DotA itself originated as a modded StarCraft game mode that featured players cooperatively fighting endless waves of enemies in four lanes. MOBAs, or multiplayer online battle arenas, began with Defense of the Ancients (more commonly known as DotA). BLOCKLORDS also shows promise, combining the best mechanics of top strategy games and taking inspiration from what many consider to be responsible for the downfall of the strategy genre - MOBAs. While official sales numbers for Age of Empires 4 haven’t yet been released, signs are good as the game reached Steam’s top-seller list with its refreshingly modern mechanics. Relic Entertainment released Age of Empires 4 in October of last year, and rising game studio MetaKing is joining the fight with its upcoming release of BLOCKLORDS, a medieval grand strategy with AAA graphics, built on web3 technology. Out of the bleak winter that encapsulated strategy games, two developers have emerged, and are rising to the challenge of breathing new life into the strategy genre. Yet most subsequent strategy games have fallen flat and been unable to live up to expectations. StarCraft II set a new standard, and is now commonly considered the best strategy game of all time. Extremely well-received, the game went on to sell over 6 million more copies before it was expanded with StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm and StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void - each of which added an additional million sales to the franchise. Sales for strategy games were only going up.įinally, in 2010, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty shocked the gaming industry by selling 1 million copies on launch day. Then, in 2002, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos became the fastest-selling PC game of all time, after selling 1 million copies in just 30 days! Following Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Warcraft III’s next expansion - Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne - made an impressive 1 million sales in 2003. StarCraft topped 1998’s best seller spot with 1.5 million sales.

Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness was considered a massive success with 500,000 worldwide sales made within its first three months, but future strategy titles would blow it out of the water.

But, as the decade turned, the popularity of strategy games mysteriously dwindled. Hit after hit, the online strategy genre experienced a golden age making and breaking record sales.

Beginning with Total War: Warhammer in 1995, the mid-to-late 90s gave rise to many legendary franchises in the online strategy gaming genre, including StarCraft, Age of Empires, Command & Conquer, and Warcraft - with each releasing expansions and sequels well into the 2000s.

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