In the year 1993, Richard Garfield was the first person to come up with the concept of a trading card game. Magic: The Gathering was the name of this card game, and Wizards of the Coast was the company that distributed it. This is the game that all other trading card games are modelled after (Pokemon, Yugioh, etc.). Is it accurate to say that Magic: The Gathering is still played today? Even though it has been well over 30 years since the game was first made available, it is still an extremely popular game even to this day.
Magic: The Gathering is available in over 70 countries and a wide variety of languages thanks to its widespread distribution. Every year, a number of different sets are made available for purchase, and consumers rush to pre-release events in order to get their hands on them.
If someone tries to convince you that Magic: The Gathering isn’t very popular, it’s likely because they don’t participate in any of the relevant communities. It is expected that every significant town and city will have a sizable group of people who are dedicated to playing the game.
Is it too late to play Magic: The Gathering?
Never in a million years! In point of fact, it is undergoing something of a renaissance at the moment, and a significant portion of this uptick can be attributed to the launch of Magic the Gathering: Arena, a new entry point for players to enter the game.
Magic: The Gathering, like most other trading card games, experiences both highs and lows in popularity. There are some expansions that are so universally reviled, such as Homelands or Fallen Empires, that they are so terrible that they drive people away from the game for a short while. However, these people always come back to the game or at the very least get replaced by new people who become interested in the hobby.
In recent years, Wizards of the Coast has discovered that some individuals are finding it somewhat difficult to get started in the hobby. As a result, they have created a variety of goods that make it easier for newcomers to get started.
For instance, not very long ago, they published Challenger Decks, which were effectively “ready to play” decks for competitive Friday Night Magic (the primary way that the majority of people play the game), as well as Commander Decks, which facilitated an easy entry point into the game of Commander. Because of this, more people who had previously believed they were unable to participate in the pastime due to the cost of the cards are now participating.
As was said earlier, the most common way for many individuals to enjoy the game is by participating in Friday Night Magic. Every single Friday, at nearly every single store that sells trading card games and has these cards, there is a tournament where people get together to compete for various prizes while playing the game. The likelihood of these events not being completely full is extremely low. Aside from this, the majority of people will engage in game play while relaxing in the convenience of their own homes.
To tell you the truth, this is a game that is undoubtedly proving its worth despite the fact that it has been around for more than 30 years at this point. it isn’t dying. In no way does it. It continues to be the most well-liked trading card game available right now.
It has been estimated that over the course of its 30-year history, at least 35 million individuals have taken up an interest in Magic: The Gathering, making it, without a doubt, the most popular collectible card game in the whole globe.
However, the number 35 million doesn’t truly tell the complete situation by any means. This is referring to persons who engage in the practise of paper magic. Magic In addition, The Gathering includes:
Since its inception almost twenty years ago, MTG Online has enjoyed unprecedented levels of popularity. Even though it appears that Wizards of the Coast has not released actual player stats for MTG Online, we wouldn’t be surprised if this added a couple of hundred thousand people, or maybe even a million, onto the playing figures of MTG. However, it is likely that many of those people will also play the paper game.
It is likely that the various Magic the Gathering video games have had a negligible impact on overall player counts. This is primarily due to the fact that it is likely that anyone playing one of the video games (they were released extensively on Xbox Live Arcade for a while) would have been a fan of the paper game anyway.
The Magic: The Gathering: Arena app is the most important one here. It is the most elaborate game they have ever brought out, and it was developed specifically for those players who were already heavily invested in Hearthstone but were interested in trying out a more visually stunning rendition of one of the most successful card games in human history. At the most recent count, there were more than three million participants participating in the game. That was before the pandemic that we are currently experiencing; hence, given that Friday Night Magic is not airing in many areas throughout the world due to the virus, it is possible that this number is twice as high as it actually is.
To tell you the truth, it is probably safe to estimate that there are somewhere between 10 and 20 million active Magic: The Gathering players in the world right now. This is a game that is extremely well-liked, and there is every indication that this acclaim will be sustained for a significant amount of time.
