Magic Arena announced today through its official social media channels that the game had reached one billion separate games played on the platform, offering players a chance to redeem a free booster pack code as a way of saying thank you. Magic Arena is the latest attempt to digitize Magic: The Gathering by Wizards of the Coast and, unlike Magic: The Gathering Online, it has been successful in reaching broader demographics of people rather than just offering a more niche option to already invested players.
The result has been an explosion in Magic's popularity, not just online but in tabletop settings too. The most recent Mythic Championship was so successful that it has now birthed a brand new Magic: The Gathering mulligan rule that seeks to reduce the variance in matches so that the viewership and play experiences both smooth out. With Magic esports becoming an increasingly large priority for Wizards, a focus on elements that make the game more watchable and friendlier to new players makes a lot of sense. Magic: The Gathering's War of the Spark expansion has also been well-received, as it introduced a planeswalker in every pack while adding 36 of the card type into Standard in one set, smashing the previous record.
All of these elements have contributed to making Magic Arena a success, and the game's official Twitter revealed today that over one billion games have now been played on that digital platform alone. It's an impressive number for a platform that has only been around for a short while, and the game chose to celebrate by offering a free Magic Arena War of the Spark pack for everyone to thank players for their support. Here's the tweet, which also features a shout out to some of the coolest cards recently released:
Magic Arena has solved many of the issues that plagued its early release and has transitioned into a smooth, premium digital TCG service that is getting recognition worldwide. The numbers back that up, whether its the absurd amount of games played or the impressive views that the Mythic Invitational drew a few months ago. It's clear Magic Arena is helping the world's most complex game shift from a niche hit to one of the darlings of the competitive gaming world.
Next for Magic: The Gathering is the release of Modern Horizons, a tabletop set that will introduce cards directly into the Modern format for the first time ever. The success or failure of that set will influence design for years to come, and could spill over into the decisions made about Magic Arena in the future, so fans will want to pay close attention to the upcoming release to see how it's received by fans.
Source: MTG Arena/Twitter