SuperData report: “Hearthstone is killing itself”

Hearthstone revenue in February is down considerably on mobile, a new report from SuperData says. And to make it worse, it’s likely Blizzard’s own doing.

Revenue is down to a record low for Hearthstone on both iOS and Android smartphones, suffering both year-over-year and month-over-month. That’s despite the worldwide games market growing by four percent year-over-year for February. Desktop revenue is also down, but not nearly as much as on mobile, “perhaps due to the more ‘hardcore’ demographic on PC,” SuperData says.

Increased competition from card games like Gwent: The Witcher Card Game as well as unpopular gameplay decisions from Blizzard are likely to blame for Hearthstone’s struggle, SuperData says in the report. Professional players, too, have spoken out against Blizzard’s treatment of Hearthstone.

In February, Hearthstone player Adrian “Lifecoach” Koy claimed to have quit Hearthstone’s competitive ladder and the Hearthstone Championship Tour circuit. “It’s like coin flipping with a little bit of strategy,” Lifecoach said in a YouTube video.

Hearthstone’s metagame favors a few different deck types—and if you’re not running one of those, it’s a challenge to stack up.

Lots of new Hearthstone cards—135 of them—will be introduced with the Journey to Un’Goro expansion. A release date has not been revealed just yet. When it is released, it’s a guaranteed shake-up to the Hearthstone meta, and Blizzard is likely hoping to recoup some of its revenue losses.