Magic: The Gathering Arena has continued to rise through the ranks of competitive gaming in 2020.
The card game, an almost 1:1 digital recreation of the long-running tabletop original, officially launched back in 2018 following a prolonged beta period and now enjoys the same frequency of updates as physical formats. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in fact, Arena has for the first time been front of the queue to receive a new Standard-legal set in the form of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, though this likely remains a one-off due to manufacturing delays caused by the aforementioned virus.
Regardless, Magic‘s video game spinoff is undoubtedly here to stay for the foreseeable future according to analyst website Esports Observer, which has recently revealed the top 15 most influential PC games of 2020 so far. Given its relatively short time in the market, Arena still has a ways to go until it beats out heavyweights like League of Legends and DOTA 2, but 11th place is certainly nothing to scoff at.
See the gallery below for a breakdown of the top 15:
Perhaps most surprising of all, then, is the fall in popularity being experienced by Blizzard’s suite of titles. Overwatch and World of Warcraft have charted below MTG: Arena, with only Hearthstone holding firm in the top 10. As a CCG itself and one of the company’s most successful titles ever, the latter represents the main competition for Wizards of the Coast in online gaming, and it’ll be interesting to see how the positions shift (if at all) in the year ahead.
Right now, however, Magic: The Gathering Arena is off to a fantastic start. And with two more Standard sets and no doubt other content still on course to arrive in 2020, the future’s looking bright indeed.