We only have to look at other notable games like Dota Underlords to see that a hunger for autobattlers is not what's driving players into their arms. They don't speak to the health of the genre, only their own success. Like Hearthstone Battlegrounds, it benefits greatly from being attached to an already hugely popular game, making it so much easier to convert the slightly interested into obsessed players. Last year, it hit a new daily peak of 10 million players (opens in new tab). It's more than healthy, and still growing. I still play Riot's Teamfight Tactics regularly, and I've never waited for more than a few seconds for a match. That's why it was so exciting to see New World appear last year, even though it's not very good. These games serve their communities well, but the broader genres are effectively in hibernation. They're both very much alive genres, of course, but players have coalesced around a few giants and mainstays, with hardly anything that's new or novel appearing. We saw MMOs and MOBAs go through this gold rush too, but not with this much speed. Then the genre skipped the part where it becomes established and stable, rushing instead towards stagnation and decline. The incredible pace of expansion suggested great things for autobattlers. In less than a year we'd gone from a single mod to a bunch of high profile games, each boasting millions of players and big tournaments touting meaty payouts.
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