In 2016 and 2017, Hearthstone was one of the most popular titles in the gaming industry. Since then, it’s been dying, or at least that’s what the majority of the community says—but Blizzard thinks otherwise.
On July 26, Blizzard Entertainment’s Nathan Lyons-Smith, executive producer for Hearthstone, released a blog post titled “Looking Ahead.” The developer shared his thoughts about the game’s current state and what’s next. Most importantly, he explained that “Hearthstone is here to stay.”
Lyons-Smith didn’t officially acknowledge the low player numbers for Hearthstone in 2024, but he reassured the community that Blizzard will continue working on it. “We have a shared passion and love for this game and want it to be the best it can be so we can enjoy it together,” he wrote. At the same time, he pointed out how the developer frequently looks at the player feedback, which has been massive in the last few months.
The latest Hearthstone expansion, Perils in Paradise, was released last week, but Blizzard didn’t intend to add more new content to the game. These plans, though, were modified after looking back at the mentioned feedback. “We are still planning to release one new board per year, but we also have some ambitious ideas that we know will be a significant undertaking,” Lyons-Smith wrote.
One of the features that may see a lot of change could be “personalization of the playspace,” which has “reinforced [Blizzard’s] desire to innovate and challenge what we have always done.”
Despite Blizzard reassuring us Hearthstone is doing well and has a lot of changes planned, it’s impossible to officially look at the numbers behind the game as of now. However, unofficial data from activeplayer.io tells us there are about 1,300,000 active players daily.
Still, the game was arguably the most popular in 2017 and 2018. That was when its esports tour, Hearthstone World Championship 2017, recorded a peak viewership of 291,075, according to Esports Charts. Looking at the dwindling viewer numbers lately, with 2024 having a peak viewership of only 40,713 watchers, it seems impossible to beat it.
The main reason this number could be lower is due to the declining number of actual competitive events in the title. According to Esports Charts, only two were held in 2024, while 2018 saw that number go to a record of 71 tournaments.
The same decline can be seen on streaming platforms. According to Stream Charts, Hearthstone as a game had a peak viewership of 307,300, recorded on April 12, 2018. The peak in the last seven days reached merely 37,000. Similarly, in 2018, it had a record 2,300 live channels broadcasting the game, while in the last seven days, it was only 400.
