ICV2 report: Keyforge is #4 Collectible Game

By Whiz Canmaj, in KeyForge

I knew Keyforge was doing very well, but I didn't realize how well it was doing compared to other games. Apparently, Keyforge is #4, ahead of HeroClix, Star Wars Destiny, and Cardfight!! Vanguard. https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/42624/top-collectible-games-fall-2018

I doubt Keyforge will get past Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokémon any time soon, but it's looking very strong.

Edited by Whiz Canmaj

Honestly I don’t find this too surprising at all, with 670,000 decks registered and probably quite a few that haven't been registered all within what, 4 months since the games release. Having said that I'm not sure those sales numbers can be sustained to be fair.

Add to that fact that unlike other CCGs where the casuals buy a lot more stock than the competitive players, FFG have hit a sweet spot where its reversed and the competitive players are the ones more likely to spend a bunch of money and the casuals only buy a few decks and they are done. If they can manage the competitive side of things for High level OP then FFG is onto a winner.

They just need to be careful that higher level events aren't swamped by obnoxious combo decks like my triple Seed/Library Access deck :D

14 hours ago, Whiz Canmaj said:

Apparently, Keyforge is #4, ahead of HeroClix, Star Wars Destiny, and Cardfight!! Vanguard. https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/42624/top-collectible-games-fall-2018

You probably could have just left it at Destiny.

Anyway, I'd also look at BGG's rankings to get a better idea of where Keyforge places.

1 hour ago, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

You probably could have just left it at Destiny.

Anyway, I'd also look at BGG's rankings to get a better idea of where Keyforge places.

Why? All those tell you is how well heavily euro-boardgaming-focussed community of that site rates it, not how well it did economicaly.

7 in customizable despite not being customizable is kinda funny, though.

I'm guessing you assume Board Game Geek is a euro-game focused site. Think again!

27 minutes ago, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

I'm guessing you assume Board Game Geek is a euro-game focused site. Think again!

To be fair, a few years ago it was. Times have changed though, and while euro games are definitely popular on the site, the KeyForge forum there is far more active than this one. :)

BGG has millions of users spaning the entire scope of gaming. True, certain subsections may be slightly over represented skewing the overall picture, but KeyForge is very well represented over there.

3 hours ago, dperello said:

To be fair, a few years ago it was.

Huh, a few years ago lines up exactly with my active time there :D Still, BGG rating doesn't say too much about how well a game is doing, there are only 4800-ish ratings after all, a tiny fraction of the total number of decks sold, even when scaled up to the point where everyone who voted would have bought an entire display . That being said of course a decent BGG rank is an accomplishment itself, but not an indication of economical success (X-Wing 1.0 and Netrunner both still top it and those aren't doing nearly as hot in the sales department I heard :P ). Pretty good indication of the game being decent, though!

BGG ratings are total garbage.

Edit:

let me unpack that

bgg has a very narrow slice of the user base for table top games.

Games like munchkin sell well for a long time and get played by massive audiences. The latest hotness on BGG maybe has a shelf life of a few months.

Ratings are from self selecting groups. The deeper investment required to actually play a thing the higher percentage of it only ever being played by people who are pre disposed to like it.

There is a reason why expansions are not ranked on the same chart as games themselves. The people rating an expansion are likely already to enjoy the base game.

Games like gloomhaven are a base game and your first 5 expansions in a single box.

Popular games get played by lots lots of people. Meaning the ratings come from a wider audience and that more people who may not like the game suffer through playing it.

Edited by TylerTT
On ‎3‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 7:50 AM, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

You probably could have just left it at Destiny.

Anyway, I'd also look at BGG's rankings to get a better idea of where Keyforge places.

I'm not going to say that ICV2's methodology for their ranking is better than BGG's rankings. ICV2 basically polls retailers and asks them what is the hot stuff, without asking for any sales numbers and comparing them. It's all informal, but so is BGG. Personally, I value ICV2 over BGG because I trust retailers to report more honestly about what is selling well for them, whereas BGG can have anyone boost their rankings for any reason they want.