Top 20 Worst Pay-to-Win Video Games
These games aren't afraid to take as much money as you'll give them. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, we’re counting down our picks for the Top 20 most egregious pay-to-win games ever.
Category
🎮️
GamingTranscript
00:00 Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're counting down our picks for the Top 20 Egregious P2W
00:14 Games Ever!
00:22 Number 20 Warframe We'd like to preface this by saying that
00:35 Warframe is by no means a horrible game.
00:39 On the contrary, it's quite exhilarating.
00:42 Thing is that each Warframe you acquire requires certain materials to build, and some of those
00:47 materials either have really low spawn rates or are buried deep into later missions.
00:53 So you're kinda forced to grind for dozens upon dozens of hours to get the Warframe you
00:59 want for free or pony up the ducats.
01:07 It is not horrendous enough to keep you from enjoying the game, yet it is kind of shady
01:11 monetization.
01:13 At least buying the Warframe isn't as expensive as some of the other games we'll be getting
01:17 to.
01:24 Number 19 Mario Kart Tour Mario Kart Tour was all kinds of offensively
01:36 greedy from start to finish.
01:38 What else would you expect from a gacha game?
01:41 Really?
01:42 Drivers, karts, and gliders could give players an advantage on particular courses, and such
01:46 drivers, karts, and gliders were often locked behind the paywall.
01:50 Whether it was through seasonal passes that demand you grind for these unlockables or
01:55 flat out inflation prices in the shop, Mario Kart Tour made it clear that it was here for
01:59 one thing and one thing only, your money.
02:09 It didn't help that shooting the pipe often resulted in duplicate items regardless if
02:14 the pipe was green, gold, red, blue, turquoise, burgundy, redwood, or septic tank.
02:26 Number 18 Star Wars Battlefront 2 We will give EA and DICE credit where it's
02:38 due.
02:39 Battlefront 2 did turn things around with a reworked star card system, reworked progression,
02:44 and the addition of free expansions.
02:46 However, no one can forget the early days when star cards, which could power up your
02:51 characters abilities, were locked behind grinding and loot boxes.
03:01 Players quickly figured out how Battlefront 2 was really pay to win when EA offered players
03:06 to pay for loot boxes instead of grinding to unlock them.
03:09 Honestly, it makes us glad the publisher has made such a drastic shift back to single player
03:14 games, but why do we still not have the pink Darth Vader?
03:24 Number 17 Marvel Snap Marvel Snap is in the same boat as Warframe.
03:36 It's a fantastic game that is, unfortunately, pay to win.
03:40 The difference between them is that Marvel Snap is pay to win by design.
03:45 New cards are constantly getting locked behind paywalls.
03:55 Need the new card?
03:56 You have three options.
03:57 A. Pay the 10 bucks for the season pass and grind for the next few weeks.
04:02 B. Grind the crap out of the game and hope your loot boxes give you collector's token,
04:08 the rarest currency in the game.
04:10 Or C. Hope that card gets one of the many overpriced bundles that are shoved in your
04:15 face every time you open the store.
04:18 May God have mercy if one of the new cards breaks the game and births a whole new meta.
04:29 Number 16 MapleStory
04:39 Unlike most of the games we'll be going over beyond this point, we'll give MapleStory
04:43 the recognition of at least being honest.
04:46 Selling XP boosters can be pretty scummy in many scenarios, and here it is almost just
04:51 as scummy.
05:00 Wells can quickly dump hundreds of dollars and be comically overpowered in a matter of
05:04 minutes just by buying these boosters.
05:07 If you don't care about PvP crap though, you can avoid this part of the player base
05:12 easily.
05:13 So, that's why we're not giving MapleStory too much flack.
05:17 It sucks, but it's avoidable.
05:27 Number 15 Neverwinter
05:37 Just like Marvel Snap, Marvel Winter is basically pay to win by design.
05:42 Once again, this is a great game and all, and we can be thankful that the pay to win
05:47 aspect is not in the most malicious method possible.
05:50 However, this is another case of forcing players to buy boosters in order to properly keep
05:55 up with the game's scale of difficulty.
06:02 Either open your wallets or get ready for a grind session.
06:06 If you have the time to spare and want to grind, have at it, but don't be surprised
06:12 if your drive starts to diminish.
06:23 Number 14 Clash Royale
06:32 Clash of Clans was already shady with how it made progression painful in later levels,
06:37 so how bad is this spin-off?
06:40 Really bad.
06:41 Arguably worse even.
06:42 In June 2023, Clash Royale saw a major update that introduced card evolutions.
06:51 Use shards to unlock powerful versions of certain cards.
