Announced in 2014 Armada has come a long way in the last few years, lets take a brief look at its history, from a sales point of view...

So I have always been curious about Armada's business success but have never found a good way to rate it, Until NOW!

I found top 5 seller lists

so lets take a look at how armada shows up real quick, Ay?

so according to the super official and totally accurate website https://icv2.com/ these are the best selling Miniatures Games of the year 2015, the year Armada was released

Look Guys! WE MADE THE LIST!!! Number 3 right behind the Beast War-hammer! How do you like them Apples!

But Wait there's More in spring of 2016 we will maintain that Place!

Unfortunately we lost our status during the Fall of 2016

But we got it back in Spring of 2017!

Unfortunately, we drop off the list after that, interestingly so does X-wing... take a look at Spring 2018!

But Dont worry, FFG isnt done Competing, with the introduction of their new SW Legion!

another random fact lets take a quick look at some Screenshots!

Look Familiar? its the Miniatures gateway forum page to all the minatures games forums on the FFG website take a quick look at the number of posts, notice somthing?

thats Right Armada has the 2nd most posts behind x-wings whooping 1.2 MILLION, with a respectable 356 Thousand! Posts Which by the way not only puts Armada as the number 2 Miniatures Game (according to posts) from FFG it makes it the number 2 of ALL FFG games being only one of Four games to surpass 100k, including X-wing (1.2 mil), Edge of an Empire RPG (250k), The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game (110k)

So all in all Armada is actually a VERY healthy game, with a much larger community then we sometimes think. That said lets put some effort into mantain that community and making it even stronger!

Anyway some random Observations for submitting to the public

I made this point a few months ago when all the gloom and doom was making front page. Armada is second only to X-wing in the amount of forum content, every other FFG title comes short. ( I think one of the LotR games has 100K, and that's the next closest).

Based on our local livelihood and sales at my LGS, I would conclude that the sales are in a similar state.

It strangely lights up my mood to see Age of Sigmar being a massive fail for Games Workshop

50 minutes ago, Heimdallson said:

It strangely lights up my mood to see Age of Sigmar being a massive fail for Games Workshop

Games workshop has never been more profitable though. I just read their latest financial statements a couple weeks ago.

If you would of asked me if GW would still be around after destroying fantasy and continuing to jack up prices for models that are 20+ years old I would of I would laughed in your face.

I was so so very wrong. GW has been one of the best performing stocks on British exchanges. Don’t underestimate the power of going lean and cranking out cash flow.

I have no problem with info like this, but I do wish there were more statistics associated with those sales. I mean, if you look at percentages of top 5, X-Wing could bring in 50% of sales, Warhammer 40%, and then 10% split between the other 3 with Armada leading that pack. Obviously I just made that up, but a ranking without input is not very meaningful.

That said, I don't think Armada is in any doom and gloom spell, I just think FFG might be struggling with where to take it. We've gone through all the classic ships that matter, and the release of the SSD to me shows that they know that they need to give us something. Adding new factions is risky for them. We might want prequel ships (and we might not), but do you do it standalone or allow it to blend with the reb/imp stuff? If standalone how quickly do they need to roll things out to make it competitive, can they get people to buy into these new factions at rates worth investing in creating them? If you mix with the current reb/imp, how do you not lose the faction identity? The Republic and Empire are very similar ship wise, but Republic and Rebels should be aligned ideal-wise and mixing CIS with Empire makes no sense. So we just drift for now while FFG figures it out... This game came out just before The Force Awakens, and the sequels so far haven't given us really anything Armada worthy, which I think FFG was hoping for, as a classic trilogy to sequel trilogy makes for a natural progression - like they did with X-Wing. So again, we drift while FFG struggles. Yet the game sells and is successful, even if it is dwarfed by X-Wing.

Still waiting on that wave 8 announcement though.

you could argue that the lack of new ships kind of hurt Armada in terms of sales as well. Considering the few ships we have vs X-Wing, we're doing pretty well.

