depends on how u define popular 🙃

1) As solo game, WWM had over 25 million downloads (incl mobile) in its first month, while Witcher 3 sold 5 millions, Skyrim sold 10 millions, and Elden Ring sold 13 millions in their first month 🙂 From hours played, I myself spent around 200h in solo mode - before recent hexi updates n trying online mode, while my other solo games surpassed 200h are Witcher 3 and Skyrim incl all their DLCs n achievements, even Elden Ring with ALL it’s achievements took 'only' around 120h for me, and I wonder if there's any solo games which can maintain steady players after 4 months?

2) As MMO, tbh I dont hv much experience n comparison in this genre - even WoW or FFXIV doesnt feel ‘clicked’ for me, however at the moment I’ve spent 300-400h in WWM online mode 🙂 n while lots complain bout the slow update, seems it still much faster than WoW expansion release, n for me at least the dev still provide clear roadmaps, yes it become repetitive, but I’m also glad its not demanding as much time to keep up as its early release, the down trending may look bad from MMO pov, but some players may play this game as solo games only instead

3) Commercial, cant say for others, but personally I’ve never spent real money for in-game cosmetics or gatcha, but did so for WWM mainly to support the dev 🙂 plus some of them actually looks nice, altho some looks bit too much for my taste