Is SWTOR worth trying in 2026?

If you’ve heard about Star Wars: The Old Republic, and have been wondering about whether its worth trying or not, this video will go through all the pros and cons about the game for new players in 2025, whether you’re brand new to online gaming or if you’re a seasoned MMO veteran. If you’re a returning player, you’ll want to check out my other video, “IS SWTOR worth returning to?” instead. UPDATED for 2026 and patch 7.8!

Video is up to date for 2025, see the 2026 notes below for any differences!

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What is SWTOR?

Star Wars: The Old Republic is an online game based around the Star Wars universe, but set thousands of years in the past. In the game you can take on the role of a Jedi, a Sith, or even a Bounty Hunter or a Smuggler. The big difference between Star Wars: The Old Republic and most other Star Wars games is that you can play online with other people – it’s a massive multiplayer online roleplaying game. While you’re exploring the harsh deserts of Tatooine or are going through your trials on the Jedi homeworld of Tython, you’ll run into other players, each with their own highly customizable character. You also have the option of participating in exciting group missions including 4-person Flashpoints, 8-man operations, player vs player matches, or even just have a friend or two come along with you on your main story quests. In many cutscenes you’ll be able to see both you and your friends together in a living movie – where you get to hear and see your character and make decisions live. If you prefer playing alone, Star Wars: The Old Republic’s main class stories are ideal for solo players, and the later story expansions are specifically built with solo players in mind.

Free-to-Play

If you’re a new player who’s trying to decide if the game is worth playing, let’s first go over the cost of the game. Good news – it’s actually free. To download and play an expansive free demo of the game’s first sixty levels and original classic story can be done without spending a single dime. New players who have never spent money on the game are referred to as free-to-play players, and although they have convenience restrictions, all 8 class stories can easily be accessed on a free to play account, and the original 8 class storylines are considered some of the best story content in the game. So if you are concerned about spending money on a game you might not like, SWTOR might be perfect for you to try out, as you don’t have to invest any money into the game until you’ve really figured out if you like it or not. Personally I’ve played over 50 hours on my free to play account, and while there are some restrictions, I didn’t find that they hindered my enjoyment of playing the storylines, they were mostly convenience restrictions like not being able to wear the few rare purple items I came across, but I was still able to run all the quests and stories just fine.

2026: Free to play players have access to all the base game’s stories plus the first two expansions for free, including the Rise of the Hutt Cartel and the Shadow of Revan expansions. While some newer features are restricted to subscribers, others are hybrid and you can take advantage of parts of them without having to subscribe. For example, the well-liked Galactic Seasons system is available to everyone, but only subscribers can claim the second half of the rewards. The developers have also lifted many of the restrictions that existed in the past – for example, all players under level 80 can wear artifact gear for free, unify their outfit colors for free, and run as many pvp matches as they want without a limit.

Expansions Cost

If you’re worried about breaking the piggybank down the line with all the expansions that are out, I’ve also got great news for you. First off, the first two expansions are, I’ll say it again, completely free. You can then unlock all the current and past expansions simply by subscribing for just one month at about $15 USD – you no longer need to buy each expansion individually. Awesome. That means when you decide to subscribe, you’ll get all four other expansions for only fifteen dollars, and you’ll get them permanently – you’ll be able to continue playing them even if you unsubscribe the next month. Currently there’s six expansions: Rise of the Hutt Cartel, Shadow of Revan, Knights of the Fallen Empire, Knights of the Eternal Throne, Onslaught, and the newest expansion Legacy of the Sith.

2026: At the end of last year, we got an exciting announcement that the developers are working on a new expansion – we have no idea if the next expansion will cost money, or be free with subscription like the last few expansions!

Leveling Experience

New players who have played other online MMOs will be pleasantly surprised about the interactive cutscenes in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The cutscenes really are like being in your own movie – and even better, a movie you get to make decisions in. Every cutscene is fully voiced and animated, and the main class stories are exceptionally good. There’s also 8 different classes to choose from – so if you choose to play a Sith Inquisitor, you’re going to have a drastically different story than someone playing a Republic Trooper. Your class decides your combat style, your weapon, and your class storyline – you  can play a Sith Inquisitor, a Jedi Knight, an Imperial Agent, a Smuggler, a Sith Warrior, a Trooper, a Jedi Consular, or a Bounty Hunter.