The number of forum post is a data point that is usually pretty skewed. But if you were to use it, I would recommend looking at post density over time. (Like: how many post/day during the game first month and every month past that) then you could compare every game for... and not even that, because you'd need to look at average number of post per user.

But I agree with you, it'sa good sign. If you want some more fun: Check FFG FB page. Armada post are often more popular than their Xwing equivalent.

Who is this heychadwick and why is he using my avatar?

Just because they are the games I have played I have been comparing total posts on that page since Legion came out for Armada, Legion, and Destiny. I have long since dropped Destiny but still check for curiosity's sake. It was actually easy to track because at the time of release Legion had about 20-25k posts already as the forum opened soon after the game was announced, Destiny was ahead of Legion by a couple thousand and Armada had about 320-325k posts. So it was easy to track.

From that point Legion and Armada quickly left Destiny in the dust. For the first couple months the posts between Armada and Legion were pretty close and Legion was probably ahead by about 500ish posts in that time frame. Over the last 5 or 6 months it has been no contest with Armada having considerably more posts.

Sorry I never compared X-Wing...

That said Legions sales have to be considerably higher than Armada. We did get the Chimera and MC75 expansions but Legion had a core set and a ton of expansions. So from a dollar perspective Legion has to be way ahead. Compared to Destiny though, at least around here Destiny pretty close to dead, I just wish we could see quarterly sales for all games, it would be very interesting.

5 minutes ago, Thrindal said:

Just because they are the games I have played I have been comparing total posts on that page since Legion came out for Armada, Legion, and Destiny. I have long since dropped Destiny but still check for curiosity's sake. It was actually easy to track because at the time of release Legion had about 20-25k posts already as the forum opened soon after the game was announced, Destiny was ahead of Legion by a couple thousand and Armada had about 320-325k posts. So it was easy to track.

From that point Legion and Armada quickly left Destiny in the dust. For the first couple months the posts between Armada and Legion were pretty close and Legion was probably ahead by about 500ish posts in that time frame. Over the last 5 or 6 months it has been no contest with Armada having considerably more posts.

Sorry I never compared X-Wing...

That said Legions sales have to be considerably higher than Armada. We did get the Chimera and MC75 expansions but Legion had a core set and a ton of expansions. So from a dollar perspective Legion has to be way ahead. Compared to Destiny though, at least around here Destiny pretty close to dead, I just wish we could see quarterly sales for all games, it would be very interesting.

you made me think of something else that I think the Number of Posts indicates, while it probably correlates with game sales I think it probably has a MUCH higher association with amount of TIME invested into the game, I.E games played lists built etc. If nothing else I believe we play armada ALOT, even when we are not buying new things which is interesting.

obviously this "data" isnt super useful we don't really have any hard numbers or anything but i think its interesting non the less

Mafia group looks around awkwardly at each other....

Best to exclude offtopics from this

2 hours ago, SuperMarino said:

Adding new factions is risky for them. We might want prequel ships (and we might not), but do you do it standalone or allow it to blend with the reb/imp stuff? If standalone how quickly do they need to roll things out to make it competitive, can they get people to buy into these new factions at rates worth investing in creating them? If you mix with the current reb/imp, how do you not lose the faction identity? The Republic and Empire are very similar ship wise, but Republic and Rebels should be aligned ideal-wise and mixing CIS with Empire makes no sense. So we just drift for now while FFG figures it out... 

This is drifting off topic, but I’ve heard the argument repeatedly in Clone Wars threads... Supply 4 ship cards from 2 factions where appropriate (new Arquitens, Pelta and Venator expansions with Imp/Rep, Reb/Rep and Imp/Rep respectively, thus offering GCW Chimaera-style refits and supplying CW content simultaneously). In addition, release CW only expansions like the Providence, Recusant and CR20. Problem solved: nothing mixes that shouldn’t mix, the Clone Wars content gets out, and the Arq and Pelta get interesting new options. The only question is whether to paint your stock-gray Venator red. ?

