If you grew up in the 90s or early 2000s, you probably witnessed the advent of the collectible card game (CCG). These games were (and still are) insanely popular, and I admit I still remember the visceral pleasure of opening foil-wrapped card packs. But today, we live in a digital age, one where we can play or watch anything on a television, computer, or mobile device without ever owning a physical disc or cartridge, and card games are no exception. Sure, there’s nothing quite like holding a physical Lhurgoyf card, but these digital card games are very, very, very close seconds.
Hearthstone
Most Popular Digital Card Games
Hearthstone is the undisputed king of the digital CCG. Blizzard took the cards from its unsuccessful World of Warcraft Trading Card Game and re-purposed them into a game that is fast, frantic, and streamlined. And then the studio added expansion after expansion, and Blizzard shows no signs of slowing down. Each expansion brings new cards, new features, new game modes, and whatever else the devs have dreamed up.
When Blizzard last released Hearthstone’s player numbers in 2017, the company reported a whopping 70 million players. For the sake of comparison, Overwatch has only amassed 40 million players. Calling Hearthstone popular is like saying Mahatma Gandhi was a minor player in India’s road to independence.