2026: The developers have been putting more attention into these cutscenes since the launch of the game, and there’s been lighting and shadow upgrades, texture upgrades, and both scenery and character graphical modernization updates over the last year, bringing it more in-line visually with modern games. For a game that launched in 2011, it’s looking really nice, and the in-game cutscenes are drastically improved compared to the launch of the game.

XP: There have also been some major improvements to levelling since the launch of the game. When the game first came out, players were encouraged.. err… ahh… well, required, to do almost every quest to gain enough XP so they could be at the appropriate level for the next area. This often included doing fetch quests and side quests alongside the main storyline just to keep up. Now, these types of side quests are actually hidden from players by default. Instead, players are encouraged to do their main class storyline and the main planet storylines, which should give most players enough XP to progress without having to do any side quests. These two types of main quests are marked with a giant purple icon to make them easier to distinguish from the optional exploratory quests.

The levelling process in general is pretty smooth –  jump in, follow the purple quests, and explore the rest of the game when you are ready.

Game Difficulty

Players new to MMOs may be pleased to know that the game’s base difficulty is incredibly easy. One of the main focuses of the game is the story, and the developers have made changes to the game to make it more accessible even to the newest of players.

Experienced gamers who are looking for a highly challenging experience from level 1 onwards will likely be disappointed with the combat, and will only enjoy the beginning part of the game if they enjoy the story and the universe.

The good news is that there are more challenging modes available for players at later levels. Players who reach the later expansions at level 60 and beyond have the option to play two of the expansions in Story mode, Veteran mode or Master mode.

Flashpoints / Dungeons: If you’re willing to group up, there’s also Veteran Mode and Master Mode operations and Flashpoints that offerteam -based challenging fights that will really keep you on your toes.

Operations / Raids: If you enjoy group content, although there are not many world-first raiding groups left, progression and endgame raiding is alive and well in the game.

PvP: If you enjoy player vs player content, there are two modes of PvP available – death match and objectives-based. Players of all skill levels are thrown into the same match, and you get rewards based on playing matches, winning matches, and your personal medal count – so if you’re a skilled player, you’ll get rewards faster, but even brand new players can earn rewards over time.

Solo Players

Because SWTOR is a massive multiplayer game, players often ask how good the game is for a solo player.

Although the game will never be as good as a game designed specifically with solo play in mind like Knights of the Old Republic, when it comes to online games, it’s probably the most solo-friendly game that exists. The entire class storyline is designed with a single player in mind, and the developers have added more options to solo content over the years. All the story expansions also offer story content catered towards solo players.

Don’t believe me? I’ve created a massive story order guide specifically for solo players. I have no idea how long an average solo story campaign might take you, but at the time of making this video, if I’ve counted right, a single character can visit 34 planets, play 20 solo flashpoints, and enjoy 6 expansion storylines. Players who are willing to try group content will unlock an additional 11 group-only flashpoints and 12 8-man operations once you reached endgame.

Do you need to know about Star Wars?

I’ve also seen players ask if it’s important to know a lot about the Star Wars universe or if you need to have seen the movies before playing. I feel I can pretty confidently say no – the game starts you off as an apprentice in the various classes, and your story mentors will teach you more about the world around you as you play. In general, the story is set in a fairly generic sci fi universe that follows many of the same rules as our world does, with the additions of space travel and sentient aliens. Add in the more fantasy-based Jedi and Sith magic *cough* Force users, and you’ve got the idea of the Star Wars universe.  The big things to know about this game is that it is set over 3,000 years before the Star War movies take place… so you likely won’t see any references to Darth Vader or The Mandalorian kicking around. I believe anyone who enjoys Sci Fi based games or games that have a huge established lore base would enjoy Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Population

Instead of having many smaller servers, SWTOR now has 5 mega servers. While some servers were very quiet before the merge, all five servers currently have a good population. The merge allowed more players to use the group finder together, and it seems to have worked very successfully, and all the current servers seem to be active except for the French one. SWTOR’s exact population is a bit mysterious and hard to count, but at least from the Steam charts, it’s been pretty steady the last three years or so. While it’s clear from the numbers that SWTOR is not nearly as popular as it was, after the server merge happened, I haven’t had any problems getting into randomized groups for Flashpoints and PvP, and see people running Operations frequently in chat, though those mostly happen within guilds.

