.
What does it cost?
Steam price in US dollars, read 30 August 2026. Prices move hourly and vary by region. Check the current price.
Is MapleStory worth it?
61% of 15,432 Steam reviews are positive, which Steam rates Mixed. It is free to play.
That is the data, not a verdict for sale: whether it is worth it depends on the price you pay and what you want. Players do report problems — see the reported-problems section below before buying. We have not published our own review of this game.
How long is MapleStory? How long to beat it
Total play time for MapleStory is about 1122.1 hours to do everything, and around 689.2 hours to reach the end of the main story. These are player-submitted times from HowLongToBeat, not our own, shown with the number of players behind each.
| How you play | Hours | Players logged |
|---|---|---|
| Just the main story: straight through the critical path | 689.2h | 9 |
| Main + the extras: story plus the side content most people do | 718.1h | 5 |
| Completionist: everything: 100% the game | 1122.1h | 3 |
MapleStory is free to play, so the only cost is your time: about 689.2 hours to beat it.
Source: HowLongToBeat community submissions, read 2026-10-19.
Where MapleStory sits on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueMapleStory plotted on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so its position is its real one. Change either axis to see where it lands.
1 games have both
Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.
Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.
- PC
Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.
How positions are decided
No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
- Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
- Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
- No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
- A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
- Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.
MapleStory price & deals: is it on sale?
We have one reading so far: Free on 30 August 2026. Prices are checked daily from here, and this becomes a chart once there is more than one point to join. A single observation is a price, not a history.
Latest MapleStory updates & patch notes
Pulled from MapleStory's own Steam feed on 5 September 2026. Posts marked as from the studio were written by the developer; the rest are articles Steam syndicated from elsewhere. Every one links to its source.
What readers say about MapleStory
Reviews written by people who have played it. These are separate from the GamingPickz Score and are never averaged into it: that score comes from thousands of Steam reviews with a sample-size correction, and a handful of unverified ratings would distort it rather than improve it.
Loading reviews…
Problems players report
We read the 300 most recent negative Steam reviews of MapleStory on 30 August 2026 and counted what they mention. These are complaints, not confirmed defects: we have not reproduced any of them, and a review describes one person's machine. What the counts tell you is which problems more than one person ran into.
- Monetisation inside the game12 of 300 (4%)
Heroic servers were initially meant to offer an experience that is more catered towards people who like grinding and don't want to pay to win, but Nexon keeps introducing more pay to win to the game.
Steam review, 3 July 2026 · 965 hours played · 85 readers marked it helpfulThat is, unless you buy the battle pass (that seem to increase in price every year and buying every pass is hundreds of dollars for a single 3 month event) that can get the player to even level 270 before the weekly reset.
Steam review, 22 June 2026 · 6,826 hours played · 13 readers marked it helpful
A further 12 reviews call the game buggy or broken without saying how, which is why they are counted separately rather than assigned to a theme. Counted by keyword across review text, so a review discussing two problems is counted under both. Read the reviews yourself.
Did it run on your PC?
Tell other players how it ran on your machine. One tap, from your saved PC if you have one.
Where MapleStory appears
The ranked lists and finder pages MapleStory qualifies for, from its own genre and platform to what it takes to run.
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Games like MapleStory
MapleStory head to head
See MapleStory compared side by side, on score, price, specs and more:
Common questions about MapleStory
What platforms is MapleStory on?
MapleStory is available on PC. It first released in 2003.
Is MapleStory free?
Yes. MapleStory is free to download on Steam.
Do players recommend MapleStory?
61% of 15,432 Steam reviews are positive, which Steam rates Mixed. That is players rating it, not our review. We have not published a review of this game.
Who made MapleStory?
MapleStory was developed by Wizet and published by Level Up! Games, Shanda, Asphere Innovations.
Is MapleStory worth it in 2026?
61% of 15,432 Steam reviews are positive (Mixed), and it is free to play. That is the strongest signal we hold; "worth it" depends on the price you pay and what you want, so weigh the sentiment against the current price above.
How long does it take to beat MapleStory?
about 689.2 hours for the main story, 718.1 hours with the main extras, 1122.1 hours to complete everything, from HowLongToBeat's player-submitted times. These are community medians, so your own run may be shorter or longer.