26 minutes ago, The Jabbawookie said:

This is drifting off topic, but I’ve heard the argument repeatedly in Clone Wars threads... Supply 4 ship cards from 2 factions where appropriate (new Arquitens, Pelta and Venator expansions with Imp/Rep, Reb/Rep and Imp/Rep respectively, thus offering GCW Chimaera-style refits and supplying CW content simultaneously). In addition, release CW only expansions like the Providence, Recusant and CR20. Problem solved: nothing mixes that shouldn’t mix, the Clone Wars content gets out, and the Arq and Pelta get interesting new options. The only question is whether to paint your stock-gray Venator red. ?

Yeah, I agree with that and think there are options, but to stay on topic, the reason I brought this up was to explain why FFG is "slow" to release new Armada stuff even though the records show it is a successful and (at least for a time) top 5 miniatures game. I mean, right now Armada is ranked 189 overall on boardgamegeek. On a site that has about 100K products listed, that is incredibly good. This is a successful game even if it is overshadowed by X-Wing and a few other lines. We could all band together and solve the "how to release Clone Wars without ruining Armada" crisis - and I'm a big fan of a cardboard kit to increase utility of already existing ships, so doing that to add in Republic ships is fine with me - but FFG needs to sort out what works best for them and do it. The SSD, to me, is just to hold us over while they get their business plans together. I really think they expected the sequels to give them more material than they got, so they could do subfactions like they did in X-Wing 1.0, and now are falling to the backup plan of Clone Wars while hoping the Resistance show gives them something to continue the Imperial/Rebel dynamic.

Again, on topic, numbers show success and I don't think Armada is going to die any time soon, we just might not get the kind of releases (in timing or scope) we are hoping for as it continues.

3 hours ago, SuperMarino said:

I have no problem with info like this, but I do wish there were more statistics associated with those sales. I mean, if you look at percentages of top 5, X-Wing could bring in 50% of sales, Warhammer 40%, and then 10% split between the other 3 with Armada leading that pack. Obviously I just made that up, but a ranking without input is not very meaningful.

That said, I don't think Armada is in any doom and gloom spell, I just think FFG might be struggling with where to take it. We've gone through all the classic ships that matter, and the release of the SSD to me shows that they know that they need to give us something. Adding new factions is risky for them. We might want prequel ships (and we might not), but do you do it standalone or allow it to blend with the reb/imp stuff? If standalone how quickly do they need to roll things out to make it competitive, can they get people to buy into these new factions at rates worth investing in creating them? If you mix with the current reb/imp, how do you not lose the faction identity? The Republic and Empire are very similar ship wise, but Republic and Rebels should be aligned ideal-wise and mixing CIS with Empire makes no sense. So we just drift for now while FFG figures it out... This game came out just before The Force Awakens, and the sequels so far haven't given us really anything Armada worthy, which I think FFG was hoping for, as a classic trilogy to sequel trilogy makes for a natural progression - like they did with X-Wing. So again, we drift while FFG struggles. Yet the game sells and is successful, even if it is dwarfed by X-Wing.

Just in the mean time while they are figuring out the direction of the game, I wish they would come out with more campaign expansions. Thinking coming out with more ship titles, aces, scenarios and maps for other parts of the galaxy would be nice during the interlude while we are waiting for more ships.

I will give you another stats,

at the beginning of August there were

Armada : 351.297

X-Wing. : 1.210.131

today

Armada : 356.904

X-Wing : 1.220.806

posts,

So Armada had posted 5.607 posts while X-Wing 10.695 posts in the past month.

Although number of total Armada posts is %29.2 of total X-Wing posts, recently posting rate of Armada is %52.4 compared to X-Wing.

What does his mean? Eventhough Armada has a smaller community at least past few months it is more active compared to X-Wing community.

So either Armada is not dead yet or as a community we rather spend time on the internet than play ?

Keep in mind the sales figures are mostly driven by releases. We would happily buy up more product and get our game up the list if there were more released!

1 hour ago, LostFleet said:

I will give you another stats,

at the beginning of August there were

Armada : 351.297

X-Wing. : 1.210.131

today

Armada : 356.904

X-Wing : 1.220.806

posts,

So Armada had posted 5.607 posts while X-Wing 10.695 posts in the past month.