Update Frequency

2026 last year in review: Last year’s update cadence was about the same as the previous year, but the weirdest hurdle for last year was actually the Voice Actor’s Strike, which lasted almost a full year, where the developers could not schedule for or record the new storylines they were working on. The developers have been continuing strong with the Galactic Seasons updates, giving both new and long-time players something to log in and play, especially with the delay in the story content. In an update mid-way through the year, Dynamic Encounter world quests were  added to seven planets, including the starter planets, which was an interesting addition to the game. In the Fall, we got some nice quality of life updates and over 70 new hair colors. Late in 2025, the developers were finally able to release the story they were working on, with the voice actor’s strike ended and the actors back in the recording studio! A brand new area was also added to the game which introduced a stage system of hazardous biomes for high-level players to explore.

• 12/19/2025 Roadmap Shared for 2026
• 12/17/2025 – Game Update 7.8b
• 12/16/2025 – Game Update 7.8a
• 12/09/2025 – Game Update 7.8 “Pursuit of Ruin”
• 11/04/2025 – Game Update 7.7.1d
• 09/30/2025 – Game Update 7.7.1c
• 09/08/2025 – Game Update 7.7.1b
• 08/21/2025 – Game Update 7.7.1a
• 08/19/2025 – Game Update 7.7.1 “Flashpoint Resurgence”
• 06/17/2025 – Game Update 7.7d
• 06/10/2025 – Game Update 7.7c
• 06/04/2025 – Game Update 7.7b
• 05/30/2025 – Game Update 7.7a
• 05/28/2025 – Game Update 7.7 “Dynamic Worlds”
• 04/17/2025 – Game Update 7.6.1d
• 04/01/2025 – Game Update 7.6.1c
• 03/21/2025 – Game Update 7.6.1b
• 03/13/2025 – Game Update 7.6.1a
• 03/11/2025 – Game Update 7.6.1 “Rising Powers”
• 01/24/2025 – Game Update 7.6d

2026 Roadmap: At the end of last year, we also got a roadmap from the executive producer which is letting us know what 2026 will look like! This is actually the first time in many years we’ve seen a roadmap, which bodes very well for the future as the team feels confident enough in their update schedule to release it publicly.

• February 2026 – Developer Livestream
  • News
• February/March 2026 – Game Update 7.8.1 – Master’s Enigma
  • Story
  • Galactic Season 10
  • Two Date Night Missions – Torian and Kira
• March/April/May 2026 – Game Update 7.9 – Legacy Reborn
  • Story
  • PvP Season 10
• June/July/August 2026 – Game Update 7.9.1
  • Galactic Season 11
• Late 2026? – 8.0 Expansion?

Story

One of the nice things about the game being focused on story is that there is never a bad time to jump in to the game – I often get ask if it’s “too late to join”. None of the older storylines are removed or made irrelevant, so you can start at level 1 and play the story at your own pace, no matter how many expansions have come out since you started. It’s never “too late” to jump in to the game – new players of the game will have over ten years worth of content to explore and enjoy. The base eight storylines alone will likely be well over 200+ hours of gameplay for the average player before they even subscribe.

2026: With the voice actor’s strike finished, we already have more story scheduled to come out this year.

Too late for gear? Another question players often ask is if it’s too late to catch up with the more technical side of things like gearing, or reaching level 80. Every couple of years, the entire gearing system of the game is reset, and all players have to start fresh at endgame. This reset makes it really easy for players who haven’t been playing for ten years to jump in. You don’t have to catch up with ten plus years of gearing.

2026: The gear system was re-tooled multiple times last year, making it easier and easier for new players to get the best gear in the game, even if they are brand new to gearing up at level 80.

