topic:106190"]
Actually their last reported number were…
1). 22 million does not equal 25 million.
2). Actually a number of “Blizzard” active users DOES NOT equate to the number of “Hearthstone” active users. So again, the last time that I am aware an official breakdown for the actual number of active “Hearthstone” players being released was from 2020.
3). As I pointed out, a significant number of players have multiple accounts, which significantly reduces the actual number of players, since by just logging into alternate accounts, such players get counted as additional players.
4). The end of the NetEase agreement resulted in a huge loss of players back in January.
So when Erikk responded to your question “does 25 million active average monthly players count” by saying “HS doesnt have that many players,” he was correct.
While Blizzard may have kept revenue up last year by increasing offers and ways for players to spend more money on the Hearthstone (despite the loss of players), and by significantly reducing employee costs, Hearthstone is hemorrhaging players in 2023.
https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/blizzard-has-lost-nearly-half-its-monthly-active-users-in-four-years-3016739
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/activision-blizzard-loses-60-million-monthly-active-users-in-past-year/1100-6502758/
In regards to the OP’s reaction to encountering more bots than players on the Ladder, I can confirm a similar experience in the lower brackets when I played in that range across nine different collections while I had a cumulative win streak across these collections of around 100 games without a loss, because the majority of my games were against player-bots and in-game bots.