06:55 How does one acquire these shards you ask?
06:58 Well, with guap, ducats, cheese, fettuccine, spinach, big racks, stacks on deck, bands
07:04 on top of bands.
07:06 No matter how you say it, in order to get these shards, you're going to need money.
07:11 Couple this with obscene amounts of gold needed to upgrade cards to level 15, and you have
07:17 a game that does not value your time.
07:22 Number 13 FIFA Series
07:30 When looking at console and PC games shoehorning microtransactions and loot boxes, many point
07:35 the blame to this football series of games.
07:38 For years, the FIFA series would try to entice players to buy loot boxes in order to earn
07:43 their favorite players, or players that may have better stats than their current teams.
07:49 Of course, this carried into the online portion of the game.
07:57 It isn't a real game unless it's pitting wells against those with less disposable income.
08:03 Thus, much of the gaming media and community ignore this sector most of the time.
08:13 Number 12 Angry Birds Go
08:23 Rovio has certainly fallen by the wayside in how it had turned the classic Angry Birds
08:27 games into pay to win schemes.
08:30 Case in point, the kart racing spin-off, Angry Birds Go.
08:41 Whereas Mario Kart Tour requested payment for season passes and maybe 20 bucks or so
08:46 for some outrageous bundle, Angry Birds Go will charge you 60, 70, sometimes 120 dollars
08:55 just for a kart.
08:57 And yes, karts do matter as they can determine whether you hold a candle to rival races.
09:02 60 to 120 smackeroos for a kart.
09:07 Let that sink in.
09:15 Number 11 Ace Combat Infinity
09:25 After spending some time with Ace Combat Infinity, you would think the game desperately does
09:29 not want you to play the game.
09:31 Many players have reported how money hungry the game gets, locking missions behind obscenely
09:36 high levels, and making every moment of play cost a limited resource.
09:49 It doesn't matter if you wish to do a single player mission or play online against others.
09:53 If you don't have fuel, you don't get to play.
09:57 Good thing uninstall is just two taps away, which takes less time to execute than figuring
10:02 out where everything is.
10:10 Number 10 Counter Strike Nexon Zombies aka Counter Strike Nexon Studio
10:23 Why Counter Strike was enlisted in a pay to win scheme we will never understand and we
10:27 aren't going to try.
10:29 CSN was obnoxiously greedy and the burn was worse given the abysmal state the game launched
10:35 in.
10:44 Not only was it an incredibly buggy mess, but it also made starter weapons extremely
10:50 weak.
10:51 Weaker than a peashooter.
10:52 Looking for the real potato cannons?
10:54 Well, what's your credit card number?
10:56 Even under the new studio brand, CSN still features a ridiculous pay to win model that
11:02 is still garnering negative reviews for the game today.
11:12 Number 9 NBA 2K18 Though some players play the "well actually"
11:24 card at launch, there is no hiding it.
11:27 NBA 2K18 was and still is pay to win.
11:31 See MapleStory at least sections off the PvP.
11:35 Wanna play some basketball with friendly randos online?
11:38 Prepare to be annihilated because if you didn't pay up to get beyond level 80 or 90, the grind
11:44 was going to be more painful than it already was.
11:55 Pay to accelerate is still pay to win guys.
11:59 When it's at this scale for a game that costs $60, folks aren't going to have it
12:04 regardless of what you prefer to call it.
12:11 Number 8 The Simpsons Tapped Out EA was getting really dirty with mobile
12:22 gaming back in the day and The Simpsons Tapped Out was not afraid to demand your dollars.
12:27 It starts out simple.
12:29 Have characters perform tasks to rack up currency, which you can use to buy more buildings, some
12:34 of which may unlock a new character to help you earn more money.
12:38 Problem is that the buildings you can get through natural gameplay eventually give menial
12:42 payouts.
12:48 To make any real progress, you need to dump money into enough premium currency so you
12:53 can nab higher end buildings with bigger payouts.
12:57 Still feel like dumping $20 into a bowling alley for Barney?
13:00 Yeah, we didn't think so.
13:06 Number 7 Metal Gear Survived It was bad enough that Konami was jumping
13:20 aboard the awful business bandwagon that was demanding constant internet connection from
13:24 players for access to a game.
13:26 How could they possibly make this any worse?
13:30 Micro transactions?
13:37 Nope.
13:39 How would you feel if you paid $60 for a game only to be asked for more money just for save
13:44 files?
13:45 Oh, and are you feeling like you're grinding too much for resources?
13:50 Well, why not buy some survive coins so you can purchase boosters?
13:54 No thanks.