Endgame Content

One of the other big concerns I’ve seen about the game is the lack of endgame content. At the launch of the game, once you had reach max level, there was very little else to do in the game and this lack of “endgame” content really hurt the game’s population and reputation. It’s been 10 years since the game’s launch though, and a huge amount of content has been added since then. To give you some context… the game launched with a single 8-man group operation, and now the game has twelve These operations are in addition to many other types of content that now exists including 6 single-boss operation instances, monthly events like the Dantooine Farm event, Swoop Event and Rakghoul event, over 40 4-man flashpoints many of which have a solo option available and I’m really sorry I’ve last track of exactly how many there are at this point, 15 player vs player maps, 4 galactic starfighter player vs player maps, a solo tournament-style fight pit called the Eternal Championship, repeatable Heroics on almost every planet, and 13 daily areas that didn’t exist when the game launched. So if you’re worried about starting the game and then running out of things to do when you reach max-level… I say good luck buddy, because even I haven’t done every single thing available at endgame yet and I’ve been playing since launch!

Who Might Like or Dislike SWTOR

Now let’s go over who might like or dislike this game.

• If you are a new player looking for great MMO story content, I think you will love the game
• If you love Star Wars, I think you will love the game
• If you enjoyed Knights of the Old Republic, lower your expectations a bit and I think you will enjoy this game… but it isn’t Knights of the Old Republic 3.
• If you are looking for a sci fi mmo, I would recommend this game
• If you liked the Disney+ Star Wars tv shows and are looking for more expanded and adventurous lore like that, I think you will love the Old Republic
• If you are looking for a game to play with a friend or significant other, I have personally enjoyed playing this game one-on-one with both friends and family. The game is especially good for long-distance play. Unfortunately, there’s no couch-co op mode.
• If you are looking for a game with fun group activities, I would recommend this game’s Flashpoints and Operations as being really fun, but I’d point out that the story and levelling content leans more towards solo players
• If you are looking for top-notch challenging combat, I would not recommend this game – while positioning yourself can be important, you can not manually dodge or evade attacks. The combat is similar to older styles of MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, and may feel a bit slower than newer style MMORPGs like Elder Scrolls Online, and won’t be anything like extremely mobile first-person shooter games or battle royal games.
• If you are looking for hyper-realistic next generation graphics, I would not recommend this game, but with the graphical improvements, the game does look great compared to its previous graphics, and I’d recommend to check out some more recent videos or livestreams of the game by players playing the Ultra graphics settings to see if you might like it – for example the old launch trailers look nothing like the game does now.
• If you are looking for a perfectly balanced, bug-free pvp experience I would not recommend this game. With that said, many of my friends do enjoy both the casual pvp in the game, and the developers have kept up well with PvP Seasons.
• If you are looking for a game that uses cutting-edge technology, I would not recommend this game. Due to rushing the launch of the game, the game is stuck with an older engine and is not as well optimized as it could be, especially compared to newer online games. We have however been seeing updates over time, but the game is still hindered somewhat by using older technology.
• If you are looking for a game that is 100% free-to-play, I will warn you that you may experience frustrations, and will hit a paywall at around level 60 and at the end of the free expansions, but as I’ve mentioned I’ve really enjoyed playing the class storyline on my free to play account, and if I decide to play the other 8 class storylines I could easily clock over 200 hours in the game without spending a dime. If you have at least $15 to spend you can unlock all the expansions permanently.
• If you’re looking for a game where you can really customize your character, the game is great for that. You can have the looks of one armor while using the stat of another, mix and match armor sets, dye armor, and choose from hundreds of color crystals for your lightsaber or blaster. It’s very rare to see two identical charters.
• If you’re looking for a game you can really invest in to, even beyond the huge amounts of story and quests that are available that I’ve already talked about, the game also has really extensive player housing that you can decorate, indepth crafting, guilds, roleplay, and lots of other things that exist outside of the game’s main spheres of play. Because there are so many facets to the game, if you get bored of one you can always check out another.
• If you are looking for a game where you can really connect with your character, SWTOR is great for that. When you combine its customization options with the movie-like cutscenes, and the ability to make long-lasting choices, many players feel very connected to their ingame characters.

If you’re a new player trying to decide if you should try the game or not, I hope by now I’ve covered enough to help you decide. The easiest way to get the game is to find it on Steam or go to swtor.com/download and it will start downloading immediately. If you’re still wondering about specific aspects of the game, like the classes or story, I’ve created dozens of videos ranging on every topic of the game and if you plan on playing I highly suggest checking out my playlist called “The Academy”!

Good luck in the universe of Star Wars: The Old Republic… and may the Force be with you!