20th Anniversary - Multiplayer Mayhem feature - Contra mod for C&C: Generals Zero Hour

In June 2002 ModDB began, and every year since we've celebrated the best mods in an annual player voted event. To mark our 20th Anniversary, we've decided to take a walk down memory lane, and look back on all of the mods that finished in the top 5, across five separate categories:

Some of the most influential mods in modding history crossed the boundary of singleplayer and brought groups of friends together in all out conflict. Whether in co-operative or competitive settings, whether in the past, modern day, or future, and whether realistic or not, these multiplayer mods shaped friendships across decades of play.

Fight Together, Far Far Away

Battlefront Ultimate Commander | STAR WARS Battlefront 2 Remaster

Mod for Star Wars Battlefront II

Battlefront II - the original rather than the ill-fated EA remake - has brought friends and strangers together for many years. Many mods work within the framework of the game and add new features, factions, units, and graphics, as with these two projects that took winning spots in Mod of the Year 2018 and 2020. Other Battlefront II mods have given people plenty of reasons to stick to the classics, like The Clone Wars Revised, TORfront, and Tatooine At War.

Full-Lives of Multiplayer Fun

Front Line Force | Pirates, Vikings, and Knights | The Trenches

Mods for Half-Life

Once you've finished reading all of these category breakdowns, you'll get a solid feel for just how much Half-Life and Half-Life 2 mods have defined the history of ModDB's community - three Half-Life total conversions here prove people were ravenous in the early 2000s for solid multiplayer fun. Taking wins in 2002, 2003, and 2004, Front Line Force and The Trenches both had their time and then called it a night - but Pirates, Vikings, and Knights successfully graduated to Source and remains active to this day.

Battlefield's massive multiplayer engagements have been the stuff of internet legend for decades - and pulling off incredible feats, close-calls, and devastating wins is made all the more exciting when you do it with friends. Battlefield already has a great showing in this event, and these two keep up the pace both demonstrating wins in 2005. If the earliest awards were the years of Half-Life, 2005 was the start of Battlefield getting a turn at bat.

There Can Only Be One

Last Man Standing Coop | Breaking Point

Mods for Doom III and ARMA 3

Whilst we all like working with our mates, and sometimes working against them, there's an interesting middle ground proposed by mods like the above - where you work together by necessity, but with each player aiming for themselves to be the last one left. The two mods above favour co-operative play in order to get ahead as a group collective, but any kind of "win condition" is generally fulfilled by only one survivor. In both 2005 and 2014's MOTY, this premise compelled users to mark them as some of their favourite mods.

To the surprise of no one, Half-Life 2 mods dominate the multiplayer category with a huge variety of total conversion projects from so many different concepts. Similarly, they dominated the awards in 2005, 2008, and 2009, with three showings in 2008. Half-Life 2 multiplayer mods have seen a decrease in popularity in recent years, but the occasional entry still shows up and wows everyone for a while.

Co-operative Zombie Mashing

Zombie Master | No More Room in Hell

Mods for Half-Life 2

Source lends itself well to multiplayer mods - almost half the entries on this list come from derivatives of the engine - but there's few things better than killing zombies with friends in a bid for survival. Taking 2008 and 2011 by storm, these two mods both had a great life cycle and have since received sequel projects of their own.

Sometimes the best way to settle a score is in a competitive setting - and RTS games allow plenty of opportunity to prove who's best! Mods have expanded the options available for those wanting to inhabit their favourite universe or civilisation and direct them to victory, and these two, taking wins in 2017 and 2018, prove that a slugging match with armies as proxy is just as good a way to settle differences as any other.

Company of Heroes' strategic yet bombastic gameplay provides a happy middle-ground between the likes of Supreme Commander and Command & Conquer. It's got a dedicated following of its own and so, no wonder, that two mods massively expanding on the game both won player's hearts in MOTY 2010 onwards. Company of Heroes: Modern Combat and Europe at War also both give fans plenty to dig themselves into.