With each passing year, the video game industry continues to evolve and bring forth new titles. However, it’s often the case that after completing a game once, players lose interest in it. In such cases, it’s thanks to mods – unofficial additions created by gamers – that certain games remain relevant for decades.
Games with mod support tend to have a significantly longer lifespan. This is because mods allow players to enhance graphics and optimization, add new gameplay elements, content, and much more.
That’s why, in this article, we’ve gathered the best games with mod support – ones that will make your gaming experience even better or reignite your passion for a forgotten game, urging you to play it all over again.
Elden Ring
Elden Ring became the most popular and successful game of 2022. FromSoftware’s project, created in collaboration with writer George R. R. Martin, won over players thanks to its atmosphere, engaging story, and deep combat system.
However, FromSoftware is known for making its games highly challenging. Because of this, players often release mods that improve balance or add even more difficulty levels – sometimes higher than the existing ones-to create an extra challenge. Mods for graphical improvements, custom weapons and armor are also popular. Another widely used mod is Seamless Co-op, which allows players to experience the game in cooperative mode without restrictions.
Elden Ring does not have an official SDK, so players develop their own tools for game customization and modding.
Minecraft
The open-world sandbox game from Mojang Studios, released in 2011 and titled Minecraft, has remained one of the most popular games in the world for many years. It gained popularity among gamers thanks to the freedom it offers. Players can build anything from small houses to massive cities.
User-generated content expands players’ possibilities even further by adding new mobs, tools, mechanics, biomes, worlds, and much more. Thanks to mods, the game becomes larger in scale and more interesting for gamers with different play styles. The most popular Minecraft mods today include OptiFine, Thaumcraft, Tinkers’ Construct, and Feed The Beast.
Fallout Series
The post-apocalyptic role-playing game series Fallout has enjoyed strong modding support, especially starting from the third installment.
Thanks to community-created content, players can improve the technical aspects of the games, expand the storyline, add new mechanics and items, and much more. The developers themselves support the enthusiasm of players in creating additional content and have released an official modding tool.
Additionally, we can specifically mention the Fallout: London mod, which is being developed based on Fallout 4. However, it tells a completely new story, created almost from scratch, and can be considered a standalone game.
In terms of the scale of modding support, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout: New Vegas are among the top 10 games with the highest number of mods on Nexus Mods. That’s why this series deserves a place among the top moddable games.
Stardew Valley
The indie hit Stardew Valley, a farming life simulator, was created by a single developer – ConcernedApe. Its pixel art style, which evokes nostalgia in many players, along with its atmosphere and deep gameplay, helped the game win the hearts of many gamers.
The community actively creates mods for Stardew Valley, which keeps interest in the game alive. For example, there’s a major unofficial expansion called Stardew Valley Expanded, created by enthusiasts, which adds new characters, locations, quests, and much more. There are also mods that add new crops, animals, clothing, improve graphics, and many other features.
Stardew Valley does not have an official modding tool like big AAA games. Mods for the game can be created using the Stardew Modding API or other modding tools. Importantly, the game’s creator himself interacts with the modding community and tests their additions.
Mount & Blade
The open-world role-playing game series Mount & Blade gives players complete freedom of action in a medieval setting. You can create your own kingdom and conquer everyone, or remain a mercenary and complete small tasks. Thanks to its freedom of choice, engaging combat system, and lack of story constraints, the game gained widespread popularity.
In Mount & Blade, mods don’t just bring technical improvements or quests – they add entirely new worlds. For example, A World of Ice and Fire for Mount & Blade: Warband adds the world of Game of Thrones, while Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword shifts the setting to Eastern and Northern Europe, where you can become part of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi’s army.
Bannerlord is the newest installment in the series, and it already features several large-scale expansions. For instance, The Old Realms transports players into the Warhammer universe. The official SDK expands the community’s technical capabilities, so we can expect many more massive mods in the future.