Although number of total Armada posts is %29.2 of total X-Wing posts, recently posting rate of Armada is %52.4 compared to X-Wing.

What does his mean? Eventhough Armada has a smaller community at least past few months it is more active compared to X-Wing community.

So either Armada is not dead yet or as a community we rather spend time on the internet than play ?

X-wing is pretty quiet ATM. I predict it will explode once 2.0 actually is released.

4 hours ago, Green Knight said:

X-wing is pretty quiet ATM. I predict it will explode once 2.0 actually is released.

No worries, there is still 6 months for speculating about upcoming SSD, that would continue to bring more posts for Armada

I still think the lack of recent product for Armada is more a result of FFG's production capacity. They were already trying to push out Legion as fast as possible, when X-2 was announced. Close to half of all Armada products are on reprint. Seems to me that factory production is up by about 50% over any other time for FFG based only on the number of products "in production" over the last year.

We are dealing with some serious growing pains as FFG trys to expand.

2 hours ago, LostFleet said:

No worries, there is still 6 months for speculating about upcoming SSD, that would continue to bring more posts for Armada

6 months... unless delays there are... ?

43 minutes ago, cynanbloodbane said:

I still think the lack of recent product for Armada is more a result of FFG's production capacity. They were already trying to push out Legion as fast as possible, when X-2 was announced. Close to half of all Armada products are on reprint. Seems to me that factory production is up by about 50% over any other time for FFG based only on the number of products "in production" over the last year.

We are dealing with some serious growing pains as FFG trys to expand.

This was an interesting point brought up in a legion podcast recently. One of the members is a store owner and brought up a conversation he had at GAMmA with someone from ffg. That they this last year had been struggling to find a production site that could keep up the quality for Xwing specifically.

I think FFG has jumped into the deep end in production and has found themselves struggling to keep afloat on that front.

6 minutes ago, draco193 said:

This was an interesting point brought up in a legion podcast recently. One of the members is a store owner and brought up a conversation he had at GAMmA with someone from ffg. That they this last year had been struggling to find a production sure that could keep up the quality for Xwing specifically.

I think FFG has jumped into the deep end in production and has found themselves struggling to keep afloat on that front.

With 4 Star Wars games with minis (Armada and X-Wing also being pre-painted), Descent, Runewars, and Mansions of Madnesss (all I can think of off the top of my head), FFG has come a long way from the old Arkham Horror "everything is cardboard!" days. I imagine there is struggle with production too. The X-Wing comment makes sense, as they are shifting models to look better and potentially have moving parts while keeping the price point close to what it was. The minis for a lot of the other games look gorgeous too and that means they require more time to produce. However, with all of that, I don't think production slow downs are what is keeping FFG from giving us more Armada. It is very likely what is keeping a few reprints from happening now, but new content, just a simple 2 release wave, would have been possible if they wanted to. I still think they are asking themselves where they go from here.

Ok, while there may be a few options for direction with Armada, FFG stated years ago that there were perpetually 3 waves of content in various stages of development at any given time. Admittedly, this was early in Armada's history, (wave 2-4), but I find it hard to believe that they abandoned their SOP. (I have no source. I just remember the discussion here before the Admiral Nelson incident.)

This would be an excellent time to hear from a developer or a friend of a play tester, just a simple yes or no if something else is in the pipeline. Unfortunately a tight lipped lack of communication is part of the FFG SOP as well.

Personally, I would love a look inside the steps a wave takes leading up to the initial announcement article. Even if it was just a historical breakdown of previous waves, from conception to announcement.

We know for a fact that the SSD has been in development since wave 5, as its SKU predates the Pelta. To believe that there is nothing else in the pipeline, you would need to embrace the idea that Armada developers have worked on nothing but the SSD for over 6 months. I personally find that difficult to believe.

1 hour ago, cynanbloodbane said:

I would love a look inside the steps a wave takes leading up to the initial announcement article. Even if it was just a historical breakdown of previous waves, from conception to announcement.

THIS.

This is the kind of thing I'd love to see as well, especially if it included early versions of upgrades or commanders before they playested.