The decline of Artifact just won’t stop. Only a fraction of the former players logs into the card game regularly.
A little over a year ago, Artifact was seen as the “next big thing” in the digital card game scene. It aimed to be a real competitor for games like Hearthstone, Magic, or Shadowverse. However, that dream now seems to be fading. In less than two months, Artifact has lost nearly 97% of its players.
After just one week, 50% of the players had already disappeared.
What happened? When Artifact launched in November 2018, the initial hype was huge. Over 60,000 players logged in simultaneously and played the card game. However, these player numbers could not be maintained, and a constant downward trend began. Meanwhile, the numbers of concurrent players have dropped by around 97%. At times, they were just over 1400 players.
What were Artifact’s mistakes? There are many reasons for Artifact’s apparent failure. Firstly, the game presents a significant barrier as it is a paid title that costs €18 – in addition to any further purchases. Cards can be sold to other players, and some cards even cost more than the game itself. This quickly gave Artifact an unfortunate “Pay2Win” reputation that is hard to shake off.
Additionally, Artifact stated at launch that it would “never nerf cards” and then broke that promise.
Too complex and confusing for viewers: Another point may be the complexity of Artifact. Unlike most card games, there are three playing fields (“Lanes”) for each match of Artifact. This makes the game sluggish and difficult for viewers to understand – watching it was simply boring for many.
Whether Artifact will recover from this low point is questionable. The community is already speculating that a transition to Free2Play might be the only way to boost player numbers again.
What is your opinion on Artifact? Do you still play the card game regularly? Or are you one of the 97% who have already thrown in the towel?