Baldur’s Gate 3
In 2023, Larian Studios released the role-playing game Baldur’s Gate 3, based on the popular tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons. It instantly became a hit, reaching an impressive 875,000 concurrent players. Gamers praised the strong storyline, level of detail, and richness of the world, while the option to play cooperatively made the experience even more engaging.
Almost immediately, players began creating mods for the game. These added customization options, expanded the number of classes and races, improved visuals and the user interface. Larian supported players’ desire to create additional content, and with one of the patches, a modding toolkit was officially introduced.
Starfield
Starfield became the biggest disappointment in the video game industry in 2023. Players expected an exciting space-themed role-playing action game with a vast open world, but instead received small disconnected locations separated by loading screens, nearly empty planets, and outdated technical performance.
The modding community came to the rescue of Bethesda’s new project. Within the first few months, the game received thousands of mods that improved graphics, optimization, gameplay mechanics, the interface, added new quests, locations, and made the world more alive. Currently, the game has over 10,000 mods on NexusMods, which motivated the developers to release the official Creation Kit for modding in 2024.
Thus, Starfield became yet another Bethesda game whose life was saved by gamers and their mods.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
In 2015, CD Projekt released one of the most popular action/RPGs in recent years – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The game continues the story from the first two Witcher titles and features a vast, richly detailed game world, deep narrative, and an incredible atmosphere.
Due to its massive popularity, players began creating their own additional content for the third Witcher. Most modifications focus on enhancing graphics and gameplay. To give the game a more modern appearance, players often download mods such as HD Reworked Project and Friendly HUD. Also popular is additional content that introduces new weapons, outfits, and enriches the game world.
To support the community’s desire to create mods, the developers released an official ModKit, though it is limited in functionality. As a result, gamers frequently use custom tools to work on mods.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
In 2011, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released by Bethesda Game Studios for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Later, the game was ported to PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One. Created in the action RPG genre, the player takes on the role of the Dragonborn, who must defeat the dragon Alduin.
The game’s vast freedom of action, atmosphere, music, deep lore, and large, vibrant world made Skyrim a cult classic that players continue to return to regularly. Its popularity is also sustained by a dedicated modding community, empowered by official modding tools.
Graphic enhancement mods can transform Skyrim into an entirely new game, far removed from its 2011 release – making it look like a modern AAA title with stunning visuals. Mods also fix numerous bugs, overhaul the combat system, and much more. Notable large-scale story mods include Enderal and Falskaar. Other important mods worth mentioning are Skyrim Script Extender, Unofficial Patch, and Immersive Armors/Weapons.
It’s also worth noting that within The Elder Scrolls series, Skyrim isn’t the only title with a strong modding presence. Additional content is still actively being created for Morrowind and Oblivion. Recently, Oblivion Remastered was released and is also receiving a steady flow of new mods from the gaming community.
Thus, modder support remains a crucial factor in keeping players engaged in the TES series.
Total Conversion Mods
We should not forget about total conversion mods – a type of additional content that completely transforms a game. When using such a mod, the player receives a new product that may feature an entirely new storyline, mechanics, interface, or even genre. In this kind of content, creators might retain only the game engine while rebuilding everything else from scratch.
For fans of strategy games by Paradox Interactive, total conversion mods are nothing new. Their real-time strategy games (Hearts of Iron, Victoria, Crusader Kings, and Europa Universalis) regularly receive content that shifts the game’s setting to different historical periods or fictional universes – such as Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, or worlds where Germany won World War I.
Another example is DayZ, which began as a mod for Arma 2 and eventually evolved into a full standalone game. It’s also worth remembering that the now-popular Counter-Strike franchise originally started as a mod for Half-Life.
Therefore, we can confidently say that games with mod support are an essential part of the gaming industry. These projects allow players to stay engaged with their favorite games for longer and enjoy them again and again. Often, mods are created out of players’ love for a game and their desire to improve it. This also helps developers better understand what the community wants to see and what areas need improvement.
It’s important to note that downloading mods from unverified websites can be risky, as they may contain malicious software. That’s why it’s best to use trusted platforms for the modding community. A great example is Nexus Mods, which has been a hub for thousands of modders around the world for many years.