13:55 Can we like a full refund of the game please?
14:05 Number 6 Marvel's Avengers An Avengers game made by Square Enix should
14:19 have been easy money.
14:21 Alas, the more we heard about Marvel Avengers, the worse it became.
14:25 First it was a live service, then there was talk of gear and loot, then the power levels
14:31 crept in.
14:32 Before we knew it, we were being told to grind our heroes power levels or pay for freaking
14:37 boosters.
14:45 This alienated so many players that few bothered to go beyond the first hour of the game.
14:50 Now look where we are.
14:51 Square, the live service, is now a dead and delisted game generating no revenue of any
14:57 kind.
15:01 Number 5 Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 On the surface, Modern Warfare 2 doesn't
15:12 seem as pay to win as the other entries.
15:14 Besides, most of the paid stuff is cosmetics and operators right?
15:19 Not just operators and cosmetics, no.
15:22 You can straight up pay to unlock weapons, weapon blueprints, and even tactical pets
15:27 to give you an extra buff in the fight.
15:38 Need the proof?
15:39 Well, that Doom super shotgun seems to be offing dudes in one or two shots from a fairly
15:45 comfortable distance, wouldn't you say?
15:48 Modern Warfare 2 was fine for a while, but man, it has declined in keeping things fair.
16:04 Number 4 Candy Crush Saga We ain't done with Activision Blizzard King
16:15 yet.
16:16 Candy Crush Saga, as popular as it supposedly is, is amongst the most money hungry mobile
16:22 games on the market.
16:23 Sure, it looks innocent with its bright colors and cartoon characters, but once you get past
16:28 the first dozen or so levels, everything comes down to luck.
16:37 Your moves become more limiting and you're expected to meet goals at the mercy of whatever
16:42 random candy drops on the board.
16:44 All of a sudden, the story is "aww, such a shame.
16:48 If you've had this power up that cost a couple of bucks, maybe you can get through the rest
16:52 of this level."
16:53 In other words, it's forcing impossible goals on you just so it can sell the solution.
17:03 Number 3 Final Fantasy All the Bravest
17:13 Speaking of games that force problems to sell the solution, All the Bravest is unbashedly
17:18 greedy.
17:19 It is so easy to be sold on the idea of building your ultimate team of Final Fantasy characters
17:24 until you see how much of this game is one obnoxious price tag.
17:31 "Oh, you eyeing this character?
17:37 Pay a buck for a chance to get them.
17:39 Oh, they suddenly died in battle?
17:41 Well, pay us another buck to revive them instantly or wait 3 minutes.
17:46 Oh, you choose to wait it out and another character died in the process?
17:51 Well, wait until your first character who died is revived and then pay us or wait for
17:56 one who just died to revive."
17:59 See how this game is just constantly demanding money?
18:07 Number 2 Diablo Immortal Activision Blizzard King gets the slimy silver
18:20 medal for greed for this travesty.
18:22 We remember the outrage that occurred on launch day.
18:25 Players were crowning about how fun and addictive Diablo Immortal was right before they realized
18:30 how very pay to win the game was.
18:32 Unless you wanted your butt handed to you on a silver platter, your only way to enjoy
18:37 the game was to either avoid PVP altogether or cough up the dough and buy some absurdly
18:43 powerful gear.
18:53 The power grinding got equally egregious in the regular gameplay later on.
18:58 Yet, so many YouTubers and streamers decided to spend their dollars to prove the pay to
19:03 win theory right.
19:05 Just content, ain't that funny?
19:17 Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
19:21 about our latest videos.
19:22 You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
19:26 If you're on your phone, make sure to go into your settings and switch on notifications.
19:32 Number 1, Dungeon Keeper.
19:40 Even after experiencing all of these awful, greedy games, none have come close to the
19:44 same level of sleaze as Dungeon Keeper.
19:47 For those who may not remember or were not around at the time, Dungeon Keeper had players
19:53 build their own devious dungeons and command minions to gather resources.
19:58 One catch though, cooldowns.
20:09 Whether you wanted to expand your dungeon by one tile or saw a rare resource, you were
20:14 forced to wait an exorbitant amount of time.
20:17 Of course, you could always fork over your cold hard cash.
20:21 Here's hoping EA has put those dark days behind them for good.
20:34 What game do you think was the worst when it came to pay to win mechanics?
20:38 Did it make our list?
20:39 Let us know down in the comments, in a civil manner, below.
20:51 In the mood for more awesome gaming content?
20:53 Be sure to check out this video here on Mojo Plays.
20:56 And don't forget to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
21:01 Peace!
21:08 (upbeat music)